How to tie an apple tree

Every gardener, whether he is a professional or a beginner, is faced with the fact that many trees need to be tied up. And the apple tree is no exception to these trees. Any apple tree of any variety must be tied up, because in the first 1-2.5 years of their life, these trees simply do not have a sufficiently developed and strong root system. Any strong wind can easily blow away a poor tree.

Therefore, before your tree is fully self-sufficient, it is your responsibility as a careful gardener to protect it with a garter. Gradually growing a strong, deep root system, the apple tree will lose the need for a garter, however, if she could, she would definitely thank you for your concern.

On average, apple trees need a garter for three years. The only exception is trellis gardens, in which garters are not removed at all.

How to tie an apple tree with apples?

It would seem that an apple tree weighed down with a large number of ripe, heavy fruits certainly needs a garter. However, this is not at all the case. Apple trees, ready to harvest, on the contrary, due to it, increase their weight and are even more firmly fixed in the ground. Perhaps the only thing that threatens the overload of apples on a young tree is breaking off branches. However, this problem can be easily avoided by using ordinary backwaters.

Many gardeners, however, prefer specially constructed structures to props, which are needed so that the mass of the fruit is evenly distributed over the tree. However, competent pruning of the tree is much more often used, which also maintains balance and does not allow individual branches of the apple tree to be loaded more than others.

However, if you still need to tie a loaded apple tree, follow these instructions:

1) First of all, you need to make sure that you will be using an exceptionally soft garter.

2) It is better not to tie the branches tightly. This will weaken them and increase the chance of them breaking.

3) Such a garter is done as early as possible, preferably when the apples are still small and there is no risk that you will knock them off the tree or accidentally break a branch.

Do I need to tie up the seedlings?

Before tying your apple tree, you need to understand why this is done at all. After all, it's not for nothing that people are tying up their trees, is it?

After all, before people domesticated apple trees and came up with all sorts of ways to protect these fragile trees from the vicissitudes of fate, they themselves grew remarkably in the wild and did not need any garter. Besides, even wild trees yield quite good harvest. Is the garter not so necessary?

No matter how it may seem that tying young trees is an unnecessary activity, you should not avoid it, because if you abandon the garter, you will lose a ton of opportunities that this procedure offers, namely:

1) Increase the resistance of the tree to wind. The garter works as a kind of anchor, which prevents powerful gusts from blowing away the tree.

2) In addition, even if your apple tree is not uprooted, the wind can shake it strongly. Especially if the tree is tall and has been transplanted with a huge lump of roots.

3) The most fragile part of an apple tree is its crown. It sometimes turns out to be very difficult for young trunks, and they simply cannot withstand it. In order to ensure stability for such young apple trees, a garter is made.

4) With all kinds of damage to the roots, the garter of the apple tree is the only way to prevent the tree from falling or loosening.

Important!

A garter, no matter how useful it is, is not the safest process, because an inexperienced gardener, tying up his apple tree, can only harm it, which in no case we want. To avoid such incidents, you should carefully follow all the instructions below.

1) The rope that surrounds the apple tree can cause serious damage to the bark. Due to the constant swaying of the plant, it will rub it, which ultimately will lead to flaking and to the risk of infection with all kinds of parasites.

2) Due to the same rope, the trunk can bend incorrectly, which can potentially lead to its incorrect development and curvature, which will bring a lot of trouble in the future.

3) Also, tying the trunk is dangerous because it can be overtightened so much that in the area of ​​the garter it will become much more brittle. This is also fraught with serious consequences.

4) Excessive resistance to gusts of wind will also not do the tree good. You always need to stick to the golden mean and keep the tree in conditions as close to natural as possible.

5) The garter must be handled very carefully and carefully: remove and put back when needed. Inexperienced gardeners often do not understand this, which leads to less plant survival.

6) If the growth of the tree, the height of the stakes and other factors are incorrectly calculated, the apple tree may bear fruit worse and generally be less healthy. However, this also comes with experience.

"How do you get this experience as quickly as possible?" - you ask…

5 ways to tie apple trees

As already mentioned, despite all the shortcomings garters, it is necessary. Trees that are not tied up are not able to stand upright, which ultimately leads to improper growth and less productivity. Their root system can and should be helped, however, numerous garter operations have their own no less numerous rules that every gardener needs to know.

In addition, a garter is simply necessary if the upper part of the apple tree is much larger and more massive than the lower one. Apple trees with such features are simply not able to stay on their "legs".

However, you should warn you before you start learning about the methods of garter apple trees: none of them should be resorted to unless absolutely necessary. You have already familiarized yourself with what an incorrect garter can lead to, and you perfectly understand why this process should be approached with caution.

Stakes garter

There are countless factors that affect how many stakes an apple sprout will be tied to: the variety of the sprout, its height, thickness, characteristics of the root system, the region chosen for cultivation, and so on. You can tie it to either one or three stakes, and only experience will allow you to accurately determine in each specific situation, to exactly how many.

Most often, only one peg is tied to the most ordinary, non-graded apple tree sprout, however, provided that it does not have any developmental defects.

When you plant a seedling whose roots are bare, a single peg is hammered into the very bottom of the planting pit. In northern latitudes, it is driven in from the side where the sun rises. However, in the event that you are growing a pit in the southern latitudes, the peg is driven in from the west side.

Most often, the peg is driven in before planting the seedling itself. Especially if the seedling is planted on a fertile mound of soil. However, in the event that the seedling already has a lump of fertile soil on its roots, the peg is driven in only after planting. However, in both cases, the depth of the peg must be calculated so that its height above the soil level is equal to half the height of the sprout.

In addition, the peg must be driven into the ground quite thoroughly. Even with both hands, sticking it out should not be so easy. The estimated depth should be about 18-30 centimeters.

First of all, you need to tie the peg to the trunk using the floating figure eight method. Some time after planting (waiting is necessary so that the ground around the peg and the seedling itself is sufficiently compacted) it will be possible to tie knots more firmly. However, it is not worth overtightening either. Any search is fraught with consequences.

The best choice for cola material is a water pipe. It may well be both plastic and metal. Reinforced-plastic pipes are also great.

In addition, the dressing site must be fixed with something. This is necessary so that one morning you do not find the knot untied, and the tree felled. A bicycle tube or some kind of duct tape is best for the fixing material.

The trunk also needs to be protected. As it was already written in this article, the rope rapidly frays the bark of the tree, leaving a painful mark on it. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to resort to using a protective layer on the tree, which is a good drainage cloth or rubber.

If you need to make an emergency garter, or you just don't feel like straining too much, you can use an ordinary piece of reinforcement as a stake and a rubber band as a material for the garter. You don't need to be too zealous: this can lead to overtightening and to many negative consequences, which we have already written about.

Garter between two sticks

If you value the tree you are tying very much, but the conditions for its growth are not very favorable, any gardener will advise you to resort to the garter method, which is carried out using two sticks driven perpendicular to the ground.

First of all, you will have to choose the material from which your garter stakes will be made. Finding such a material is quite easy: metal-plastic and other pipes, as well as various types of durable wood, are quite suitable as ideal candidates.

The stakes should be quite high, but you shouldn't overdo it either. One and a half meters in height will be quite enough, but many gardeners prefer to take stakes with a margin. At one of the ends of the stakes, obviously, you need to make a point, with which the stake will easily stick into the ground and will not make you sweat.

It is also quite important to determine where the prevailing winds are blowing in the current season. They will directly determine the direction of your stakes. If the wind is blowing east, then one of your pegs should also be facing north. The second, accordingly, will face south. This is to prevent the wind from blowing away the sail-like structure of the garter.

After all the preparations, it is time to drive the stakes into the ground. This is done in such a way that they have the same height relative to each other. After that, it is time to prepare the garter material. As it we will use a special wire with a triple cross section. It will provide structural strength. The length of wire segments over one and a half meters would be simply unnecessary.

After that, it is necessary to take care that the wire does not damage the bark of the tree and does not interfere with its stable development. For this we need rubber or a special agricultural coating. You can also use pieces of an old garden hose cut lengthwise into two halves to wrap around the trunk. You should get figures that resemble long crescents.

Now that everything is ready, you can proceed with the garter itself. To do this, you first need to wrap the ends of the wire around the protection, which we fixed on the young apple tree seedling.After that, we tie the ends of the wire sticking out in both directions to the stakes.

When using this method, it is quite possible to tighten the wires more tightly, because the stakes are not directly connected to the trunk. After tightening, the excess can be trimmed off.

In principle, this operation can be carried out with any number of stakes. However, even in the most neglected case, three will be too much. So think seven times before you tie up your tree with an extra peg.

Advice

The process of protecting and tying a tree is quite possible to combine. To do this, you just need to slide the wire into an old rubber hose that matches the diameter. Wire insulated in this way will not harm the tree, but it will be just as effective when tying.

How to tie the figure eight?

We have already mentioned the method of tying the trunk to the stake, which is called the eight-tie, but did not discuss exactly how this is done. And by the way, tying is not the only area of ​​gardening where it is used.

Eight is the most suitable method for tying, because it does not require too much tightening of the knot and allows you to tie the trunk to the stake as carefully as possible, without harming the plant.

Any fabric that you find in your household is suitable as a material: twine, a washcloth, ordinary ropes and rags - all this is perfectly suited for tying with an eight.

It is these types of fabric that suit us, since the task of any gardener when tying is not to squeeze the peg and stem, which is urine, but to carefully bring them together for the first time. This will allow the apple tree sprout to grow vertically upward without harming itself.

One end of the material of your choice is fixed to a peg. However, not neat and delicate, but tough and stronger. We now have a mount.

The second step is to wrap the material around the trunk of the apple tree. This is done so hard that you can feel a slight tension between the peg and the barrel, but no more. Having made the first "ring" of the eight, you can proceed to the final stage.

To do this, we once again wrap the twine around the peg. This time we tie it as firmly and firmly as in the first. As a result, you should get a structure that really resembles something like an eight. It will serve you for the first time, after which it will be possible to remove the figure eight and carry out a real, serious garter.

Important!

We have not in vain drew attention to the fact that it is best to choose woven materials from materials. It is strictly forbidden to use wires and wires. The tree during this period is still so young that it simply cannot withstand the wire biting into it, and the bark is likely to crack. Have pity on your apple tree and use a plain cloth.

Garter to the trellis

The garter to the trellis is one of the most reliable garter methods existing today. It is hard to imagine that any one will ever get around it. The apple tree tied in this way is not afraid of either the wind or the weight of the fruit, however, in order to fit on the trellis, it must be completely miniature.

This time we need a really strong garter material: such as, for example, twine, polymer thread or rubber. You can even use ordinary office tape, but, of course, special plastic fasteners for climbing grapes are best, of course.

A plant on a trellis should feel comfortable, as if lying on a bed. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor that each new level of the grid shelters a new branch.

The position of the branches can be either completely horizontal or slightly inclined (at an angle of 45 degrees). However, absolutely vertical branches of apple trees should not be placed.

Apple coils grown at too high an angle not only look unaesthetic, but also produce much less fruit and show a significantly lower survival rate.

Absolutely every branch at every single point should hang equally firmly. Therefore, it is necessary to tie the branches as tightly as possible (without damaging them, of course)

If the sprout of the apple tree already has old branches that should also be fixed, this is done with the help of a dense material that tightly ties the tree to the trellis net. Thanks to this material, old branches will definitely not be damaged by a strong gust of wind.

Young branches, which will also grow over time, also need to be tied to a trellis.

Most often, gardeners start a garter after flowering (in order not to harm future fruits)

Also, a garter tie can be carried out a second time, but after the fruits have reached the size of a walnut.

The third time, if the branches have grown so strongly, they can be tied up only during the beginning of active leaf fall.

Advice

In no case should you take several branches in an armful and tie them all together. This can harm the plant and negatively affect its productivity. In addition, branches collected in a bunch are much less good at collecting sunlight.

Garter with staples

The staple is extremely stiff and resilient, and you might reasonably think that it is the worst device for tying a young apple tree. However, this is not entirely true. In many countries, special garden staples are already being used with might and main, which minimally harm the plant and make the operation as convenient as possible for the gardener.

However, this technique has not yet been sufficiently researched, so we do not advise you to try it at your own peril and risk. Along with a good result, you can get a ruined tree.

If you are not afraid of experiments and are ready to spend a sapling or two on them - your right. However, for those who want to grow their tree without risks, we advise you to resort to methods proven by dozens of generations of experienced gardeners.

Conclusion

The garter is an integral part of the growing process of any tree. If you neglect it, then you really should consider taking your first step and saving the potential crop that you may be losing by not doing such simple, not requiring titanic work.

.