The spruce tree has been called a New Year's tree and a Christmas symbol since ancient times. This fragrant evergreen tree attracts with its slenderness, fluffy branches covered with thick needles. A Christmas tree can serve as a decoration for your home and garden.
Spruce is a prominent representative of the pine family, reaching a height of 35-40 meters. Its branches in relation to the trunk are either horizontal or inclined downwards. With good lighting of the lower row of branches, it lasts for a long time, reaching almost to the ground. A young Christmas tree has a smooth, dark brown bark, but as it gets older it becomes rough, covered with scales, with a grayish coating. Short spruce needles are characterized by rigidity; they remain on the branches for seven years.
The oblong cones, up to 15 centimeters long, ripen in October, but the trees scatter seeds from mid-winter to April.
Thanks to the presence of a wing, spruce seeds easily scatter around the area. The tree is prized for its wood, which is light, shiny, and has a pinkish tint. Due to the superficial growth of the roots, the tree is often torn over by strong winds. The life cycle of a Christmas tree reaches more than two hundred years. Coniferous trees are often used in landscape design and along railroads and highways.
Features of cuttings:
- It is best to do cuttings in the last month of spring, although autumn is also suitable for this.
- Cuttings are prepared from a tree older than four years, cutting off branches no more than 10-15 centimeters long.
- To ensure that the branches take root well, they are soaked in a solution of growth regulators, which include succinic acid.
- In order for the cuttings to take root, they are planted in containers, filled with a substrate of humus, garden soil, sand, taken in equal proportions.
- The branches are buried 5 centimeters, holding them obliquely.
- Covering the planted cuttings with film, place the containers with the cuttings in a cool place with sufficient lighting.
- Spruce branches take a long time to take root – up to four months.
And plants are sown in the off-season to a depth four times their thickness. The plantings are covered on top. Sprouts sown in the spring appear after half a month, and in the fall - with the onset of warm spring days.
Biologists have bred more than a hundred decorative forms Christmas trees, which serve as wonderful decorations garden plots. And the varieties of coniferous trees are selected depending on where it will grow and in what climate.
Preparation of seedlings, timing and rules of planting
Two years later, when the Christmas tree seedlings have become stronger, they are planted on permanent place.
Start planting either in early autumn or mid-spring.
The requirements for spruce seedlings are as follows:
- It is better for the roots of a young tree not to be very long, otherwise they will be damaged by. The root ball of soil on the roots of the plant must be preserved.
- The height of a Christmas tree for a permanent place can be one and a half meters, no more.
- The trunk of the seedling should have strength, and the crown should have splendor and bright green needles.
Proper planting of young spruce trees:
- Having dug a hole intended for planting a Christmas tree, fill it with drainage, which includes sand and crushed stone.
- Next, fall asleep with deciduous and turf soil, adding a little sand and peat to the mixture. For better development nitroammophoska or another is added to the coniferous tree.
- When planting, make sure that the root neck is at ground level.
- Having covered the roots of the seedling with earth, make a hole around it, sprinkle it with humus or peat and water it.
- Finish planting by loosening the soil around the tree.
Compliance with the requirements for planting a Christmas tree is necessary in order for the coniferous tree to grow healthy and stable with a dense crown.
Christmas tree care
The Christmas tree is an unpretentious tree. The rules for caring for her include the following:
- During dry and hot summers, water the tree once a week generously, up to one bucket of water for each plant. And to avoid yellowing of the needles, use a watering can.
- Loosening the soil is done carefully and shallowly due to the fact that the roots of the tree are close to the surface.
- There is no need to worry about the fact that the Christmas tree grows slowly, especially in the first two years. This is quite natural.
- The plant does not like it when the soil around it is compacted and may die from the proximity of groundwater.
- Before the start of the winter period, young plantings must be mulched with a layer of sawdust; in decorative species, needles are used to protect against cold and bright colors. sun rays It’s better to protect it with craft paper or spruce branches.
- Mature trees do not need to be covered: they are not afraid of frost.
- When spruce plantings grow, it is necessary to remove old, dried branches.
More information can be found in the video.
Nature itself gave man an evergreen beauty - spruce - as a friend. It is also decoratively green all year round, and the air cleans wonderfully. Everything has already changed around, but the spruce is still nobly beautiful, very proportional and resilient. To grow such an incredibly kind plant to people, you need to think about the proper planting and care of spruce seedlings. summer cottage. You will read about all this, as well as about the types and varieties of spruce trees, the choice of seedlings, the timing and location of planting in this material.
Popular types and varieties of spruce
The most popular spruce trees that summer residents grow in their gardens are the following:
Video: types and varieties of spruce trees
By the way! Growing Canadian spruce Koniki We will definitely look at it in one of the following articles, but for now you can watch the video below.
Video: how to properly plant and care for Canadian spruce
By the way! In general, there are serious differences in cultivation various types there is no conifer, be it common, blue or Canadian spruce. That is why further we will present general instructions on planting and caring for spruce in a summer cottage.
Video: top most the best varieties and types of spruce - the basics of care and cultivation
Spruce propagation methods
There are only three ways to propagate spruce trees: plant with seeds (difficult and time-consuming), grow from cuttings (easier and faster), buy and plant ready-made seedlings (easiest, but more expensive).
When and how to plant a spruce seedling on a summer cottage
Selection of seedlings
Seedlings of all conifers, including spruces, should be purchased only in containers, that is, with a closed root system. These trees do not tolerate drying out of the roots, in other words, the plant must necessarily sit in an earthen coma, which must be regularly moistened as it dries. Therefore, when buying a seedling with an open root system on the market, you are taking a very big risk. The best option is to purchase a container plant from specialized garden centers.
Landing dates
The ideal time to plant spruce is spring (April-May) and early autumn(late August-September). The most favorable season is still spring, when the earth has completely thawed after winter, but sap flow and vegetation have not yet begun. It is during these periods that the root system of plants goes into active growth, so it will be easier for the conifer to take root in your garden.
Although, if you bought a spruce seedling in a container in the summer, then there is no point in waiting for autumn. In this case, you can plant in the summer, except that more frequent watering and shading from the sun's rays will be required.
Place on site
In order for the spruce to grow well and not get sick, it needs to choose right place in the garden. Coniferous trees do not like deep shade and scorching sun, so it should be well lit, but not too open. In this regard, it is ideal if there is light partial shade. Small decorative conifers can be planted near the house, but it is advisable to plant a large spruce away from the home (somewhere at a distance of 10-15 meters) and from other plants, because this conifer has a superficial root system, which will simply take up all the moisture and space at the nearest neighbors.
If you are planning group plantings of fir trees, for example, you want to hedge, then plant the seedlings at a distance of at least 1 meter, and preferably 2-3 m.
As for landscape design, as you probably noticed, spruce trees combine very beautifully with other coniferous plants: and.
Planting pit and soil
The dimensions of the planting hole for planting spruce may vary depending on the size of the seedling itself. As a rule, the hole should be 2 times larger than earthen lump plants. Let's say, if it is 30 by 30, then a landing hole of 60 by 60 centimeters is suitable, although 1 by 1 meter may be needed.
If the soil on your site is heavy and groundwater passes too close, you should add a 15-20 centimeter layer of drainage, for example, crushed stone or broken bricks, and also add sand there.
The planting hole should be filled with a good fertile soil mixture, which can be prepared using the following components: turf soil, leaf soil, peat and sand, taking them in a ratio of 2:2:1:1. And also add a little less than a glass (100-150 grams) of nitroammophoska, mixing the fertilizer well with the resulting substrate.
Landing
Step-by-step instructions for planting a spruce seedling in open ground:
- Find appropriate place in the garden.
- Dig the planting hole and prepare the soil mixture.
- Drain if necessary and add some soil.
- Place the seedling so that its root collar is 3-5 centimeters above the ground surface. Do not bury it under any circumstances!
- Next, fill the hole with the prepared soil mixture and lightly compact it.
- Water the planting hole thoroughly. The roots of the plant should be in good contact with the ground, and for this, water should not be spared.
- When the soil settles, add more potting soil and water again.
- If the seedling is young, tie it to a support.
- Mulch the tree trunk soil with peat or compost for better moisture retention.
Video: how to plant a spruce correctly
By the way! If you are going to replant an old spruce tree with a height of more than 3 meters, then such a plant should be planted with a frozen clod of earth at a certain time: from late autumn (November) to early spring (March).
Caring for spruce in open ground at the dacha
Despite the fact that spruce trees require good lighting, young seedlings must be done in the first couple of years shade. This can be achieved either by planting a spruce seedling near the fence, or by pulling a special awning. This is especially dangerous in early spring When the ground is still frozen, food does not reach the roots, that is, the conifer can simply burn.
Also, in the first 2 years, young conifers should mulch peat or sawdust for the winter. The mulch layer should be about 6-8 centimeters. It won't be superfluous winter shelter from spruce branches. Mulch will also help retain moisture better.
The plant is not very demanding watering, but in dry weather it needs frequent moistening (about 1-3 buckets of water per week), especially for young trees. Moreover, it is advisable to pour water not directly under the trunk, but into the circle around the trunk. It is best to do this in the evening after sunset or early in the morning, but not in sunny time.
Advice! Coniferous plants also love and respond well to watering sprinkling, especially in dry summer weather.
One more important stage spruce care is weeding. Do not forget that the root system of the plant is quite high, so you should weed shallowly, about 5-10 centimeters.
Coniferous plants do not require mandatory pruning, but periodically you should (if desired) carry out corrective and formative haircuts.
Video: cutting Norway spruce and prickly spruce (blue)
As a rule, conifers are quite unpretentious and do not require additional fertilizing, but if you fertilize the spruce with compost, loosening the trunk circle, then the plant will be very grateful to you and will definitely be more curvaceous and rich color. As for mineral fertilizing, once a year you can sprinkle fertilizer in the tree trunk circle of the plant, and then water it generously with water. In general, there are special fertilizers for coniferous plants.
Important! Do not fertilize autumn period, otherwise the plant will grow and may die due to the onset of frost.
Diseases
If the winter turns out to be warm and humid, then the conifer may pick up fungal disease. Periodic inspections of your garden pets and various fungicides will help you cope with the scourge.
Coniferous plants are one of the favorite crops that you always want to have in your dacha, especially spruce. So that the ephedra meets your expectations and is able to resist unfavorable conditions, pay attention to our tips and special recommendations for planting and caring for it.
Note! On our website you can also find detailed materials on growing other coniferous plants in the garden, for example, and.
Video: how to plant correctly coniferous plant(spruce)
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Gifts and exciting anticipation of a miracle.
Evergreen spruce except decorative look It is useful for its oils; medicinal decoctions and cosmetic products are made from the needles.
Norway spruce: description
Spruces are long-livers, on average they live up to three hundred years, and can live much longer. Let's look at what a common spruce looks like. Spruce is a tree of the pine family that grows up to forty meters in height. Its branches grow either parallel to the ground or with a downward slope, slightly pressed against the trunk. Young specimens have smooth dark brown bark; in adults, the bark becomes rough, scaly, with a gray tint. The needles of the Norway spruce are hard and the needles are short. Ripen in October fir cones, long, about 15 cm, brownish.
Spruce begins to shed seeds in the second half of winter, and this self-seeding lasts until April. The seeds of the plant scatter far from the spruce thanks to the wings on their containment. Spruce is valued in the wood industry for its shiny pinkish wood and landscape design like an evergreen decoration garden plot. In this article we will consider in detail the common spruce and whether it can be grown on
Did you know? There are written memories of James Cook's journey: during a long voyage, he and his crew were helped to fight scurvy using pine needles. The needles are rich ascorbic acid and perfectly supports the body's resistance to disease.
Choosing a place to plant spruce
When choosing a location, you need to take into account the location. The spruce does not like excessive humidity. Groundwater can wash away the surface root system of the common spruce, and the tree will simply fall; in addition, excess moisture brings with it fungi and other root infections. Due to the structure of its roots, spruce should not be planted close to it; it will overtake everything. nutrients from 
Spruce lighting
Spruce grows slowly, but when it grows, it blocks the light of its short-growing neighbors. Take this fact into account when choosing a location. It is better to plant spruce species with colored needles in a well-lit place so that the decorative effect is not lost. Norway spruce feels great in the shade.
Wind protection
Spruce has a superficial root system, so a strong gust of wind can uproot the young spruce. For the tree you need to choose a place sheltered from the winds.
Soil for planting spruce in the country
Norway spruce prefers soils with an acidic or slightly acidic reaction. Grows well on loam and sandy soils. Too much loose soils, as well as too heavy ones, are not suitable for spruce trees. 
How to plant a spruce
When planting spruce, it is better to prepare the seeds yourself; spruce is quite common. Purchased seeds may remain with the seller for a long time and lose their suitability for planting and germination.
Growing spruce from seeds
To plant common spruce, seeds are harvested in the autumn, closer to November. Dry the collected cones on paper near heating devices, this will make it easier to shake out the seeds from them.
Interesting! The oldest spruce lives in Sweden. The tree is 9550 years old, the spruce has a name - Old Tikko. In principle, spruce trees live no more than 600 years, the top begins to die off, but the root system throws out many viable children.
Preparing and planting seeds
Treat the planting material with a solution of potassium permanganate. Heat the sand and sow the seeds in the pot to a depth of two centimeters. In their natural environment, seeds germinate during cold periods: place the pot on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Seeds prepared in this way will have a higher germination rate. After three months (in March), take out the seeds and place them in a warmer place, on the windowsill. 
Seedling care
Before planting spruce seedlings in the ground, you need to provide them with care close to their natural environment. In spring, the soil in forests is moistened with a large amount of melt water, so the soil of the seedlings should not dry out. There is no need to fill it either: make sure the top layer of soil dries. Don’t forget to carefully loosen the soil and try not to damage the seedlings.
How to plant a spruce seedling
Before planting spruce seedlings in your dacha, prepare the hole by pouring compost on the bottom with the addition of mineral preparations that stimulate growth. Planting can be done in May, when there is no threat of frost. Place the seedling in the prepared hole, sprinkle it with soil, compact it and water it. For better adaptation in open ground conditions, cover the seedling plastic bottle.
Attention! Ventilate greenhouses for seedlings regularly, do not allow condensation to accumulate.
A week is enough for the plant to adapt after removing the cover around the seedling.
Caring for spruce in the country
Norway spruce has the characteristics of a cold-resistant plant, but it is advisable to cover young plants for the winter special materials, and mulch the tree trunk circle.
How to water a spruce
IN summer period spruce requires abundant watering once a week - up to twelve liters of water per plant. In hot weather and drought, the needles are sprayed to prevent them from turning yellow. The tree trunk circle needs to be loosened and mulched. 
Features of feeding spruce
If spruce was added to the soil for the seedling when planting, the plant will not need it in the future. You can fertilize with Kemir-universal in early spring; spruce responds well to it.
How to prune a plant correctly
To grow a spruce tree in the country as a beautiful compact plant, it needs to be trimmed. The first procedure is carried out after transplantation so that the crown matches the size of the root system. Besides, The first pruning will give the plant the shape you want. There are two types of procedures: formative and sanitary pruning.
How to trim a spruce tree in the country? Sanitary pruning carried out at any time, removing dry, damaged branches. Formative - in the spring, before the start of active development. Shoots growing inside the crown are removed, shoots that are too long are shortened, giving the plant a neat appearance. 
Sometimes a gardener needs to replant or plant coniferous plants - pine, spruce, fir, junipers. How to properly replant coniferous trees. When is the best time to replant pine and spruce trees?
In order for the plant not to die and feel good, and also give good growth, you need to take into account its preferences and have a good knowledge of agricultural technology.
How to replant conifers
If there is a need to transplant a coniferous plant from nature into the garden, then do it in early spring, at the very beginning of sap flow. Choose young plants, no older than 4-5 years, no more than 1-1.5 m high. Spruce requires a wide, but not too deep hole, since the main root system of fir trees is superficial.
For fir and pine, you should dig a deep, but not wide, planting hole. It's good if seat prepared (dug) in advance. Large conifers are best replanted only during periods of severe soil freezing.
If your plant has a closed root system, then you can plant it at any time, but you need to choose a cloudy day for this or shade the new plantings. Pay careful attention to the depth of planting.
Conifers, like other plants, do not like it when the root collar is deeply buried in the soil. Before planting plants with a closed root system, you need to be especially careful. According to users of our portal, the roots of such plants may contain growth limiters (rings, metal mesh) - smoldacha.ru/posadka_hvojnyh_s_zakrytoj_kornevoj_sistemoj.htmlhow to plant conifers with a closed root system
Filling planting holes
For fir and pine, a small amount of compost soil is placed in the hole. Roots that are too long are cut off sharp knife, leaving an even, but not ragged cut. All broken, diseased and disheveled roots need to be cut off.
Planted coniferous plants are watered abundantly for 2-3 days, even if the soil is wet or it's raining. Conifers love showers. After a few weeks, the transplanted plants can be fed liquid fertilizer or a solution of wood ash.
Seedlings purchased from local nurseries will take root and grow better.
Preparing conifers for winter
To prevent branches from breaking, it is necessary to shake off the snow from coniferous plants during heavy snowfalls and thaws. If you do not have such an opportunity, then better in autumn install a frame on the plant that holds the crown from breaking.
How to plant a spruce?
What a wonderful and beautiful holiday New Year. And how great it is to meet him at the dacha near a live Christmas tree. And if this tree was planted by you personally, it is doubly pleasant.
In general, it has now become fashionable to grow spruce on personal plots, at the dachas or near country house. A spruce planted near a house will delight its owners not only on New Year's Day. In the spring, its branches are covered with young shoots, they are tender and very beautiful.
In autumn it will create a beautiful contrast with already yellowed deciduous trees. In summer it will give you coolness. What can we say about winter, when among white snow there is a green beauty. The spruce tolerates transplantation very well.
This is due to the fact that its root system develops horizontally. Even fairly large mature trees can be replanted.
Which seedling to choose?
However, it all starts with choice planting material. It is better to choose a seedling in a nursery. Various nurseries offer spruce trees whose root systems are packaged in different ways.
Root system the seedling can be packed in a bag with a lump of earth, the spruce can be grown in a plastic container and the root system of the seedling can be open, this happens in cases where the tree is sold near a nursery, and it has just been dug up. The main thing you need to pay attention to is the condition of the plant and the quality of the root system. Only healthy trees without damage are suitable for replanting.
The crown should be evenly distributed throughout the entire trunk. For urban conditions, it is best to choose blue spruce. It tolerates replanting better, and its crown is more lush. You can, of course, dig up the beauty you like in the forest yourself.
In this case, it is best to choose a small seedling. It will be easy to dig and easy to transport. In addition, it is better to choose a Christmas tree that grew at the edge of the forest and was well illuminated by the sun.
Then adaptation to the new place will be easier. It is very important to plant the spruce correctly. This the most important condition good growth tree in the future. When choosing a place for a green beauty, you need to consider two points. First, there should be no other plants close to it.
The root system grows horizontally, close to the surface. Gradually, it will begin to take moisture and nutrients from the remaining plants, and they will die. Second.
The distance to the house should be at least 20 m. Spruce is very wind-unresistant, and a strong gust of wind will tall tree may fall.
When to plant?
The best time to plant spruce is late autumn. This is due to the fact that the growth period for this tree begins in winter. It’s very good if on the site clay soil, although spruce can be grown on other types of soil.
How to plant a coniferous plant correctly
If the seedling was dug up in the forest with your own hands, then it will be very useful for planting to mix the soil from the site with soil brought from the place where it grew. The ratio of the types of soil in the mixture is 50/50. If nothing happened to the seedling before the onset of spring, and the Christmas tree stands as if it had just been dug up, then you have completed the task of replanting the spruce. It should be added that in the summer the seedling needs frequent watering.
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On the eve of the New Year and Christmas holidays, we all think about where we can get our Christmas tree this year. This is especially true for families with children, because it is under it that the wizard Santa Claus leaves gifts. If you live in a private house, the solution to your problem can be one-time and for many years - planting a spruce. This will allow you not only to significantly save money, but also to save nature by abandoning cut down trees. Where can I get it? Remember the song - “...we took a Christmas tree home from the forest!” You will learn how to transplant a Christmas tree from the forest to a plot of land in this article. (See also: How to replant a Christmas tree) When is the best time to replant coniferous trees?Everyone who is connected with the earth knows that replanting trees and shrubs is carried out in autumn or spring, since active sap circulation stops, all processes slow down, and the plants seem to fall asleep. In addition, it is in autumn and winter that the soil is soft, and it is easy to dig up a tree without damaging the roots of the plant. Of course, you can dig in the summer, but then the roots must be removed along with the earthen clod, and the transplanted tree is fed. The soil should be moist at any time of the year. Dig after rain or yourself, water it thoroughly a few hours before removing the tree from the soil. Another thing important point is to allocate space for a tree. When planning, keep in mind that spruce is a large tree that can grow up to 10 meters and higher, and the crown of the tree extends on average 4-5 meters. In addition, spruce greatly depletes and dehydrates the soil, and the needles that scatter under the tree oxidize the soil. Fruit-bearing trees will not survive next to spruce, especially cherries. Apple and plum trees may coexist with their coniferous counterparts for some time, but in the end, the spruce will “win” and the “undesirable neighbor” will die. How to transplant a spruce correctly?For example, you have enough space on your site, and you can easily place a spruce tree on it, and maybe more than one. Then you need to start choosing a seedling. How to choose a Christmas tree for transplanting? First, examine their habitat and select several small trees. Trees up to 1.5 meters in height take root most well. If there are half-meter trees, choose one of them, then the possibility of further growth and development reaches 100%. Those trees that grow not in the thicket of the forest, but on its outskirts or far from the main forest area, take root better. (See also: How to decorate a Christmas tree for the New Year)If you do not have large plot, but if you want to place a forest beauty on it, dig a concrete ring into the ground or fill it with mortar around the pit to a depth of up to a meter. The main roots will go deeper and not spread throughout the entire area. By the way, about the roots. The total length of the tree roots can reach two kilometers, and the spreading diameter can be up to 20 meters. The root system of spruce is mostly superficial, and because of this, a concrete barrier can allow you to plant and grow a tree, and not destroy other trees (the distance to the spruce should be at least 5 meters). The ideal place for spruce is on small area– perimeter. Some summer residents and cottage owners even plant hedges of spruce and other coniferous trees and shrubs (fir, juniper, boxwood, etc.). Think carefully about where and how to place the Christmas tree on the site, consult with experienced gardeners, designers, forestry specialists. (See also: How to make a Christmas tree) If in winter the owners don’t care much that nothing grows under the tree, then in spring and summer not everyone will like to see the bare soil under the tree. Every year this piece will become larger and larger, so take note of which plants can take root under the crown of your coniferous diva.
Preparatory workFor transplanting and digging you will need:
We dig a hole in the area that corresponds to the size of the root ball of the tree we like. If necessary, we build a barrier for the roots from concrete ring or mortar formwork. The next stage is diggingHow to dig up a Christmas tree? Under the spruce (if it is young), we dig a circle with a diameter that matches the diameter of the lower branches, and at least 30-50 cm in depth. Carefully pull the roots out of the ground, without shaking anything off, place them on a cloth, and pack them. Here it’s as convenient as you like, but often the rag is simply folded into an envelope and the corners are tied together diagonally. It is important to remember which side the spruce grew on. Mark north and south in some convenient way on fabric or wood. You can take ropes or ribbons in blue (indicating north) and red (indicating south) colors. This knowledge and marks will help you dig it up correctly and thus help you adapt faster. Also take care of the soil. Even if you live near a forest or forest, the soil is still different, and this can negatively affect the process of tree engraftment - it will hurt and wither, take a long time to adapt, or simply die. Just a couple of buckets of earth from the place where the tree grew and developed before your invasion will help you prevent this. We load the spruce and a bag of earth onto a wheelbarrow, and carefully, without shaking or breaking, we bring it to the site. Direct landingPlace the seedling in the prepared hole without unfolding the roots, check whether there is enough space for it and whether the roots will wrinkle, curl or break. If the hole is too small, use a shovel to widen it. Untie the knots and remove the fabric. Pour in some earth that you took from the forest, lower the Christmas tree into the hole. Calculate the cardinal directions, according to the marks on the Christmas tree (ribbons), position the tree along the north-south orientation. Cover the roots with the rest of the “forest” soil, and then with your soil that you selected from the hole. Water the Christmas tree thoroughly with water and feed it with fertilizer. Carefully monitor the transplanted tree; the ground under it should not dry out. Alternative methods of breeding conifersIf you don’t want to dig up a tree in the forest because you’re worried about losing it, but you still want a Christmas tree, you can resort to two other methods - planting shoots and growing a tree from seeds.
Spruce grows quite slowly in the first five years, but this slowness is compensated for later - after five years, the trees rapidly reach towards the sun (up to a meter per year). If you want your beauty to stop growing, pin the top. Under no circumstances should horizontal branches be trimmed - they will be lost. If you don’t have time and where to dig up a spruce, you don’t know - contact a nursery or breeder, they will provide you with seedlings of any age and size you want. Naturally, their services will cost money (and a lot of it), but the guarantee that the seedling will take root is higher than with all other options. We really hope that all the tips that have been published will be of benefit to you, and you will soon be decorating your own a Christmas tree in the yard of the house, and all the questions like “How to transplant a Christmas tree from the forest to a plot?”, “Where to place a coniferous tree?”, “How to make the tree take root?” - will remain in the past. May this New Year bring happiness, prosperity and harmony to your home. The article is the personal opinion of the author and is solely informational in nature. To solve your problem, contact a specialist. We are very glad to see your comments! Rate this article: |
A fluffy, spreading spruce with bluish-gray needles is a decoration for any country house or summer cottage. To grow a spruce, you don’t need a lot of knowledge and skills, since this plant is quite unpretentious. Read about how to grow a spruce in the article below. There are several ways to grow spruce at home. The most common of them are:
- growing from seedlings purchased from a specialized nursery.
Let's look at each of them in detail.
How to grow a spruce from seed
Growing a spruce from seed is quite difficult. In order to admire a tree you have grown yourself, you will have to work hard, and this whole process will take a lot of time. But if possible difficulties you are not intimidated and you are ready to wait for the result for several years, then without hesitation, get down to business.
Procurement of seeds
- The first step is to prepare spruce seeds. In order for spruce seeds to germinate, they must be completely ripe; spruce seeds finally ripen around mid-February. It is at this time that you will need to go for cones to the nearest park or forest where blue spruce trees grow. Collect the best unopened fir cones there (clean, smooth and undamaged) and bring them home. At home, put the pine cones brought from the forest into a canvas bag, tie it and place it near the radiator for several days. The cones will open in the warmth, and the seeds will naturally spill out of them. Discard the cones, lightly rub the seeds and blow off any broken impellers. Rinse the seeds, briefly hold them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, spread them on a paper towel and dry well. Pour the dry seeds into a glass jar, cover it with a lid and put the seeds in the refrigerator until planting time.
How to plant spruce seeds
- Plant spruce seeds in the ground in late April - early May. Prepare the soil for planting seeds in advance - build a mini-greenhouse in the garden and upper layer replace the soil in it with a mixture of meadow soil, peat and coarse grain river sand. For better germination, add complex fertilizers with long period actions. Before planting, carefully level the surface of the substrate in the greenhouse and compact it thoroughly. Remove the seeds from the refrigerator, soak them in a medium-pink solution of potassium permanganate for a couple of hours, then dry them slightly and sow directly on the surface of the soil in the greenhouse (water the soil well before doing this). No need to bury the seeds! After sowing, cover them with a thin (1 - 1.5 cm) layer of peat or sawdust and cover the greenhouse with film.
Time to plant. New Year's coniferous plants.
How to care for spruce seedlings
- In ten days you will see the first shoots. When the tiny Christmas trees grow a little (this will take about a month), thin out their rows slightly and leave the best and strongest specimens. After the warm weather has finally settled, remove the film. Water young seedlings moderately, just try to maintain a minimum natural humidity soil. On hot days, spray the seedlings with water a couple of times a day. If possible, treat young Christmas trees several times during the summer with solutions of fungicides and insecticides, but you no longer need to fertilize them. next year in March or November, plant spruce seedlings. Christmas trees need to be transplanted into the school after they have grown to ten centimeters, and they are planted in a permanent place at the age of three.
If you did everything correctly, then in five years your garden will already have half-meter fluffy Christmas trees, but it is not a fact that they will all be blue (according to statistics from seeds collected from blue spruce trees, only a third of the Christmas trees grow with blue needles - the rest have needles of the usual green color). In order to be guaranteed to have a blue beauty on your site, the spruce must be grown from a varietal seedling.
Growing a spruce in a summer cottage is not easy, and therefore we will try to help you make this process faster and more correct. As a result, you can fully count on an original and very nice design of the site with Christmas trees in just a few years.
Growing spruce trees in the country can be called an elite occupation, because not many people undertake such painstaking work, and not many are good at it. The thing is that the cultivation of these trees is different from the cultivation of others; a special approach is required here.
Planting a Christmas tree can occur in several ways - from seeds, from cuttings and seedlings. But, since seedlings are quite expensive, not every summer resident decides to buy them. This is where the idea of growing a Christmas tree from seeds arises, or at least trying to do it.
Growing spruce from seeds
Today we will tell you the process of growing these coniferous trees from seeds from start to finish. The process is complex, we won’t argue, but if you want to achieve results, you’ll have to work a little.
Collecting spruce seeds
It is advisable not to use purchased seeds, because you never know what they will sell you and in what condition these seeds were stored all the time before purchase. It is quite possible that their germination rate will be very low. Therefore, we recommend using fresh seeds that you have collected yourself. This way, you can not only properly prepare the material for planting, but also at the very beginning choose seeds from the tree that you liked most.
Seed material needs to be collected in the fall, around October-November. To do this, you will have to go to a forest or park where these plants are available and collect cones from the trees. The trophies brought home are laid out on dry newspapers near the heaters so that they have the opportunity to dry out a little and release their seeds.
Preparing and planting Christmas tree seeds
The finished seeds are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, and then placed in a pot with well-calcined sand. It is necessary to embed the seeds in the sand to a depth of 1.5 cm. Now the pot is placed on the refrigerator door to create more or less natural conditions for the seeds, because at about this moment the seeds in the forest lie in the cold.
Stratification seed material stimulates germination, and this has been proven many times. If you simply plant seeds in the sand, it is far from certain that they will sprout.
After 3 months, that is, around March, the pot of seeds will need to be removed from the refrigerator and placed in a warm place, closer to the light, for example, on a window. During this period, daylight hours are gradually increasing, and therefore we can safely consider such conditions to be favorable.
Caring for planted seeds: how to water
Now that the seeds in the pot are placed on the window and are ready to sprout, they should be watered abundantly, creating natural conditions for them again. It is during this period that the snow melts in the forests, and therefore the seeds should be given more moisture, but not overwatered. Do not forget about warmth, that is, the pots must be kept on a warm window.
After 10-15 days, the seeds should sprout, and right now it will be necessary to properly regulate watering, giving exactly as much moisture as is necessary to lightly moisten the soil, otherwise young plantings may rot from overwatering.
Caring for spruce seedlings
So, again we remind you that watering should be moderate, only to maintain moisture, but it is also necessary to fertilize the soil, about once or twice before planting in the ground, and do not forget to loosen the top layer of soil. In addition, it will be necessary to treat with weak insecticides so as not to burn the plants, but also to prevent them from dying from misfortunes.
Landing in the ground
Growing spruce seedlings in a pot (or pots) occurs until there is stable warming outside, and they can be planted in open ground at the end of May, when the period of night frosts has passed.
Before planting Christmas trees in the ground, it is necessary to prepare a hole for the seedling - pour compost there and add stimulating agents. mineral fertilizers. This will be the first and last fertilizer for the plant if you adhere to the right conditions growing.
After preparing the hole, we place the seedling there, cover it with soil and lightly tamp the soil, water it and cover the seedling with a cut plastic bottle from any drink. Thus the images you will create for the spruce Greenhouse effect, due to which the seedlings will acclimatize faster.
Do not forget that greenhouses of this type must be opened every day to ventilate and remove condensation, and after 6-8 days, the bottle cuts can be removed altogether, and the soil around the seedlings can be covered with mulch.
Growing spruce at home is not an easy task, especially at first, but if you choose spruce seedlings for planting that are already more or less mature, the task may become a little easier.
Growing spruce seedlings
If you want to grow spruce seedlings, it will cost you a little more in terms of initial costs, but you will bypass the process of germinating seeds and save a little time, that is, you will get faster results. mature plant in the country. But remember that everything depends on agricultural technology, correct planting and further maintenance conditions, otherwise even mature and healthy seedlings can be quickly lost.
Growing common spruce begins with planting in the ground in the right place, then only stable care follows, pruning and preparation for winter period.
Planting spruce in the ground
The Christmas tree, like any coniferous plant, is planted in the ground in early May ( approximate time for planting), so that the earth was already warmed up, but the weather was not very hot. If it is generally cool outside, it is advisable to postpone planting to the end of summer or beginning of autumn.
Spruce trees must be planted in the right place (depending on the variety), in prepared holes located at a distance of at least 2-2.5 meters from each other and 50-60 cm deep. The bottom of the hole should be covered with broken brick drainage (15 cm will be enough). Next, the hole is filled 2/3 with a nutrient substrate, which consists of sand, peat, leaf and turf soil in proportions 1:1:2:2. You need to add 120-150 g of nitroammophoska to the same mixture and mix well with the composition.
The seedling is planted so that the root bud remains at soil level, then you will have to constantly monitor its correct level (so that the bud does not become exposed or go under the soil). When the seedling is planted in a hole, it is watered and backfilled with a layer of peat, 5-7 cm deep.
Seedlings purchased in special containers are planted in the soil at the same depth as they were in the container.
Spruce growing and care
Young plantings must be properly watered and fed. If the weather outside is hot and dry, then each plant will need 10-12 liters of water weekly, and sprinkling the crowns will not hurt. After each watering, it is very advisable to loosen the soil in tree trunk circles or mulch it.
As we said earlier, after planting spruce does not need fertilizing, however, it will react quite positively to the early spring application of Kemira-universal to the soil (about 100 g per plant).
Spruce pruning
It is also necessary to care for the crowns of trees, when diseased branches, dry and broken branches are removed in spring and autumn. You can also shape the crown if the Christmas trees are grown for landscape design site and occupy a serious role in it.
How to prepare plants for winter?
Spruce trees must be protected not only from the scorching summer rays of the sun, but also from frost during the cold period. To do this, the tree trunk circles are well mulched with peat, and the needles are covered with kraft paper or nonwoven materials.
Growing from cuttings
There is another, quite popular method of growing spruce trees in a summer cottage - from cuttings. But here, as in other methods, you will need to comply with some special conditions in order to get a beautiful, strong and healthy plant.
Cuttings are most often planted almost immediately after cutting, and cutting is done in spring and autumn. Sometimes even summer ones give positive results. Cuttings from Christmas trees 5-8 years old, from which annual shoots are cut, take root well.
Shoots should be used from the top of the crown, cut off only 15-25 cm of the plant, clear the needles at the end of the cutting (3-5 cm) and plant it in a greenhouse. It is advisable to use a greenhouse with fogging units, but you can also work in a standard greenhouse.
The cutting is planted in a prepared hole: drainage 4-5 cm, 10 cm of nutritious soil, 5 cm of sand (all in layers). Next, the seedling is prepared by treating it with growth stimulants or a weak solution of potassium permanganate, and is planted in ready-made composition to a depth of 3-5 cm, always at an angle of 30°. The planting interval is 10 cm. Immediately after planting, the plants are watered and covered with a film, the height of which should be no more than 30 cm from the top layer of soil (in our case, sand). The soil temperature in the greenhouse should be +21+27°C, and the air temperature 4-7° lower. It’s quite good if the greenhouse has soil heating.
In spring and summer, watering occurs daily, hot weather up to several times a day. It is necessary to water from a watering can until the soil is lightly moistened. All this time, the plants need to be shaded; at the end of August, the shade can be removed.
Growing spruce at home (whichever method you choose) is a process that is somewhat complex, and therefore we recommend that you start this activity only if you are fully prepared for such difficulties.
Growing spruce trees in a nursery: an interesting way of planting (video)
Growing Canadian spruce, blue spruce or winter-hardy spruce is always interesting, but quite difficult. As you can see, you need to care for the plant almost every day to get the expected result. If you are ready for this, you can safely proceed by choosing the most suitable growing method for yourself. Give the plant your love and care, and it will definitely repay you with the beauty and aroma of magnificent pine needles.