Dogwood is a shrub that is quite popular both in our latitudes and in the world (in Southern Europe, Asia, the Caucasus and North America) due to the taste and healing properties of the berries and leaves. In addition, the plant is widely used in ornamental gardening.
There are several ways to propagate dogwood: by seeds, layering, dividing the bush, root suckers, and also by grafting onto dogwood.
How to grow dogwood from a seed
The technology for propagating dogwood seeds is quite lengthy and labor-intensive. It begins in autumn, after harvesting the fruits. To begin with, the pit should be carefully cleared of pulp. Then it is placed in a humid environment (for example, in sawdust or moss), where it remains for a whole year. All this time it is necessary to ensure that the moss does not dry out. In this way, the natural conditions in which the seed overwinters are imitated, which is necessary to increase the reliability and speed of its subsequent germination (the so-called stratification). You can plant the seed directly in the ground, in which case it will sprout in the second year (you won’t be able to save time), but germination will be much worse.
Did you know? The seeds of not fully ripened fruits sprout faster than ripe ones - in just six months. In addition, seeds taken from freshly picked berries show better germination than pre-dried ones.
The prepared seed is immersed in the ground to a depth of approximately 3 cm. After the first dogwood shoots appear, they need to be protected from direct sunlight, watered and fed as needed. In the autumn of the second year after planting (the shoots by this time have grown to 10-15 cm), the dogwood is ready for planting in open ground, however, the bush will produce its first fruits only after a few years (from seven to ten). Thus, it takes a lot of time to propagate dogwood from a seed: 14 years can pass from the start of seed preparation to harvest.
Did you know? There is an express method for growing dogwood from a seed. Fresh seeds are placed in a two percent sulfuric acid solution for three days, then for the winter they are placed in a container filled with wet sand, and then next spring disembarked.
To propagate dogwood from seed, wild species of shrubs are used, after which selected dogwood is grafted onto the grown seedlings.
Dogwood propagation by green cuttings should be carried out in the summer and only when the growth of young shoots stops.
Cuttings must be taken from an adult (at least 5 years old) healthy bush. From any branch in the morning, the top 10-15 cm long is cut off, from which all leaves except the top two or three are removed with pruning shears, and an oblique cut is made at the end of the shoot 5-10 mm below the bud. The cuttings prepared in this way are placed in a growth stimulator for several hours, washed cold water and is planted in a greenhouse prepared in advance; the loosened soil is covered with a thick (up to 10 cm) layer of coarse sand, previously sifted and washed.
The cuttings are planted very densely, at a distance of 3-4 cm from each other. The distance to the top of the greenhouse from the top of the cutting should be 15-20 cm. Next, the cuttings are watered and covered with film. 
Important! Watering newly planted cuttings should not be done with a direct stream of water. Use a watering can with a fine strainer or other device that provides gentle spraying!
The air in the greenhouse should be moist and warm enough, but not higher than 25 ° C; if necessary, the greenhouse should be ventilated. Cuttings also need constant watering. The root system of cuttings proper care forms in one and a half to two months(depending on whether they were previously subjected to a growth stimulation procedure). At this time, you can begin to harden the cuttings: the film is removed from the greenhouse first for a short time, gradually increasing it so that by the tenth day the film is completely removed.
Subsequently, the sprouted cuttings are transplanted into a nursery, allowed to take root, and then fed nitrogen fertilizers or organic matter (manure). On next year(in spring or autumn) seedlings can be transplanted to a place designated for an adult bush.
The method of propagating dogwood by cuttings is not very popular due to the low growth rate.
How to propagate dogwood using grafting
Grafting or budding dogwood is the most preferred way to propagate the plant. It can be carried out both in the spring, during the period of sap flow, and in the second half of summer, when the bark on the rootstock falls off more easily.
The grafting is carried out on two-year-old wild dogwood seedlings at a height of 10-15 cm, and for standard forms - 75-80 cm. The rootstock is cut horizontally with sharp pruning shears, and a hole is made in the middle of the cut. The scion is prepared as follows: the upper oblique cut is made directly above the bud and treated with garden varnish, the lower one is cut with a wedge - two cuts with an edge of 4 cm. The total length of the scion cutting should be approximately 15 cm. Subsequently, the wedge is carefully inserted into the recess of the rootstock, so so that part of the cut remains outside. The grafting is wrapped in transparent film, after which the bush is sprinkled with peat mixed with sand up to the grafting site.
A grafted plant placed in a greenhouse takes root faster (the scion and rootstock grow together the faster the higher the temperature environment). After fusion (this will be visible through the film - the open area of the scion will be covered with callus), the film can be removed, the plant can be transplanted into open ground and subsequently cut off all the shoots that will grow from the rootstock.
Reproduction of dogwood by layering
Vegetative propagation Dogwood is perhaps the easiest way to get a new plant. Layers can be made horizontal and arcuate. In autumn or very in early spring on a young bush, one-year-old shoots or two-year-old branches are selected, bent to the ground (the soil in these places must first be well dug up and mixed with fertilizing), wooden pins are secured, sprinkled on top with earth (the tops of the cuttings must be pinched, lifted and tied to a vertical support) and regularly watered. After the shoots emerge from the buds of the sprinkled cuttings, they need to be sprinkled with fertile soil twice, at intervals of two to three weeks. 
Next year ( better in spring) young plants are separated from the bush and transplanted immediately to a permanent place.
Mango - common exotic fruit. It grows mainly in India, as well as in a number of other tropical countries. Its main value lies in its soft, juicy pulp and pleasant sweet taste with a slight sourness. Special substances contained in its peel can cause allergic reactions in some people.
But, despite this, almost every one of us has tried it at least once and therefore knows that there is a large oblong bone inside the fruit. It can be easily germinated. So how does a mango grow?
What does a mango tree look like?
Many of us are familiar with the perennial tropical crop from the cashew family - mango. This tree is also known in its homeland as mangifera. Its shoots are long and very strong, and a huge number of ripe fruits grow on them. The weight of one ripe fruit can reach 2 kg. A tree that grows in the tropics never sheds its leaves. It remains evergreen.
How does it grow in nature?
You can admire how mangoes grow in nature in a number of tropical countries. There, this crop, together with other trees, forms dense forests. When mango grows in natural conditions, the tree looks like this:
The planting process itself is very simple; first, a drainage hole is made in the bottom of the pot. Then the universal primer is mixed with expanded clay. The resulting soil mixture is poured into the pot.
It is also important to pay attention to how the mango seed should be planted. If it is already growing, it should be planted horizontally. In other cases, landing is carried out sideways. Whatever planting method is chosen, it cannot be completely covered with soil. There should be at least a quarter of it above the soil surface.
After completing the planting work, caring for the planted seed is as follows:
On average, germination takes one to two months. If there are no sprouts for a long time, you can try using growth stimulants. For example, Epin stimulates growth processes well. The planting site is watered with its solution.
Several sprouts usually appear from one seed at once. One of them always grows more actively. It should be left and the rest carefully removed. At first the sprout grows very, very slowly, but gradually its development accelerates significantly.
Caring for a young, fragile plant should be very careful:
After we learned how to plant a mango and how the seedling grows, it wouldn’t hurt to get acquainted with the rules of care.
This is what a mango sprout looks like
Caring for mangoes at home is not at all difficult. The main thing is to create the following growing conditions:
In addition to observing the above conditions for growing mangoes, a tree at home requires certain care measures:
- Trimming. Seed mango grows very intensively at home, so to maintain high decorative qualities it needs to be cut off. Typically, shaping begins after the mango has grown to a height of 1 meter. First, only the growth point of the main shoot is pinched. After this, side branches begin to grow, which are subsequently also cut off.
- Transfer. Growing mangoes from seed also involves transplanting. During the first 5 years the tree grows intensively, so replanting must be done annually. After that, once every 2-3 years will be enough. Transplantation is carried out in the spring. During this period, the tree begins to grow rapidly and therefore easily tolerates damage to the root system. In this case, the new pot should be slightly larger than the previous one. It is not recommended to replant the plant immediately into a large one.
- Feeding. You can grow mangoes from seeds at home without using fertilizers. But then the tree grows weak and frail. To prevent this during the period of intensive growth, it is fed with a solution of universal fertilizer.
- Rootstock. It uses a mango flower grown from a seed.
- Scion. It uses a bud from a specimen that has produced fruit.
- Sharp knife.
- Insulating tape.
- After 1–1.5 months you will need to remove the crown of the rootstock. To do this, just above the grafting site, use a sharp knife or pruning shears to cut off the entire main shoot.
- The resulting cut must be covered with a small amount of garden varnish.
- Keep the soil moist.
- Provide a bright place.
- Grow in a warm place.
- Place on the bottom drainage system, consisting of expanded clay or gravel. You can purchase ready-made drainage at a gardening store.
- Prepare the soil from equal parts of earth, sand and humus - it should be loose in consistency.
- Transfer the soil to the pot, leaving it 1-2 cm short of the edge.
- Prepare a jar or glass.
- In the middle of the bone on four sides, make holes 2-3 mm deep, as shown in the photo below, and insert toothpicks - they act as a support.
- Place the pit one third of the way into a container of cold water with the blunt end facing down.
- Before the first root appears, make sure that the water level in the glass does not decrease.
- The plant can be transplanted into the ground when the emerging roots reach about 3 cm in length - this will take up to 2 months.
- Be sure to provide good drainage in the pot before planting.
- Plant the seed itself about halfway into the ground.
So we learned how to grow a mango with your own hands from an unnecessary seed, but what about its flowering indoors?
How does this plant bloom?
We’ve already talked about what a mango tree looks like, but how does this crop bloom at home? Mango trees bloom no earlier than 5–6 years from the moment of planting. Up to this point they are just growing.
But in indoor conditions it is almost impossible to see them bloom. Even if the trees grow in a greenhouse or winter garden It's not always possible to admire flowers. You can see live how a mango blooms only if the crop grows in natural conditions.
Will there be fruit?
When growing mangoes at home from a seed, it is very unlikely to see the fruit itself. Trees that grow in the house can bear fruit only if they are vaccinated. They are purchased from the appropriate nursery. You can also try to vaccinate yourself. To do this you will need the following:
The technique of grafting a mango from a seed growing in a pot is very simple. A T-shaped cut is made on the rootstock. It should be located 1–2 cm from the root collar. Its edges are neatly bent. After that, a previously cut bud is placed at the incision site. All this is securely fixed with electrical tape.
The best time for vaccination is spring. At this time, the mango begins to actively grow, which contributes to the accelerated growth of the graft. In a month it will be clear how successful it was. If the planted bud grows, then the grafting is almost 100% successful.
Further care for the vaccination is as follows:
After grafting, the tree will grow for about 3 more years until flowering. During this period, the mango will grow its crown. After the ovary has formed, the fruits will continue to grow for another 3–4 months. Mangoes are pollinated very poorly, so there will be very few fruits.
Useful video
How to prepare the soil for planting? What to do with the bone? Tricks and secrets on how to plant and grow mangoes at home:
How to grow dogwood from a seed
Video: 6 acres - Kizil
If you are thinking about how to grow dogwood, then you already know about it. beneficial properties. Those who are just now starting to get acquainted with this amazing plant will be interested to know that dogwood fruits are very useful. They contain fructose, glucose, organic acids, flavonoids, vitamins A, P, C, and a large number of microelements, which are of great value for the immune system, especially in winter.
In addition to its beneficial qualities, dogwood is very undemanding in care. The only condition is the region, because dogwood needs a long, warm autumn for the fruits to ripen properly. Otherwise, growing dogwood does not require any special effort. One of the main advantages of this plant is its early fruiting and high productivity, as well as annual fruiting.
Due to its unpretentiousness, even a novice gardener can grow dogwood on his own in the country. Dogwood can be propagated by layering and cuttings, but growing by seeds is usually considered the most optimal. And this can be done in several ways. But first you need to prepare the ground. For good and sustainable fruiting, dogwood needs watering and fertilization, in the summer it should be nitrogen-phosphorus, and in the fall - potash fertilizers. It is also useful to lime the soil. A separate place for planting should be allocated, although in the shade of other plants, the dogwood will also feel good.
Dogwood seeds have a very long dormant period, therefore, with any method of growing from seed, the seeds begin to germinate only 1.5 - 2 years after sowing.
To obtain strong and high-quality shoots, it is better to use stratification method- this is special preliminary preparation seeds before planting. Dogwood fruits are placed in barrels or bags and left until they begin to actively ferment, then the fruits are ground, washed and placed in a special substrate, for example, sawdust, although moss gives the best result. The seeds are stored in this substrate for 1-1.5 years, waiting for the onset of spring. Those. Such seeds are sown not in the next spring, but every other spring, then the dogwood will sprout in the year of sowing. Sowing in the ground should be done in April. In the first year, the sprouts stretch by about 3-4 centimeters, and in the second year up to 15-20 centimeters. Such seedlings require care like all others - watering, fertilizing, weeding; if these are in the southern regions, then darkening is needed.
Good results will be achieved by sowing freshly harvested fruits with pericarp in August-September. Germination in this case will be 70-80% already 18 months after sowing.
You can sow dry dogwood seeds. But such seedlings take quite a long time to grow. It is better to do this in September, having previously prepared the seeds. They need to be soaked in water for a week, changing the water every day. Plant the seeds at a distance of 25 centimeters from each other. Such seeds will germinate in a year and a half, and seedlings will begin to bear fruit in 5 years.
Video: Planting dogwood
It must be remembered that with any method of growing dogwood from a seed, the tree will begin to bear fruit only after 5-7 years, but then you will be able to treat your loved ones with tasty and healthy fruits.
Growing a fruitful grape bush from a seed
There are several ways to propagate grapes, which allow you to get an adult, full-fledged bush in just a few years. These methods are available even to a novice gardener, but the question of how to grow grapes from seeds is a more complex process that not every amateur will undertake. Often the decision to grow grapes from seed appears after purchasing its fruits at the market or in a store, when it is not possible to get a seedling of this particular variety.
Having a ripe bunch of grapes, it is quite possible to collect suitable seeds from it for growing at home.
To do this, you should choose the most large berries regular shape, which do not have obvious signs of rotting or disease.
The fruits must be fully ripe, since seeds will not sprout from unripe berries. If the cluster is not completely ripe, it can be set aside to ripen until the fruits begin to fade. Then you can start collecting seeds. The seeds, like the berries on the bunch, have different sizes, so in this case you need to choose larger ones. Such selection at an early stage is an additional guarantee that the grapes grown from the seed will be the same as the mother bush.
Preparation of planting material
After collecting the seeds, they should be washed in clean water. Before growing, the material should be pre-prepared. Even in nature, when a seed falls into the ground in the fall, it will lie there, waiting for spring to germinate. Therefore, you need to create for it the right conditions. To do this, after collecting more seeds (taking into account that not all of them will come off), they need to be placed in a cloth soaked in water. This process is called stratification.
Important! In order to obtain a seedling by the beginning of summer, when it is best to plant it in the ground, stratification should begin no later than December.
The bundle is placed in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator for a month or a month and a half. This period may be a little longer, but why delay the moment when a large bush will bear fruit for a long time? own plot? To speed up the process, you need to set the temperature within the range from 0 to +3 degrees.
Periodically, you need to take the bundle out of the refrigerator and wash the seeds. This must be done once a week or two. Flushing helps prevent mold and serves as a way to control the stratification process.
After a month, you can complete this stage and begin to warm the seeds. The signal for this stage will be the appearance of cracks on the seeds, which means that the protective shell has opened and the seed is ready to germinate. After moving the bundle of planting material to a warm place, you need to let it warm up for about two days. After this period, a visible result will appear, namely white roots coming out from inside the bone.
Planting in the soil
The appearance of roots indicates the need to provide the seed with nutrients for growth. Therefore, its cultivation will need to continue in the ground. Better soil for sprouted seeds, there will be a mixture of humus, soil and sand, in a one to one ratio. Having filled the flowerpot with such soil, you can proceed to direct planting. Applies to arranging a flowerpot general rule, namely the need for drainage material and drain holes.
Next, you should make a hole in the soil with a thin stick 1 cm deep, into which the germinated seed is placed. It is most convenient to use a separate disposable cup or cut for each seed. plastic bottle, but if they are absent, you can plant several pieces in a large flowerpot. Afterwards the soil will need to be watered abundantly.
From this moment, direct cultivation begins: the pots need to be placed on the windowsill so that the sprouts emerging from the ground can receive the required amount of light. For the first time, you will need to cover the pots with plastic wrap or transparent bags. This will allow you to maintain optimal humidity underneath. But with the appearance of shoots, they should be removed to allow air and light to enter.
Sprout care
The first shoots will appear in 10 days. An important condition is compliance with the temperature regime. In the daytime, the temperature should be from +20 degrees, and at night it should not fall below +15. From now on, the sprouts only need warmth, light and water.
You need to ensure that the soil does not dry out. The shoots should be illuminated for at least 8 hours.
To do this, in winter it is better to place the pots on a south-facing window, which will provide them with brighter light at the beginning and end of the day.
After each watering, the soil on the surface is compacted, so it needs to be loosened when upper layer It will dry out a little. As June approaches, seedlings should be prepared for external conditions. To do this, they need to be taken outside into the shade during the daytime. At the end of May, they can be left in a shaded place for 6 days without removing them to the house or greenhouse at night. After this period you can move on to next stage hardening, namely leaving the seedlings in the open sun for a week. After these procedures, the plant will be ready for more difficult conditions open ground.
Planting in open ground
At the end of May or beginning of June, after complete hardening, the seedlings can be planted in open ground. To do this you need to select sunny place, sheltered from the wind. Despite the small size of the seedling, which, depending on the variety, should be on average about 25-30 cm, a large hole is needed for planting. Its size should be 80x80x80 cm. This is necessary in order to place a nutrient substrate and mineral fertilizers on its bottom. And even after planting the seedling, there should be an unfilled side that will protect the thin vine from the wind.
The vine must be tied to a vertical support of a suitable size. Since it is very tender, this must be done as carefully as possible, trying not to squeeze the vine and leaves. Then watering should be done at a rate of 20-30 liters per plant. Watering should be repeated periodically at intervals of up to two weeks, adding the same amount of water as when planting. The water must be heated; for this, containers with water can be left in the open sun for several hours.
For good air exchange, it is necessary to periodically loosen the soil. After the seedling grows, the ground around it can be mulched. By the end of the season, the vine will be about 1 m long.
Important! Before the onset of cold weather, the seedling needs to be covered, since frost is destructive for it, especially if it is a southern variety.
Even with good development, grapes from seed are inferior in growth rate to propagation by cuttings.
In addition, there is a possibility that the fruits will be smaller than in the mother bush. Therefore, pruning to form the crown can begin in the third year. This will give additional opportunity For proper development root system, but after this period annual pruning is required.
This is how you can grow a full-fledged grape bush at home in a few years by collecting planting material from fruits. Grapes grown in this way may have differences from the original bush, but provided that the material is correctly selected, this probability is minimal.
How to grow an avocado from a seed at home
Winter is a great time for growing exotic plants - when else can you start growing tangerines, lemons or dates from seeds. In the spring, all thoughts are busy with seedlings, in the summer - with the vegetable garden, in the fall - with harvesting! In today’s article we’ll talk about how to grow an avocado from a seed at home. If you are wondering: will an avocado grow from a seed? – I’ll tell you right away, it will grow. And perhaps it will even bloom and bear fruit. Let's find out more about
Growing avocado from seed
Preparing the avocado pit
The seed usually takes up half of the entire fruit. For successful cultivation you need to choose a ripe fruit. Typically, a mature seed has 100% germination.
How to choose a ripe fruit? Press the avocado with your palms on both sides - the ripe fruit will straighten itself. Often in stores there are unripe fruits - at home you can help the fruit ripen - put it next to bananas and apples. These fruits produce ethylene, which speeds up ripening.
Avocados are quite unpretentious to grow - you can just stick them in the ground. But since the seed usually takes a long time to germinate – up to three months – it is better to germinate it in water. A larger bone contains more nutrients- This is the best option for growing.
Photo of avocado seeds
It's easy to remove the pit from an avocado. You need to cut it in half lengthwise and turn the halves. Carefully remove the seed from half the fruit with a spoon. Rinse well to remove any remaining pulp. Then make small 5mm holes at the same level, in the middle of the bone. Insert 3-4 toothpicks and place the bone in a glass of water. The water should reach the middle.
The bone must be placed correctly - with the pointed end up, and the flatter side in the water.
Place the glass on the window and wait for the sprout and roots to appear. As already mentioned, it can take up to three months. But in the spring this process is much faster - they hatch in a week. Don’t forget to constantly add water to the glass as it evaporates.
First, the seed will crack in half along the cotyledons - this good sign– soon you can plant it in the ground.
The pot needs good drainage; universal soil is suitable for flowers. We also plant the seed with the blunt tip down. We bury it halfway in the ground.
Opened avocado pit
At this time it is important:
Avocado sprout
After a few days, a reddish sprout appears. It is growing rapidly - literally before our eyes. At first, the growth rate is amazing - an avocado grows about 50 cm in 3 months. Then growth slows down, basically the avocado tree grows upward and there is no rush to acquire side shoots. In order for them to appear, you need to pinch the top of the young tree when it reaches the desired height.
It is important to know! Avocado seeds and leaves contain a dangerous toxin called persin. It can cause allergies to anaphylactic shock! Do not get this plant if there are cats and small children in the house who like to try everything.
Avocado care at home
Photo of avocado
The trunks of the plant are flexible and you can make an interesting composition out of three trees. Plant 3 avocado sprouts in one pot and, as they grow, weave their trunks into a braid. You just need to leave gaps to increase the volume of the trunks - they grow, after all. It will turn out very decorative tree in three trunks.
Flowers may appear after three to four years, but this is a rare occurrence when growing avocados from seed at home.
Avocado flowers
Usually the result is a tree with large leaves. At home it can grow up to two meters, and in nature it reaches 17 meters.
Video on how to grow an avocado from a seed
Now you know how to grow an avocado from a seed at home. I wish you successful landings.
How to grow an avocado from a seed at home - 2 methods + step-by-step photos
For a real gardener, passionate about his work, nothing is impossible - almost all tropical fruits can be grown from seeds: lemons, tangerines, pomegranates, date palms.
It is important to follow a number of simple care rules and choose a suitable place for the plant.
In this article we will figure out how to grow an avocado from a seed at home so that there are fruits.
Avocado is an evergreen fruit tree from the laurel family.
In its usual growing conditions - on the Caribbean islands or in Mexico - its height reaches two tens of meters.
A bush grown at home in a tub will not exceed 2.5-3.
At the same time, it will have rather a decorative value, since no one can guarantee that the tree will begin to bear fruit.
This can take from three to six years, and it will take a fair amount of work.
At the same time, such an exotic plant not only decorates the apartment, but also perfectly purifies the air.
It is possible to grow exotic avocados at home
How to grow an avocado from a seed at home in a pot - method No. 1
Buy ripe fruit in the store without visible dents or darkening on the peel.
If you can’t buy ripe fruit in the supermarket, you need to wrap the unripe avocado in paper and give it a few days to ripen.
Then remove the seed, make a delicious guacamole from the pulp and start germinating the tree.
It is better to plant the seed in the spring, when the most active growth of all plants is observed.
Avocados are, in principle, unpretentious, so you can simply stick the seed into the ground and water it periodically, but in this way it will take up to three months to germinate.
You will need a ripe fruit seed
Here's how to do it This faster:
Wash the seed removed from the fruit thoroughly. running water room temperature, being careful not to damage the brown skin.
Then prepare the pot for sprouting the fruit:
Place the bone inside with the blunt end to a depth of about 25 mm.
Water well and place the pot in a warm, bright place. As the soil dries out, water the soil regularly.
The first sprout, if all conditions are met, should appear in about a month.
The sprouts will hatch in about a month
How to grow an avocado from a seed at home in a pot - method No. 2
Step by step guide:
Make holes in the bone
Tip: to germinate avocados, you can use hydrogel instead of water.
Place the workpiece in a glass of water
You need to replant a plant with a strong root system.
Soon after planting, the sprouts of the future tree will appear. Their color should be reddish.
The first three months of life, the plant develops rapidly and can gain up to 50 cm in height without acquiring side shoots.
At the same time you need to pinch the top of your head.
When the avocado grows past the 15 cm mark, transplant it into a new pot.
The composition of the soil is similar to that which you used during planting. The pot should be 5 cm wider and higher than before.
The plant needs regular replanting
How to grow an avocado from a seed at home - growing conditions
In order for the bush to take root and grow well in an apartment, it requires regular care and maintenance of the “correct” conditions:
The plant needs a sufficient amount of moisture, so you need to water the avocado 1-2 times a week.
In the cold season, it is advisable to reduce the frequency of watering and water the tree approximately on the third day after the soil has dried.
Tip: If your avocado leaves turn yellow and begin to fall off, it is likely that you are overwatering the tree.
Regular watering and sufficient light are important for avocados.
The homeland of avocados is hot, sunny countries. This is why a home-grown tree cannot survive without a lot of light.
Place the tub near a south or south-east window and protect the plant from direct sunlight - it can cause leaf burns.
In winter, use additional lighting sources - fluorescent or phytolamps.
The distance between them and the plant should be about 40 cm. Be sure to turn on such a lamp for 3-4 hours a day.
The plant can hardly tolerate excessively dry air, so regularly spray the leaves with a spray bottle.
Place open containers with plain water nearby and keep away from open heat sources - radiators, stoves, electric heaters.
It is better to place the pot itself among other flowers with large leaves, since they evaporate a large amount of moisture.
Avocados need a lot of light and humid air.
Temperature
The most comfortable temperature for tree life ranges from 16 to 20 degrees, while in winter it drops to 10-12.
Therefore, if conditions permit, it can be taken out onto a glassed-in balcony.
During the cold season, avocados may shed their leaves - do not worry ahead of time.
With the onset of warmth, active growth will resume.
Like any indoor plant, avocados need regular fertilization - in spring and summer, 2 times a month. In winter, one is enough.
Any fertilizer for decorative flowers is suitable as a special food.
In order for the tree to take shape, it needs to be pruned regularly.
Regular pruning
If the tree is not pruned, it will grow exclusively in height and look unattractive.
In the first year of life, the top is shortened after 7-8 leaves, side shoots- after 5-6.
In the future, when the avocado actively grows, the height is maintained at the required level.
To create an unusual decorative tree, you can plant several avocado seeds at once in one pot and weave them into a “braid” as they grow.
It should not be very dense - be sure to leave gaps between the segments so that the trunks have room to develop.
Fruit bearing avocado tree
How to grow an avocado from a seed at home so that there are fruits + photos of fruit-bearing trees
Of course, every gardener would like the bush to not only please aesthetically, but also bear fruit.
It is quite difficult to achieve this at home: firstly, the tree must grow to at least 1.5 meters in height; secondly, the plant will have to be pollinated manually.
Yellow-green flowers will begin to appear on the avocado around the third year of life.
Each of them opens twice and is bisexual. On the first day, only the pistils function.
Select a few flowers and label them. The next day the flowers will open again, but will already function as male flowers.
Avocado flowers
Of course, it will be impossible to distinguish them externally from those that have opened for the first time, but marked peduncles will come to your aid.
Transfer pollen from one plant to another by hand.
Advice: if you take the avocado to the country in the summer and place it under the canopy of trees so that it receives a large amount of light, but not direct sunlight, artificial conditions it can begin to bear fruit as early as the third year of life.
The fruits of a plant grown at home are much smaller in size and have a less intense, but quite edible taste.
Several Yet useful tips You will learn how to grow an avocado from a seed at home in this video:
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On the plots of Russian gardeners, dogwood is not a frequent visitor; many are simply afraid to plant this plant because of its heat-loving nature; they consider growing dogwood to be a troublesome and thankless task. And completely in vain! In the article we will consider step by step cultivation dogwood in the Moscow region, propagation by cuttings and we will determine where and when to plant the flower.
Dogwood tolerates Siberian frosts normally, although at temperatures below -30 it freezes a little. But this can easily be prevented with good shelter. And so that in the heat above +40 the leaves on a young tree do not dry out, the dogwood needs to be shaded by planting sunflowers or corn. Dogwood absolutely does not need any special care. But so that its fruits have time to ripen, it is advisable to plant early varieties in gardens in the middle zone.
Dogwood berries not only have an amazing taste, but also have medicinal purposes (participates in the treatment of vitamin deficiency, anemia, skin diseases, hemorrhoids, and removes heavy metals). Dogwood can grow as a bush or as a tree with a height of 2-5 m and a trunk diameter of 25 to 45 centimeters. Both the bush and the tree can be shaped by pruning.
Dogwood propagation methods
Gardeners use four main methods of propagating dogwood:
- From seeds.
- From layering.
- From cuttings.
- With the help of budding.
Propagation using seeds
Dogwood seed is a seed located inside a juicy oval or pear-shaped fruit. small size. The length of the stone varies from 0.7 cm to 1.5 cm. To propagate dogwood, you only need high-quality seed material; the seeds must be the largest and most mature. First, they should be freed from the pulp, then washed and soaked in water - this is a kind of test for germination. High-quality seeds with good germination will remain at the bottom, while non-germinating ones will float to the surface. They need to be collected and simply thrown away.
The smaller the seed, the greater the amount of pulp in the dogwood fruit. Reproduction of dogwood by seeds is not easy and quick. It usually reproduces by layering, cuttings or grafting. But if this is not possible, then you can grow dogwood from a seed using a certain method that has its own characteristics. To obtain guaranteed and high-quality seedlings, it is necessary to stratify the seeds.
What is the method of preparing seeds:
- Place the berries in a bag or barrel.
- Wait until they ferment.
- Remove from bag or barrel, grind and rinse.
- Place the seeds in sawdust and leave for storage for a year and a half.
Storage temperature should be within 0°C. After a year and a half, in the spring, plant the seeds in the prepared soil. In the first year of life, the seedlings will be small (3-4 cm in height), but the next year they will grow up to 20 cm. It must be taken into account that this method of growing dogwood is quite long. The plant will be ready to bear fruit only after 7-10 seasons. Therefore, you should think about how to get this wonderful shrub or tree onto your site differently.
Reproduction using layering
This method can be called the simplest. To obtain high-quality layering, one- or two-year-old shoots with developed growth are needed. Early spring, when the soil has already thawed, is best suited for this procedure.
- Under the plant intended for cuttings, you should thoroughly dig the ground, apply fertilizer and level it.
- Bend and pin the selected shoot (or several), pinching the top.
- After 10-12-centimeter young green shoots emerge from the buds of the branch, add moist fertile soil or humus, covering them halfway.
- Two to three weeks after the shoots have grown another 15 cm, repeat the bedding.
It is important to ensure that the soil on the layering does not dry out; it should always be moist. The cuttings will take root within a year. Next spring, you need to carefully separate the young seedling and plant it in a designated area. If the layerings were made in the fall, then they need to be planted, accordingly, next fall, and not in the spring.
Propagation using cuttings
This method is not used very often, since only about half of the cuttings root successfully:
- Cuttings 10-15 cm long are cut from powerful healthy bushes, which are over 5 years old. This is usually done in early summer (June-early July).
- Then you should remove all the leaves from below, leaving only a couple or three on top.
- Soak the cuttings in a growth stimulator for 5-10 hours, lowering them into the solution with their lower ends.
- Rinse the cuttings thoroughly under water.
- Plant in prepared greenhouses. A cold greenhouse for dogwood cuttings is done like this: clear of debris and weeds small area earth, dig it up, cover it with a seven-centimeter layer of coarse, sifted, well-washed sand. This greenhouse should be in partial shade.
- Plant the cuttings at an angle, tightly. The film should not touch the cuttings; there should be at least 20 cm from them to the film.
- Spray thoroughly using a fine spray on a watering can.
- Cover the greenhouse with film.
It is important to plant the cuttings at an angle, this will help to properly form the root system. Reproduction by budding
This method can also be called simple and affordable. This procedure is carried out in the second half of summer (July-early August). The rootstock is a one- or two-year-old seedling. Many experts believe that budding is the only reliable way reproduction, since about 70% of the buds take root. At the end of the growing season, the budding plants reach 80 centimeters in height, in the fall they are planted in a designated area, and after two or three years fruiting begins on the young dogwood, in contrast to propagation by seed, when fruits appear on the 7th or 8th year.
When should you plant dogwood?
Are of great importance climatic conditions. In the southern region, the best time for planting is early autumn (the first half of September), so that the seedling has time to form a strong root system before frost. In the northern region, spring planting is recommended; the main thing is to do it before the buds begin to bloom.
Where is the best place to plant dogwood?
The choice of planting site must be taken very seriously, since the life expectancy of dogwood is up to three hundred years! And a century later it will produce a harvest of tasty, beautiful and healthy fruits, as if nothing had happened. Your great-great-grandchildren will make fragrant dogwood jam and remember you with a kind word! For dogwood seedlings, open sun is not of fundamental importance. It will also grow well in a semi-shaded area, slightly shaded by other, taller plants.
Dogwood is equally shade-tolerant and light-loving. If the area is well lit, the dogwood will bloom earlier.
On the other hand, it does not tolerate the summer heat under the scorching rays of the sun. The best for him is slight partial shade. The location of the dogwood is not allowed near a fence, buildings or other trees; there must be at least 3-5 meters between them.
What soil is suitable for dogwood? Dogwood has no special requirements for soil composition, but it grows with great pleasure in limed soil, which contains a sufficient amount of manganese - about 40 mg per kilogram of soil. Despite its resistance to drought, it still prefers moderately moist soils. If the drought is prolonged, the dogwood reacts to this by curling the leaves, the formation of flower buds does not occur, and the growth shoots reduce their length, which, of course, negatively affects general development
plants.Tip #1
. To increase the size of the berries, you should regularly water the dogwood during fruiting.
Top dressing for dogwood at different times of the year
| Gardeners use the following fertilizers: | Time spending | What to add to the soil | What to water with |
| Dosage | Autumn Organic matter (humus) Superphosphate |
Do not add nitrogen! 2 kg/m2 |
|
|
When the fruits set and fill | Organic infusion | |
| According to instructions | After harvest | Complex of mineral fertilizers for fruit crops |
2-3 buckets per tree
What you need to know when planting dogwood Ideally best age
If the root system of the purchased seedling is in a container, then engraftment at the planting site will occur much faster, since the root system in the first year of life in the nursery acquired a certain microflora necessary for the good development of the dogwood tree. The separation of an earthen coma with a colony of beneficial bacteria will lead to the fact that the dogwood can “freeze” in development for 2-4 years. Therefore, you need to plant dogwood from the nursery together with a soil clod.
It is best to purchase dogwood seedlings from a local nursery; they are already adapted to the local climate. To plant, seedlings must have the indicators shown in the table below:
When planting dogwood, you must follow certain rules:
- The landing pit has a typical diameter of 0.8 m and depth of 0.6-0.8 m.
- When digging a hole, you need to divide the soil layers - the upper, fertile one, put on one side, the lower, less fertile one - on the other.
- Pour crushed stone or expanded clay (for drainage) at the bottom of the hole - at least 10 centimeters.
- Place fertile soil previously selected from the pit on this layer.
- Insert a seedling with a lump of earth and cover it with the remaining soil.
- Leave the root collar 3-4 cm above the ground level (after watering and shrinkage of the soil, the collar will be level with the ground surface).
- Carefully pour three buckets of water under the newly planted tree, wait until the moisture is absorbed and the soil settles.
- Trim the seedling by 1/3 (the height of the stem should remain at least 0.5-0.6 m), tie it to a post and apply mulch. A dogwood seedling does not require highly fertile soil at all; therefore, there should be no fertilizer in the planting hole before planting.
Using mulch in dogwood care
The following are used as mulch:
- mown grass or removed weeds (it is advisable to wilt slightly first);
- peat;
- straw or hay;
- rotted sawdust (if fresh sawdust is used, be sure to add lime powder to the soil).
Tip #2.It is imperative to remove the young growth that forms from the root before the dogwood’s eighth year of life. Leaving the shoots behind will cause the graft to die.
Why dogwood requires Spartan conditions
In the first three years of life, the plant adjusts to the specific conditions in which it will grow throughout its life. long life and which it learns to perceive as the norm. Let’s say that during the first three years the dogwood is carefully looked after, fed with this and that, and then again! - something went wrong, and the food supply was sharply reduced. Due to stress, the dogwood tree may stop producing fruit and even die! And it's not a joke.
Everything will be exactly the opposite, if in the fourth year the living conditions of the plant improve: fertilization will increase, moisture and heat will also increase, sunlight there will be more, pruning of branches and treatment against diseases will be done better. This will give a good impetus to the maturing tree to develop and increase productivity.
Diseases and pests of dogwood. Methods of protection.
Dogwood can be called one of the most disease-resistant fruit trees. But, as they say, even an old woman can get screwed. The table below lists the main dogwood diseases and methods of “treatment”:
| Name of the disease | What to use | Mode of application |
| 1. Brown bordered spotting (rust) | Bordeaux mixture (spring) lime (late autumn) |
Spraying affected areas |
| 2. Powdery mildew | phosphorus-potassium fertilizers ground sulfur infusion of rotted manure |
Application to the soil Spraying affected areas |
Dogwood is sometimes attacked by pests, but this happens extremely rarely. The table below lists possible dogwood pests:
Dogwood varieties resistant to disease
- Alyosha. An early ripening variety that tolerates frost well. It is not susceptible to diseases, as it has no pathogens. The color of the berries is bright yellow, weight – from 3.5 to 5 grams.
- Elena. An early variety, tolerates cold well down to -35 degrees, excellent disease resistance. The fruits are dark red and may fall off when overripe.
- Nikolka. A very early variety with good disease resistance and excellent yield. Almost black fruits, the weight of one fruit is about 6 grams, the taste is sweet and sour.
- Varieties with similar properties: Elegant, Vladimirsky, Tender, Firefly, Semyon.
Answers to the most frequently asked questions from gardeners about growing dogwood
Question No. 1. How to prepare dogwood for wintering?
Dogwood is a frost-resistant plant; it can withstand wintering well without additional insulation, making do only with mulching around the trunk or bending it to the ground (if it is a bush) and throwing leaves. In case of a frosty winter with little snow, the young shrub can be covered with coniferous branches or covering material, but in case of heavy snowfalls it can be freed from the cover, allowing the dogwood to overwinter under a snowdrift.
Question No. 2. Is it necessary to carry out special pruning of dogwood to increase fruit production?
There is no such need. It is only necessary to remove branches intertwined with each other to thin the crown to allow sunlight to reach other fruiting branches.
Question No. 3. When does the dogwood tree begin to bear fruit?
On a grafted seedling, the first berries will appear in the second year of life; starting from the fifth year, the time for real harvests begins. Seedlings grown from seeds will begin to bear fruit only in the eighth year.
The main mistakes gardeners make when growing dogwood
Despite the fact that dogwood does not require any special treatment to cultivation, there are some rules, violation of which can lead to disastrous results.
Error 1. Single plant
Many gardeners, having planted one dogwood tree or bush, believe that this will be enough for the family. It may be enough for a family, but not for a dogwood tree. This is a serious mistake. The plant will bear fruit, but one-piece berries on a tree cannot be called a harvest. In order for a dogwood to bear fruit abundantly, it must have a pair, that is, at least one or two more plants within a radius of 3-5 meters, it does not matter whether in the same area or in a neighboring one, or you can generally get by with wild plants growing outside the garden.
Error 2. Incorrect depth of the root collar during planting
The root collar must be leveled with the surface of the earth. When it is buried over time, a large number of young shoots will form next to the trunk; if the neck is left above the ground surface, the seedling’s survival time will increase, which will negatively affect further development tree.
Error 3. Deep loosening
The permissible depth of loosening the soil around the trunk is no more than 10 centimeters. With deeper loosening, damage to the roots may occur.
Error 4. Planting in a swampy area
Dogwood tolerates drought better than waterlogged soil. The place for planting dogwood should be well drained. Groundwater should not come close to the soil surface; it is better if it is 1.5-2 meters away.
Dogwood is not a very common plant among us, but it has many unique properties, making it a good choice for growing on garden plot. This plant has medicinal properties, it produces edible fruits and every novice gardener can grow it due to its unpretentiousness to growing conditions. In our country, dogwood is usually cultivated. So that you know more, let's talk about dogwood, from the seed and caring for it in more detail.
This plant is a bush or tree, the height of which ranges from two to five meters. Trunk width of this plant maybe twenty-five to forty-five centimeters in diameter. In a garden plot, it is quite possible to grow a bush with several trunks or a tree that can be easily shaped.
The plant forms an even trunk, and its crown has a beautiful round or pyramidal compact shape. Dogwood forms a fairly strong root system, but it does not lie very deep - from twenty to one hundred and twenty centimeters from the soil surface.
Dogwood does not have a periodicity of fruiting - it bears a harvest every year, so it needs constant replenishment with moisture and nutrients.
Growing dogwood from seed
Dogwood fruits are a juicy drupe. Wild plants have cylindrical or elliptical berries, while cultivated ones also have oval, pear-shaped, bottle-shaped ones. Their color can range from light red to almost black; there are varieties with pink and yellow fruits. Inside the berries there is an elongated oval seed, its length is 0.7-1.5 cm. Such a seed has one, two, and sometimes even three seeds; the smaller it is, the greater the amount of pulp in the fruit.
Dogwood is usually propagated by layering, cuttings and grafting. However, there is a technique that allows you to grow this plant from seeds. It has some features. To get guaranteed and high-quality seedlings, you should use stratification. This method consists of placing the fruits of the plant in bags or barrels, after which they are left alone until active fermentation begins. After this, the fruits are taken out, ground and washed. The seeds are mixed with sawdust and stored in a cold place for a year and a half, waiting for the onset of spring. Then the seeds are planted in the ground, where they begin to develop and sprout safely. During the first year, seedlings grow by about three to four centimeters, and during the second - by another ten to fifteen centimeters.
When choosing this method of propagation, keep in mind that seedlings obtained from seeds take quite a long time to grow. This dogwood begins to bear fruit only after seven to ten years. Therefore, it is better to choose some other way to acquire this plant on your site.
Alternative options
This method can be propagation using layering, because this method is considered the simplest. Take a shoot of an already growing dogwood, bend it to the surface of the ground and sprinkle it with soil about ten centimeters thick. Don't forget to secure this place, for example, with bent wire. Moisten the soil thoroughly and make sure it does not dry out. After a year, the already rooted shoot can be disconnected from the bush and transplanted to a permanent place of cultivation.
Also, dogwood seedlings can be purchased from the owners of this plant and in specialized stores.
Care
Dogwood is not very demanding on soil characteristics, but it is better to plant it in sufficient fertile soils with good loosening. The planted plant should be watered regularly and the soil around it should be mulched with sawdust. Peat or grass clippings can also be used as mulch. To get an excellent harvest, dogwood needs to be properly watered. Regular watering is required throughout the summer period, because the root system of this plant is shallow, as mentioned above.
A very important advantage of this culture is that it grows well in somewhat shaded places.
Caring for seedlings involves regular watering, careful weeding and periodic feeding with fertilizers. During the growing season, nitrogen-phosphate fertilizers are used, a little closer to autumn period add potassium, for example, wood ash. From time to time you can also use humus and compost. Dogwood especially needs calcium, so feeding with lime plays an important role.
Trimming
Especially positive quality Dogwood is considered to be able to form it as both a bush and a tree. It is best to carry out defining pruning in the very first years of growing the plant.
The stem of the seedling should reach a height of fifty to seventy centimeters; all those shoots that appear below this level should be eliminated. There is no need to carry out any special pruning to help increase fruiting; it is necessary to remove only those branches that intertwine and thicken the crown.
When growing dogwood, you need to remember that its roots can be easily damaged when weeding, so you should not cultivate the soil deeper than ten to fifteen centimeters. This plant can die on waterlogged and swampy soil, so before planting it is necessary to make sure that the soil is well drained and the groundwater is deep (1.2-2 m).
Plant dogwood (lat. Cornus) belongs to the genus of the Dogwood family, whose representatives in nature number about fifty. Most often these are deciduous woody plants - shrubs or trees, but sometimes they are herbaceous perennials or woody winter-green plants. The genus Dogwood consists of four subgenera. The word "dogwood", borrowed from the Turkic language, means "red" - apparently, from the color of the berries of the most famous type of dogwood. Plants of this genus are widespread in Eastern and Southern Europe, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, China and Japan. People began cultivating dogwood a very long time ago: even the Romans and ancient Greeks were engaged in selection best forms plants for cultivation in gardens and, as Virgil argued, not without success. In the middle zone, dogwood began to be grown in the 17th century, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a great lover of all sorts of plant wonders, and interest in dogwood was caused by the extreme usefulness of its fruits, which were used in those days in the form of a decoction.
The first settlers to America used dogwood to clean their teeth, and American aborigines used it to make arrows. Later, shuttles for weaving equipment were made from very hard dogwood wood, door handles, hammer handles, tennis rackets. It is said that even the Holy Cross was made from dogwood. The Pacific dogwood flower is the official flower of British Columbia, a province in Canada, and Blooming tree Dogwood is the official tree of the US states of Missouri and Virginia.
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- Landing: in autumn, at the very beginning of leaf fall.
- Bloom: in April-May.
- Lighting: penumbra.
- The soil: rich in lime. Groundwater on the site should be no higher than 1.5 m.
- Watering: moderate and regular.
- Feeding: in the first half of the growing season, the nitrogen component should predominate in the fertilizer, in the second half - the potassium component.
- Trimming: regular, during the dormant period - late winter or early spring.
- Reproduction: green cuttings, layering, grafting or seeds.
- Pests: snail scale insects and multicolored caterpillars.
- Diseases: rust, powdery mildew, leaf spot.
Read more about growing dogwood below.
Dogwood bush - description
The most famous representative of the genus is the common dogwood shrub, or male dogwood, up to 2.5 m high with shiny red-orange hanging shoots that easily take root when in contact with the soil, bright green opposite or alternate leaves and milky white flowers collected in inflorescences up to 5 cm in diameter, which bloom in May and bloom for two weeks. Dogwood fruits, with one or two seeds, ripen from August to October, vary in both shape and color. In cultivated forms, they reach a length of 3 cm, usually have an elongated cylindrical shape, but there are also species with almost round, like cherry, fruits, as well as barrel-shaped and even pear-shaped.
The color of the fruit is usually bright red, but forms with pink, yellow, purple and even black berries are known. And dogwood berries vary in taste: they can be sweet, tart or tart-sweet, juicy or dry. The plant itself can be shaped either as a bush or as a tree. Dogwood is quite frost-resistant, but at a temperature of -30 ºC the ends of its shoots freeze over. The dogwood bush lives for more than a hundred years.
Planting dogwood
When to plant dogwood
The time when the time has come to plant dogwood is easy to guess - as soon as the poplar leaves begin to fall. Planting dogwood in the fall is preferable to spring because in the spring you will have to plant dogwood in a very short time period between the ground warming up and sometimes when the dogwood buds begin to bloom. Select a semi-shaded site with lime-rich soil on the south or southwest side for your dogwood. groundwater lie no higher than one and a half meters. Dogwood also grows in acidic soils, but this negatively affects both its development and the quality of the crop.
The dogwood is placed no closer than 3-5 meters from the fence, buildings and other trees. In order for a dogwood to bear fruit, it must have a pair, or better yet two, in the garden, and they should be placed no further than 3-5 meters from each other.
How to plant dogwood
Dogwood seedlings ready for planting should be two years old, about 1.5 m high, with a trunk diameter of about 2 cm, and have 3-5 skeletal branches. The dogwood is planted in a hole with a diameter and depth of approximately 80 cm. Having dug a hole, drive a stake into it, to which you will then tie the seedling. The stake is driven in from the direction from which the wind usually blows.
Mix the top, fertile layer of soil, taken out of the hole, with humus and mineral fertilizers, make a hill out of it in the center of the hole, place a dogwood seedling on the hill, carefully straighten its roots, fill the hole fertile soil with fertilizers, supporting the seedling so that it root collar turned out to be 3-4 cm above the level of the site. Water the seedling with three buckets of water, and when it is absorbed, the soil will settle and the neck will be flush with the surface, cut the shoots of the seedling by a third of the length, tie it to a support and mulch the tree trunk circle with humus or dry soil from the lower, less fertile layer of soil.
Dogwood care
How to grow dogwood in the garden
Planting and caring for dogwood is not much different from planting and caring for any other fruit bush– rosehip or barberry, for example. Caring for dogwood consists of watering, loosening the soil on the site, removing weeds from it, pruning the shoots of the plant and fertilizing.
The peculiarity of dogwood is that there is no periodicity in its fruiting, that is, it produces a harvest annually. The planting of the next year's crop is carried out in May-June of the current year, and before the end of the growing season, the flower buds that form simultaneously with the growth of shoots must be completely formed. This is why it is so important to water and fertilize dogwood in a timely manner. To ensure that water does not spread over the area, but is directed to the superficial root system, make a circular furrow around the bush and pour water into it.
Try to maintain a balance in hydrating the dogwood: there should be enough water, but excessive watering is unacceptable. After watering, the soil in the area is loosened no deeper than 8-10 cm, while getting rid of weeds. As for fertilizing, in the first half of the season they use fertilizers with a nitrogen-phosphorus component, and in the second they focus on potassium - for example, they add wood ash to the soil. Dogwood responds well to compost and humus, but the most important thing for dogwood growth and fruiting is the presence of calcium in the soil - keep this in mind.
Dogwood pruning
Growing dogwood requires regular pruning of the bush. In winter or early spring, during the dormant period, remove from the bush all damaged, dry and frostbitten branches that are easy prey for fungi or harmful insects. Before cutting a branch, dip the scissors in a 1:3 bleach solution to avoid transferring pathogens that may have settled on the dogwood to healthy branches.
Shorten or prune stems that are too old to the ground to encourage new growth. Cut out branches and shoots growing inside the bush. If your bush is grafted, remove all shoots below the grafting site. You most likely will not have to do formative pruning, since the plant has a natural, beautiful crown.
Pests and diseases of dogwood
As a rule, dogwood is not affected by pests or diseases. But sometimes, extremely rarely, the plant suffers from the fungal disease rust, which manifests itself yellow spots on the leaves. The fungus is destroyed by treating the plant with Bordeaux mixture. Dogwood is also rarely affected by powdery mildew, which is combated with colloidal sulfur, as well as spotting, against which dogwood is treated with the same Bordeaux mixture. Among the pests that can disturb the dogwood are the cochlear scale insect and the multicolored caterpillar - the first is destroyed by treating the plant with lime, and the second with Parisian greens.
Dogwood in the Moscow region
For some reason, it is common to think that dogwood does not take root in Moscow and the Moscow region, but this is not true. Breeders have developed varieties of plants that can withstand thirty-degree frosts, so dogwood develops normally and bears fruit abundantly even in the middle zone. Planting and caring for dogwood in the Moscow region is no different from growing the plant, for example, in the Stavropol region or in Ukraine.
Sometimes, however, the ends of its young shoots freeze over in winter, so they have to be cut off in the spring. To avoid such unpleasant surprises, young dogwoods should be covered with burlap for the winter for several years, and the tree trunks of dogwoods, both young and adult, should be mulched for the winter with a thick layer of peat or humus.
Dogwood propagation
How to propagate dogwood
In amateur gardening, dogwoods are propagated primarily vegetatively, but seed propagation is also quite possible.
Growing dogwood from seed
Dogwood seeds are cleared of pulp and placed in damp moss or sawdust for a whole year, constantly maintaining a moist environment - this way the seeds are stratified before sowing. The dogwood seed does not break up into cotyledons, so it should be immersed in the soil no more than 3 cm.
Unstratified seeds germinate only after two years, and not all of them. Stratified seeds germinate in the year of sowing. Seed care is usual: watering, fertilizing, weeding, shading from scorching rays at the very beginning of growth. During the first year, seedlings grow only up to 3-4 cm, by the end of the second - up to 10-15 cm, and in the fall they can be planted in open ground in a nursery. Dogwood bears fruit from seeds only after 7-10 years.
For seed propagation, the seeds of wild dogwood species are used, then, when young seedlings grow from them, they are used as rootstocks for cultivated dogwood species.
Reproduction of dogwood by cuttings
For dogwood cuttings, only green cuttings from bushes no younger than 5-6 years are suitable - lignified cuttings take root very poorly. Cuttings 10-15 cm long are cut early in the morning from shoots in the phase active growth, each should have a well-developed growing point and two pairs of leaves. After cutting, the cuttings are immediately placed in water. The oblique lower cut should extend half a centimeter to a centimeter below the bud.
Before planting, the cuttings are deprived of the lower pair of leaves and kept for six to twelve hours in a three percent heteroauxin solution. Then they are washed, planted at an angle of 45º in a shady place, in soil sprinkled on top with a layer of well-washed sand 7-10 cm thick, and covered with polyethylene so that there is a gap of 15-20 cm between the film and the cuttings. After planting, the cuttings are watered , and in the future the soil is kept in a slightly moist state, avoiding direct sunlight on the cuttings.
You need to water the area through a fine sieve so that the water does not flow, but splashes. The temperature under the film should be about 25 ºC, and as soon as it rises above, lift the film for ventilation. The cuttings take root in two to three weeks, after which they begin to harden - this will take about two weeks of time, then the film is removed, and the stronger cuttings are fed with liquid ammonium nitrate (30 g per bucket of water). Next autumn the bushes are planted in a permanent place.
Dogwood propagation by grafting
Budding is carried out in August-September on planted and rooted two-year-old seedlings of wild dogwood, and cultivated plant varieties are used as a scion. Using a sharp knife, make a crosswise cut on the rootstock - horizontally and vertically, and make a vertical cut up to 3 cm deep. Cut a bud with bark, leaf petiole and part of the wood from the scion, insert it into the vertical cut, carefully pushing the bark on it to the side , and fix the scion with budding tape (you can use stationery tape).
After two to three weeks, if you did everything correctly, the petiole will fall off. In October the film can be removed. Emerging shoots of the rootstock must be removed.
Reproduction of dogwood by layering
Horizontal arched annual shoots are used as layering. In the spring, as soon as the soil warms up, dig it around the dogwood bush with the addition of fertilizers, level it, make grooves in it, bend and lay the intended shoots in them, pin them and sprinkle soil at the attachment point, and pinch the tops. When green shoots 10-12 cm high develop at the attachment points of the cuttings, sprinkle them halfway with soil; after 2-3 weeks, when the shoots have gained the same amount of growth, sprinkle them halfway again.
In the fall or next spring, the cuttings are separated from the mother plant and planted in a permanent place.
Reproduction of dogwood by dividing the bush
This method is used when it is necessary to transplant a dogwood bush to a new location. In the spring, before the buds swell, or in the fall, a month before frost, the dogwood is dug up, all old branches are removed from it, the root system is carefully freed from the soil and the bush is cut into several approximately equal parts, each of which has good roots and healthy aboveground part. Before planting, the old roots are cut out, the rest are slightly shortened.
Dogwood is also propagated by root shoots, if they grow from a rooted plant - the shoots are separated from the bush and transplanted to a new place. In a grafted plant, the root growth grows from the rootstock - a wild type of dogwood; you are unlikely to need it.
Types and varieties of dogwood
Dogwood (Cornus mas)
The most famous species of the genus is dogwood ordinary description which we have already given. Let us only add that the most popular forms of dogwood are:
- Pyramidalis– dogwood with a pyramidal crown shape;
- Nana– dwarf dogwood with a spherical crown;
- Variegata– dogwood with leaves edged with white stripes;
- Aurea– dogwood with golden leaves;
- Aurea variegata– dogwood with yellow variegated leaves.
White Dogwood (Cornus alba)
It is also a very common species in culture, which is found in natural conditions in China, Japan, Korea and almost throughout the entire territory of Russia. This is a shrub up to 3 m high with flexible, thin branches of predominantly red-orange color, although there are forms with black-red and red-brown branches. Its young shoots are covered with a bluish coating. The leaves of plants of this species are broadly ovate, slightly wrinkled, 10-12 cm long, dark green on the upper side of the plate, whitish below, in autumn they turn dark red-purple. Small white flowers up to 5 cm in diameter, collected in corymbose inflorescences, abundantly cover the bush in the first half of summer and again in early autumn.
White spherical fruits with a blue tint ripen just in time for the second flowering of the white dogwood. This type has many decorative forms:
- silver-edged- a plant with a creamy-white border along the leaves, which turn from green to carmine-red in the fall. The color of the bark is also red. Bush height 2-3 m;
- Elegantissima– a very winter-hardy, fast-growing form of dogwood up to 3 m high with spectacular red shoots that are striking in winter, and leaves with uneven cream borders, spots and stripes;
- Sibirika Aurea– a bush 1.5-2 m high with soft yellow leaves on erect red shoots and creamy white flowers, sometimes blooming again in the fall, simultaneously with the ripening of bluish fruits;
- Sibirika Variegata- dogwood, two meters high, with a wide creamy-white border, stripes and spots on the leaves, which in the fall change the green background to purple, and the border and specks remain cream. The shoots in winter retain the red-coral color of the bark. This plant bears little fruit, grows slowly, and is very suitable for small gardens.
Red or blood red dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)
It grows in the undergrowth of deciduous and mixed forests, along the banks of rivers and lakes from the Baltic states to the lower reaches of the Don and from the south of Scandinavia to the Balkans. This is a deciduous shrub up to 4 m high with a branched crown and drooping shoots of different colors - green, red, purple. Its leaves are round, ovate, bright green with fine pubescence on the upper side and densely pubescent, and therefore whitish, on the lower side. In autumn the leaves turn bright red. Small, dull, whitish flowers form corymbose multi-flowered inflorescences up to 7 cm in diameter. They bloom for 15-20 days.
Numerous black fruits look elegant and contrast against the background of bright red leaves. Decorative forms of red dogwood:
- Greenest– with shoots, leaves and green fruits;
- Variegata- a shrub up to 4 m high with variegated yellow leaves and soft green young shoots that become burgundy with age. The fruits are blue-black;
- Mitch's dogwood– the leaves of this form are pale yellow in small spots.
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)
Originally from the East North America. It is a deciduous tree with a spreading dense crown that blooms before the leaves bloom. Autumn foliage is bright red. Varieties:
- Cherokee Chief– tree height 4-6 m, bracts red-pink;
- Rubra– bracts from light pink to bright red, bush height 4-6 m.
Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)
Also from North America, where it grows in damp forests along the banks of watercourses, climbing to altitudes from 450 to 2700 m above sea level. The species is close to white dogwood, but differs primarily in its ability to produce many offspring around the bush. This is a shrub up to 2.5 m high with red-coral shiny shoots, bright green leaves, milky-white flowers collected in inflorescences up to 5 cm in diameter and bluish-white fruits.
Decorative forms of dogwood are:
- White-edged, to which the variety belongs White Gold– a medium-sized shrub with a white border along the edges of green leaves;
- Flaviramea- a fast-growing shrub with round shape bush 2-3 m high and wide. Its bark in winter and spring time yellow, and yellowish-green in summer and autumn. The foliage is green, reddish in autumn, but not all - many leaves do not change color;
- Kelsey- a dwarf shrub no more than a meter high and up to one and a half meters wide with reddish or bright green bark and green leaves that do not fall until late autumn, although they change color to orange or dark red.
Dogwood Kousa (Cornus kousa)
It grows naturally in Japan and China. This is a winter-hardy deciduous shrub up to 9 m in height with graceful graceful bracts. In autumn the leaves turn bright red. Varieties:
- Gold Star– green leaves with a yellow pattern, bush height 5-7 m;
- Milky Way– tall bush, creamy white bracts.
There are a number of creeping dogwoods, which botanists classify as a separate genus - Swedish and Canadian dogwoods; the Svida genus, which includes Georgian and Meyer dogwoods, stands apart.
Properties of dogwood - harm and benefit
Useful properties of dogwood
When literature describes medicinal properties dogwood, then they primarily mean plants of the common dogwood species. How is dogwood useful, and what properties does it actually have?
Firstly, its fruits contain vitamin C in large quantities than lemon, and have an anti-scorbutic effect, so a paste is made from dogwood fruits for astronauts and long-distance sailors.
Secondly, the tannins contained in the fruits hold the stool together. Berries are also good for sick people diabetes mellitus, because they reduce blood sugar levels and increase the activity of the pancreas to produce the necessary enzyme. Dogwood has anti-inflammatory, choleretic, diuretic, bactericidal and astringent effects. Dogwood berries increase appetite, improve digestion, normalize blood pressure, relieve headache, accelerate metabolic processes in the body.
Dogwood is used in the treatment of cystitis, gout, skin diseases, swelling of the legs, inflammation of the veins, intestinal diseases, including diarrhea and dysentery. It must be said that not only dogwood fruits have healing qualities, but also its flowers, bark, leaves and roots.
We offer you several recipes that can help out in difficult times:
Dogwood fruit decoction: pour a tablespoon of dried berries into a glass of water, boil over low heat for 20 minutes, then leave for 2 hours, strain and take a quarter glass for vitamin deficiency 3 times a day before meals.
Decoction of dogwood bark and roots: pour a teaspoon of crushed roots and bark into a glass of water and boil for 15 minutes, then leave for two hours, strain and drink for rheumatism 3 times a day, 2 tablespoons.
In addition, dogwood drinks and jam have remarkable medicinal and taste qualities. Dogwood fruits are dried for the winter and a tasty and healthy decoction is prepared from them.
Honey plants Ornamental foliage Plants on K DogwoodAfter this article they usually read
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