Plum is one of the traditional fruit crops in our gardens. Not all modern varieties have received such attention and have earned as much praise as Smolinka. This is surprising: after a detailed study it turns out that the variety has both obvious advantages and significant shortcomings.
Grade description
The mid-season Smolinka variety was obtained at the Institute of Horticulture and Nursery relatively recently: it has been in variety testing since 1980, and in 1990 it was registered in the State Register of Selection Achievements of the Russian Federation. Smolinka came from the well-known varieties Ochakovskaya yellow and Greenclaw Ulensa. Recommended for cultivation in the Central region of our country, especially in the Tula region.
Tree characteristic
Plum Smolinka grows in the form of a rather large tree, at least 5 meters high. The crown is round-pyramidal, excessive thickening is not characteristic. The bark on the trunk and skeletal branches is brown, rough. The shoots are almost straight, directed upward at small angles, the internodes are of normal sizes. The leaves are rather large, up to 10 cm long, there is no pubescence. Large flowers, collected in inflorescences. White petals, up to 1.5 cm long.
Vegetation begins early, by the end of June the growth of young shoots is already stopped. By early October, the tree goes into a state of relative rest. The winter hardiness of Smolink plum is no different and is considered average, the same situation with drought tolerance. In frosty winters, the tree suffers greatly, but is restored over time. Resistance to the main types of diseases is also considered average, except for kleasterosporiosis: they rarely get a strain.
The variety is self-sufficient, requires pollinators. The Volga beauty, Early Skorospelka, Vengerka Moskovskaya are considered the best. Under optimal conditions, the yield is high, the fruits ripen in the medium term, in the middle lane - in mid-August. The first fruiting is in the fourth year after planting. Per 1 m2 projections of the crown collect about 4 kg of fruit, that is, the average yield from an adult tree is 20-40 kg. The fruiting frequency is moderate: the productive years alternate with the seasons with almost no fruiting. Smolinka is mainly grown in amateur gardens.
Fruit Description
The fruits are smooth, large, up to 45 mm long, slightly elongated, oval in shape, weighing about 35 g (maximum - up to 60 g). The seam is hardly noticeable. Peel of medium thickness. The color on the outside is dark purple with a plentiful bluish wax coating, inside is yellowish-green. The pulp is medium density, sweet and sour, good or excellent harmonious taste. Sugar content up to 12%.
Smolinka fruits are classic plum fruits: both in shape and color they correspond to the concept of plum that we know from childhood
The stone is of medium size, it does not ideally separate from the pulp. The stalks are thick, up to 1.5 cm long, separate well. A variety of table setting: mainly fruits are consumed fresh, but jam processing and fruit drinks are also possible. Plums are also suitable for preparing dried fruits and freezing.
Planting plum varieties Smolinka
Smolink plum is planted in the traditional way, but it is necessary to take into account the self-fertility of the variety and immediately provide for planting nearby suitable pollinators. The distance to neighboring trees should be 3-4 meters. In the absence of pollinators, it may not even work to try the fruit.
Landing dates, site preparation
Like other varieties of plum, Smolinka is best planted in spring (autumn planting is possible only in the southern regions). In the middle lane, the optimal time for landing usually falls on the second half of April and the very beginning of May. True, this applies to ordinary seedlings, with an open root system. Seedlings in containers can be planted at almost any time, except on especially hot days. Both annual and biennial healthy seedlings take root equally well.
The easiest way is to plant a seedling from a container, but it costs more
Like most plum varieties, Smolinka prefers well-lit areas that are closed from cold winds. The soil should be light, fertile, best loamy, with a neutral reaction of the environment. Unsuitable lowered, and even more waterlogged areas.
If groundwater is closer than 2 meters from the soil surface, Smolinka is planted on artificial mounds with a height of 0.5-0.8 meters.
The selected site in advance, at the end of summer, is carefully dug up with the removal of rhizomes of perennial weeds. Even with continuous digging, fertilizers should be applied, despite the fact that most of them will be placed in the landing pit. On 1 m2 Square take 2 buckets of humus, 200 g of superphosphate and 40 g of potassium sulfate. If the soil is acidic, liming is simultaneously carried out (up to 2 l of slaked lime per 1 m2).
If the site is overgrown with weeds or rhizomes of bushes, its continuous digging should be done very carefully
Since it is difficult to dig a landing pit in early spring, it has been prepared since the fall. The depth of the pit is not less than 50 cm, length and width - about 80 cm. As always, the lower, ballast layer is discarded, and the upper, fertile layer is folded near the pit, then it is mixed with fertilizers and returned back. As fertilizers, 1-2 buckets of humus or compost, a bucket of peat, a liter jar of wood ash and 300 g of superphosphate are used. On poor soils, both the size of the pit and the amount of fertilizer increase slightly. You can immediately drive into the pit and a strong stake, protruding outward at 70-80 cm, to garter a seedling. Further work is carried out in the spring.
Planting a seedling in a prepared hole
It is better to purchase a seedling immediately before planting: if you buy it in the fall, you will have to dig it in for the winter, which in itself is not always easy. Both the stem and the roots should be free of damage, and the roots themselves should be 3-4 pieces, 25 cm long or more. Exfoliation or darkening of the cortex is unacceptable; plum can not be planted with open buds. Having brought a sapling to a site, do the following.
- Soak the roots of the seedling in water for several hours, after cutting them slightly (especially if there is slight damage to the tips). Immediately before planting, dip the roots in a clay mash (clay and mullein 1: 1, water to the desired creamy consistency).
Clay talker significantly facilitates the planting of seedlings
- They take out the right amount of soil from the pit so that the roots can easily fit, and from the remaining one they form a mound. They put a sapling on a knoll and spread its roots.
The roots should be distributed evenly and be in their natural state, without kinks
- Holding the sapling so that the root neck is slightly higher than the surface of the earth, the roots are gradually covered with the excavated soil. Shake the seedling periodically so that there are no air voids, and compact the soil with your hand or foot.
Do not confuse the root neck and the place of vaccination: where the seedling holds the gardener in the picture, the vaccination is located, it should be significantly higher than the soil level
- Tie a sapling to the stake in the "eight" way, using a soft twine or a strip of dense polyethylene.
When gartering, you need to use materials that do not hurt the bark
- 2 buckets of water are poured under the tree and the disturbed soil layer is leveled, after which a roller of earth is formed around the pit for subsequent irrigation.
No need to spare water: if 2 buckets soak quickly, you need to add
- The trunk circle is mulched with a thin layer of humus, peat or ordinary dry earth.
When mulching a trunk, do not fall asleep
Immediately after spring planting, the seedling should not be pruned, but you should carefully monitor the soil moisture under it: in the first season, you often have to water it, not allowing the trunk to dry out.
Growing Features
The peculiarity of growing plum varieties Smolinka is only that nearby should be trees of other varieties that bloom at the same time. In addition, Smolinka is a very moisture-loving variety. It should be borne in mind that it grows in the form of a tall tree, which means that for the convenience of harvesting you should try to restrain its growth by pruning. Otherwise, the care for this plum is the same as for plums of other varieties.
The most common crown formation scheme that limits tree growth is sparse-tiered
It is especially important to monitor soil moisture in the case of young trees: it is in the first couple of years that the future development of the plum tree and its yield are laid. With the introduction of plums into fruiting, it is important not to allow the soil to dry out during the flowering and fruit setting period. In the case of dry spring, weekly watering may also be required. However, closer to the ripening of the crop, excessive watering is contraindicated, otherwise the fruits will crack and crumble prematurely. Before the onset of winter, abundant water-charging irrigation is carried out.
On good soils, in the first 1-2 years after planting, feeding plums are not required, then spring urea is introduced. In early spring, scatter 20 g of fertilizer per 1 m in the near-stem circle2. If the soil is still very humid and the snow has not completely melted, it will drag itself into the soil, otherwise it is necessary to slightly harden the fertilizer with a hoe.
Urea (urea) - a fast-acting nitrogen fertilizer, it is used in spring
After the plum has entered into fruiting, dressing will be required more seriously. In addition to early spring feeding with urea, a little later (shortly before flowering), once every two years, they bury it under a tree per 1 m2 a compost bucket, 50 g of superphosphate and a pinch of sulfate or potassium chloride. In autumn, trees are fertilized with wood ash (1-2 liters per tree), and in the winter, the trunk circle is mulched with a thin layer of humus. When mulching, they try to retreat a little from the trunk.
When pruning plum trees, one must be very careful: untimely and improperly pruned plums are prone to gumming. However, the formation of the crown is necessary, and begin it the next year after planting. Shorten the conductor and side branches, stimulating branching. When forming, you must try to prevent excessive growth of the tree in height.
With the entry of plums into fruiting, only sanitary pruning is carried out. Fortunately, thinning Smolinka is almost not required, but damaged and dried branches are necessarily cut off. Too long young shoots necessarily shorten by 20-30%. Pruning should be completed before the start of spring sap flow, and all wounds, even the smallest ones, must be covered with garden varieties.
Unfortunately, Smolinka does not apply to varieties that do not produce shoots. Over the years, its quantity begins to increase, and the shoots have to be destroyed. This must be done very carefully: it is advisable to cut off young shoots directly from the roots, digging out the soil. At the same time, weeds are also destroyed, accompanying the procedure by loosening the near-trunk circle.
The shoots need to be cut from the roots, underground
The Smolinka variety cannot boast of frost resistance, therefore young trees must be prepared for winter: they bleach trunks and large branches and protect the trunks from rodents and frosts by tying coniferous spruce branches or at least wrapping nylon tights around them. With age, the sense of protection disappears, but the late-autumn whitewash, which protects the plum from frost in February-March, remains a mandatory measure.
Diseases and pests, the fight against them
If agricultural technology is respected, the plum itself copes with pathogens and most pests. To do this, there should be no thickening of the crown, whitewashing of trunks and skeletal branches, timely feeding of trees should be carried out. If something went wrong, a disease is detected or pests have appeared, urgent measures must be taken, but first of all, a diagnosis should be made.
Plum disease
Among plum diseases, the following are most often found.
Gum detection
Gum disease - a non-communicable disease - occurs on trees damaged in any way: improperly trimmed, frozen, weakened by other diseases. Droplets of “resin” appear on the trunk - so, in a simple way, they often call gum (a translucent liquid released from the wood of stone fruit). Through the resulting wounds, penetration of any infections is possible.
Most often, gum comes from untreated wounds
To prevent this from happening, all wounds formed on the drain must be immediately covered with garden varnish. If the gum has appeared, it is removed with a sharp knife, peeling the wood, and then the wound is disinfected with a 1% solution of copper sulfate.
Many gardeners, after disinfection, rub problem areas with sorrel leaves, but after all treatments, coating with garden varnish is necessary.
Plum pockets
Pockets - a disease of the fruit: they become like bags, greatly increase in size, but the bones in them do not form. The taste is greatly deteriorated. Subsequently, up to half the drain falls.
Pockets - a disease in which full fruits do not form
The origin of the disease is fungal, especially often infection occurs if the weather is cold and humid during flowering. Prevention of the disease is the timely collection and destruction of scavenger, pruning of those branches on which there were many diseased fruits. Processing the tree with 3% Bordeaux fluid long before buds open significantly reduces the risk of disease.
Kleasterosporiosis
Kleasterosporiosis is a fungal disease to which the Smolinka variety is relatively resistant. When infected, oval spots of a brownish color with edges of a raspberry shade form on the leaves. Their size is up to 5 mm. After a week and a half, holes are formed instead of spots, and the contents (spores of the fungus) spill out. Leaves dry and fall. Often, similar signs are observed on the fruit.
When klesterosporiosis sick and then the leaves dry
Prevention is the thorough cleaning of plant debris and the cutting of shoots, on which a significant number of diseased leaves or fruits were observed. The main drug for treatment is 1% Bordeaux fluid. It is used to spray trees at the beginning of budding, when flower buds appear, immediately after flowering, 2 weeks later and shortly before harvest.
Moniliosis (fruit rot)
Moniliosis is a fungal disease in which shoots darken first, and outgrowths of a grayish tint form on the cortex. Soon, the fruits also decay: spots are first formed, which grow and take on the appearance of a gray fluffy coating. The fruits crumble, and the branches dry. Moniliosis can even kill a tree.
Moniliosis is a contagious disease that destroys the crop, and sometimes the whole tree
Prevention - proper agricultural practices, thorough cleaning of residues, treatment and coating of wounds, etc. Treatment - treatment of trees with 1% Bordeaux fluid before blooming and immediately after flowering.
Rust
In the middle of summer, another fungal disease can attack the plum. It appears yellow-brown spots on the leaves, which, without treatment, turn into dark pads. Leaves fall prematurely, the tree loses strength, becomes susceptible to other diseases.
Rust - one of the options for fungal diseases of trees
The measures for rust prevention and control are the same as for other fungal diseases.Treatment with Bordeaux liquid begins immediately after the detection of the disease and is repeated every 2-3 weeks, stopping shortly before the fruit stains.
Pests
The most dangerous and often crop-destroying plum pests are aphids, sawflies and moths. Ticks, sapwood, and bear cub are much less common.
- A plum sawfly (yellow and black) is a small yellowish fly that larvae that winter in the soil. Larvae destroy the ovaries of fruits, and each can destroy at least 5 pieces. The ovaries fall, and with a high number of pests and long flowering, almost the entire future crop can be destroyed.
The plum sawfly is a seemingly harmless insect, but its larvae are able to leave the gardener without a crop
- Plum codling moth - a brownish butterfly, similar to a moth, appears immediately after the end of flowering plum. She lays eggs in the resulting fruits and leaves. Caterpillars appear in 2-3 weeks: they feed on the pulp of fruits, destroying a significant part of the crop.
The results of the moth are known even to children
- Plum aphids differ little from other aphids; its harm is well known to gardeners. A massive invasion of aphids occurs in the first half of summer. Aphids are extremely prolific, form entire colonies on leaves and, mainly, young shoots. She also lives on the stalks of plums. Sucking juices, aphids significantly weaken the plants, and young shoots do not develop and dry out.
Aphids rush at everything young and juicy
If folk remedies (ash-soap solution, tansy infusions, onion husks, etc.) help to fight aphids with its insignificant amount, then chemical preparations - insecticides often have to be used to kill other pests. Their list is impressive: traditionally, gardeners use Karbofos, Fufanon, Aktaru, etc.
Since insecticides can easily cope with insects, it is worth choosing those that are the least dangerous to humans. Reading the instructions, one should carefully monitor the period during which processing is possible, and also not to neglect the precautions when preparing the working solution and directly spraying the trees.
Grade Reviews
Smolinka is probably the best variety of home plum breeding VSTISP. The fruits are large, about 40 gr., The pulp is of very good taste. It should be planted with a whole tree.
Kolyadin Roman
//forum.prihoz.ru/viewtopic.php?t=6222&start=195
The largest plum known to me that grows in MO is SMOLINKA.
Anna
//dacha.wcb.ru/index.php?showtopic=4488
Put the little resin to the most protected place, it is not too reliable.
Andrey Vasiliev
//www.forumhouse.ru/threads/4467/page-51
Plum Smolinka is popular for its high quality fruits: they are large and tasty. High and yield varieties, as well as transportability of the crop. However, self-infertility, fruiting frequency, fruit shedding and low winter hardiness do not allow unconditionally recommending this variety to beginning summer residents.
