Rowan represents a desirable resident of the garden plot. In addition to the attractive appearance, the plant will appreciate the beneficial fruits. To grow the required number of trees on your plot, it is not at all necessary to acquire seedlings, it is enough to choose and plant the seeds correctly.

Breeders divide the process of growing mountain ash from seeds into several main stages:

  • material selection;
  • storage;
  • sprout cultivation;
  • planting seedlings.

By following the simple rules at each of these stages, you can easily achieve success if you want to grow this tree from seeds.

Wait for ripening

A strong, hardy mountain ash tree will turn out only when using good seed.

Therefore, you need to stop your choice on those berries, which are distinguished by bright saturated color and large size. In this fruit, a sufficient amount of nutrients that contribute to the proper development of the seed.

At the stage of choosing the berries, it is important to choose the right time for their removal. Fruits need to fully ripen, but, at the same time, they should not begin to lose their elasticity and shape. Experienced breeders advise picking berries in the fall, when they turn bright red and the leaves from the trees begin to fall.


  Collect the fruits when they are ripe and the leaves have fallen.

Selection of rowan seeds

However, plucked fruit is a weak seed requiring additional processing. The main problem in the cultivation of mountain ash from seeds lies in their poor germination and a small percentage of suitable for reproduction specimens. To increase the likelihood of obtaining healthy seedlings in the right quantities, care should be taken about the preparation.

To identify material suitable for further cultivation, you should carefully knead the selected berries and pour them with a small amount of cool water. After some short time, healthy, strong seeds should sink to the bottom.

  Rowan seeds look like this

Choosing the right amount of healthy bones, you need to take care of creating for them as close as possible to natural conditions. Such a process in botany is called stratification. Peat, sawdust, chopped straw, and other such substrate may be suitable for this. When selecting the material, you need to remember that the mountain ash is not too willing to propagate by seed, so you need to take the fruit with a substantial margin.

Still wet seeds should be mixed with the prepared substrate and place it in an open container in an even layer of small thickness. This mixture is aged at room temperature for about 25-30 days. After that, it must be removed to a cool place before the landing period in the spring. For these purposes, perfect cellar.

Careful preparation of this type has several objectives:

  1. helps to increase germination;
  2. allows to reject obviously unsuitable material;
  3. contributes to the preservation of seeds before the landing period;
  4. saturates with substances necessary for growth and development.

Properly carried out the selection and harvesting of berries, make it possible to safely count on getting strong seedlings in sufficient quantities.

Landing

You can take containers with the substrate in early spring. At the same time, there is no need to hurry with the landing until the earth warms a little. You can conduct a revision of the substrate and discard the seeds you did not like, but this procedure is not required.


Choosing a place to plant is key to the growth of healthy, strong seedlings. Although mountain ash is not whimsical to the soil, the choice of neutral soils is considered the best option. The place of the future nursery should be well lit by the sun and have a sufficient amount of moisture.

When sowing seeds they do not need to get out of the substrate. They are brought into the ground with this material, which contributes to their better germination. Do not embed material too deeply into the soil. It is enough to cover it with a layer of soil with a thickness of about 5-10 mm.


According to the accepted successful practice, placing the rows at a distance of 25-30 centimeters from each other is considered the landing rate. In the row, the seeds should be located densely. Some gardeners practicing making several pieces for 1-2 centimeters. Such conditions are dictated by low germination.

Cultivation

Usually shoots appear fairly amicably and grow intensively. With their abundant appearance, the rows should be thinned, since the presence of a large number of seedlings negatively affects their properties.


Caring for plants is standard. The soil should be moderately moist, and during the dry season water should be given more attention. Sprouts are not afraid of weeds, but unnecessary competitors can inhibit their development.

Selection of seedlings

According to statistical studies, this plant may have a different growth rate on different soils. However, the standard is considered a half-meter growth of semi-annual saplings. Among all the material that lived up to the autumn period, you should choose the most tall and strong plants.

Carefully, trying not to damage the delicate root system, you should transfer the selected specimens to the place of permanent deployment. With a properly conducted process, the seedlings quickly and well take root.


  rowan leaf

After planting shoots, care about them can be moderated. Well-rooted plants for autumn and winter can develop further with little or no human help. In the very near future, new trees will be able to please the owner of the site with their fruits.


Rowan red - a popular medicinal plant. Everybody knows about his miraculous healing properties - children and adults. Scarlet fruits are actively used in traditional medicine for the treatment and prevention of many diseases, of which they prepare various healing tinctures and decoctions. In order for the berries of mountain ash to be always at hand, you need to worry about planting a tree on your site. This article will help you choose a place for rooting a sapling, prepare a suitable soil for it, teach you how to properly care for it and fertilize it.

Types of rowan trees

In nature, there are about eighty species of rowan trees. Each of them grows in certain climatic conditions.

The most popular varieties are:

  • mountain ash red (ordinary);
  • mountain ash;
  • tibetan;
  • kashmiri;
  • mixed
  • rowan aria.

Rowan varieties:

  • Russian;
  • Home;
  • Nevezhinskaya;
  • grenade;
  • titanium;
  • ruby

Rowan ordinary (red) is most common in our latitudes. Its maximum height is 17-18 m, the depth of the root system is up to 2 meters. On the methods of planting chokeberry and its beneficial properties read.

Choosing a place for a tree, suitable period for planting

For planting mountain ash is best to choose a place that is located on the edge of the land. In this case, the tree will not grow in the shade, which is very good for its vital activity, and will not close its vegetable beds with its crown.

Important! Trees tolerate cold very well, they are not afraid of even severe frosts.

Autumn is the best time to plant a tree in open ground. The earth has not yet cooled, so that the plant will quickly adapt to the new conditions of its existence. Until spring, it will have time to take root, and then it will actively grow and develop.

Site preparation and landing pit

Before planting a young tree in the ground, perform a set of preparatory work. It includes:

  • digging holes (they are dug at a distance of 5-6 m from each other, the depth of each hole cannot be less than 60 cm, and the width is 80 cm);
  • soil preparation for each of the trees;
  • planting culture in the ground.

Important! In order for the plant to precisely stick in the selected area, experts recommend planting several copies of different varieties at once.

For each of the recesses necessarily prepare the nutrient soil. It includes:

  • compost earth;
  • wood ash;
  • superphosphate fertilizer;
  • humus (not fresh, as it quickly burns young roots).

Planting technology:

At the bottom of the pit lay the drainage of pieces of broken bricks, large crushed stone or expanded clay.

  1. Filled with prepared primer.
  2. Make a recess for planting a tree.
  3. Fill the root system with earth.
  4. Abundantly watered young sapling.

Drug tree care

The process of caring for rowan red is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance. It includes:

  1. Water the seedling (it should be performed regularly, its frequency depends on the season).
  2. Fertilizer plants.
  3. Circumcision of broken branches, removal of shoots on the trunk.
  4. Loosening the soil near the root collar of a rowan tree.
  5. Wood treatment with special pest and disease products.

Fertilizer and feeding of mountain ash red

For additional feeding of rowan trees, purchased fertilizers or infusions from a litter or mullein are used.

If the finished products do not require preparation, but only adherence to the technology of their incorporation into the soil, then it takes a little time to create a biovitaminic substance.

Preparation of natural top dressing:

  1. From bird droppings: fresh bird droppings are poured with water, the mixture is kept for 3-4 weeks, stirred well, water is added (1:10 ratio), poured to the root.
  2. From mullein: cow cake, as well as bird droppings, pour a small amount of water, insist 3-4 weeks, stir with water (1: 5 ratio), add to the root.

Such vitamin supplements significantly stimulate the growth and development of mountain ash, they are held 1 time per year.

Breeding

Rowan breeds in several ways, the most practiced of them:

  • fruit seeds;
  • cuttings;
  • vaccinations.

The simplest option is reproduction by seeds (this work does not require the application of a large number of forces, as well as wasting time). Landing is made in early spring or autumn.

Seed propagation technology:

  1. Seeds are pre-soaked in water (kept for 3-5 hours).
  2. The prepared seed is planted in the ground (at the rate of - 150 pieces / 1 running meter).
  3. Abundantly watered.
  4. Cover with dry foliage or straw (to prevent freezing).
  5. Young shoots transplanted to another location for further rearing.

Common diseases of red ash

Birds are the biggest enemy for rowan fruits. It is very difficult to fight with them, as birds use berries for their feeding, especially during the cold season.

Among other pests worth noting:

  • caterpillars scoop;
  • sawflies;
  • ticks;
  • bark beetles;
  • mole, etc.

Although red mountain ash is practically not susceptible to diseases, but the greatest damage is caused by pests. They can be fought with both folk methods and purchased chemicals.

Plant a mountain ash red on the site, you can check up its advantage on personal experience!

Growing mountain ash: video

How to grow rowan: photo




Rowan (lat. Sorbus)  is a genus of woody plants of the tribe Apple family Pink, in which, according to various sources, there are from 80 to 100 species. And the plant mountain ash, or red (lat. Sorbus aucuparia)  - a fruit tree, a species of the Rowan genus, widely distributed throughout almost all of Europe, in Western Asia and in the Caucasus. The species range reaches the Far North, and in the mountains the mountain ash is already growing as a shrub up to the border of vegetation. The generic name sorbus comes from the Celtic language, translated as "tart, bitter" and characterizes the taste of the fruits of mountain ash. The specific name comes from the Latin words, meaning “bird” and “catch”: the fruits of mountain ash attracted birds and were used for their bait.

For a long time, mountain ash was part of the culture of the Slavs, Scandinavians and Celts, who endowed her with magical power: it was believed that she patronized the soldiers in battle, protected from the world of the dead and from witchcraft. Rowan berry from the bottom side looks like an equilateral five-pointed star - one of the oldest pagan symbols of protection. During the wedding, rowan leaves were placed in the shoes of the newlyweds, and their staffs were used to make road staves. A rowan was planted next to the dwelling, and it was considered a very bad sign to damage or destroy a tree.

Planting and care of rowan (in short)

  • Bloom:  usually in the middle of May.
  • Landing:  before the start of sap flow in the spring or in the period of leaf fall.
  • Lighting:  bright sunlight.
  • The soil:  fertile, well-drained, medium or light loamy.
  • Watering:  compulsory and frequent after planting, annually at the beginning of the growing season, 2-3 weeks before harvest, 2-3 weeks after harvest. Water consumption - 2-3 buckets per tree.
  • Top dressing:  starting from the third year after planting: in the spring - with humus and ammonium nitrate, in the first days of summer - with a solution of mullein (1: 5), bird droppings (1:10) or Agrolife (in accordance with the instructions), and at the end of summer - wood ash and superphosphate.
  • Trimming:  in early spring.
  • Reproduction:  grafting, green and lignified cuttings, shoots and layering.
  • Pests:  weevils, apple fruit sawflies, peppered moths, rowan gall mites, bark beetles, green apple aphid, scale insects.
  • Diseases:  anthracnose, septoriosis, brown and gray blotch, powdery mildew, moniliosis, scab, rust, necrosis (black, nectary and cytospore) and viral ring mosaic.
  • Properties:  is a medicinal plant, the fruits of which have a choleretic, diaphoretic, diuretic and hemostatic effect.

Read more about cultivation of mountain ash below.

Rowan tree - description

Rowan ordinary is a tree or shrub and reaches a height of not more than 12 m. The crown is round, her shoots pubescent, grayish-red. The bark of adult plants is smooth, shiny, yellow-gray or gray-brown. The regular pinnate leaves of the mountain ash reach a length of 20 cm and consist of 7-15 elongated, serrated on the edge of the pointed leaves, green and dull from the upper side and lighter and pubescent from the lower side. In autumn, the leaves turn golden and red.

Numerous white five-membered flowers of mountain ash with a not very pleasant smell are gathered in thick end shields with a diameter of up to 10 cm. The fruit is an orange-red juicy apple up to 1 cm in diameter. Rowan flowering begins in May or June, and the fruits ripen by the end of summer or the beginning of autumn.

Rowan does not tolerate gas pollution and air pollution, as well as waterlogging and marshy soil.

Rowan wood is hard and resilient, but it lends itself well to processing. Since ancient times, spindles and runes were made of it. From the fruits of mountain ash produce a dye for fabric.

  Planting mountain ash

Since the mountain ash tree grows quite tall, it is reasonable to plant it on the border of the garden so that it does not obscure the plot. The mountain ash prefers fertile soils (medium and light loam, which retains moisture well), but grows normally in poorer soils. Rowan trees are planted, like other fruit trees, in spring, before sap flow begins, or in autumn, in the period of leaf fall. If you expect to harvest berries, then plant several varieties at once.

Choosing rowan saplings, pay attention to the state of their root system: it should be well developed and healthy, that is, have 2-3 basic branches with a length of more than 20 cm. If the roots of the plant are weathered and dry, it is better not to buy such planting material. The seed bark should be smooth, not wrinkled. Tear off a small piece of bark and look at its inner side: it should be green, not brown, like a dead plant. Prepare seedlings for planting, removing diseased, dried and cracked roots and shoots. Before autumn planting, leaves are also removed from sapling branches, taking care not to damage the buds in their sinuses.

Rowan seedlings are located on the site with an interval of 4-6 m from each other and from other trees. The depth and diameter of the pit is 60-80 cm. Prepare a mixture of 5 kg of peat compost and top soil, add 2-3 shovels of rotted manure, 200 g of superphosphate and 100 g of wood ash to it, and mix well. Fill the pits with this mixture for a third, then half-fill the foundation pit with ordinary earth, pour a bucket of water into it and let it soak.

Dip the roots of the seedling in the clay talker, place it in the center of the pit and fill the space with the remaining soil mixture or soil from the top layer of soil. After planting, compact the surface around the seedling well and water it. The seedling should be 2-3 cm deeper in the ground than it grew in the nursery. When water is absorbed, grumble the tree circle with a layer of humus, peat, hay, grass, straw, sawdust or other organic material 5-10 cm thick.

  Rowan care

Growing mountain ash in the garden

Growing mountain ash involves the implementation of the usual procedures for the gardener: watering, weeding, loosening the soil, making dressings, pruning, measures to protect against diseases and pests.

Rowan is poured over during the period of lack of precipitation, and it must be done at the beginning of the growing season and after planting in the ground, as well as two or three weeks before the harvest and two to three weeks after it. It is better to pour water into the grooves made along the perimeter of the wheel circle. The calculation of water - 2-3 buckets per plant, but when determining the required amount of water should take into account the age of the plant, the composition and condition of the soil.

Loosening the soil in the circle is carried out in early spring, then 2-3 times during the summer and always immediately after harvesting. It is more convenient to loosen the surface on the second day after watering or rain, at the same time removing weeds. After loosening, the trunk circle is again mulched with organic matter.

Increase the productivity of mountain ash system feeding. From the third year of life in the spring, 5-8 kg of compost or humus and 50 g of ammonium nitrate are introduced under the trees. In the first days of June, 10 liters of mullein solution (1: 5) or bird droppings (1:10) are poured under each rowan. Organic can replace the solution Agrolife. In late summer, half a liter of wood ash and 100 g of superphosphate should be added under the trees.

Pruning mountain ash in early spring, before the buds begin to awaken: remove shoots that come off at right angles, diseased, shrunken and growing deep in the crown. In varieties of mountain ash, bearing fruit on last year's shoots, it is necessary to thin out and shorten branches a little, while those that bear fruit on various types of fruit formations systematically thin out and rejuvenate the nozzles and shorten skeletal branches.

In general, pruning is done for even illumination of the crown, which contributes to a higher yield. However, the crown of the mountain ash is pyramidal, therefore, the branches grow at an acute angle to the trunk, and this deprives them of their strength. Your task in the formation of skeletal branches to try to bring them under a right or obtuse angle.

Trees with weak growth need rejuvenating pruning, which, to cause the growth of new shoots, do two or three years old wood.

Pests and diseases of mountain ash

The first signs of tree damage by pests or pathogenic infections may appear as early as May-June. What kind of ailments is this culture sick?  Mountain ash is affected by anthracnose, septiciosis, brown and gray blotches, powdery mildew, monoliosis, scab, rust, necrosis (black, non-sodium and cytospore) and viral ring mosaic. If you have acquired a healthy sapling, and the planting of rowan and care for it was carried out in accordance with the agrotechnics of the crop, then the tree is unlikely to have any health problems: only weakened plants are affected by the disease. However, you need to be prepared for any troubles.

Let's say right away that diseases such as mosaic and all types of necrosis cannot be cured, therefore preventive measures are the most important way to protect mountain ash from damage by these incurable diseases. They consist in careful selection of seedlings, pre-sowing tillage from infections, the destruction of insect vectors of viruses and keeping pristvolnyh circles clean. It is very important to carefully examine the trees in the garden as often as possible, because it is much easier to overcome the disease at the very beginning of its development than to save the already dying plant.

In articles on planting and growing fruit trees of the Rosy family, we have repeatedly described signs of the most common diseases and ways to combat them, and you can get detailed information about this by referring to the articles about apple, pear, plum and other related mountain ash already posted on the site ordinary cultures.

  • weevils, which are destroyed by the drug Karbofos;
  • bark beetles: against them mountain ash is treated with Aktar, Confidor and Lepidocide;
  • peppered moths: Chlorophos, Karbofos or Cyanox are used to combat these pests;
  • rowan gall mites are destroyed by colloidal sulfur;
  • rowan moths do not tolerate treatment with chlorophos;
  • the green apple aphid dies from Actellic and Decis;
  • scythes are destroyed with 30 Plus;
  • apple fruit sawflies die after treating mountain ash with white mustard infusion (10 g of mustard powder is poured over 1 liter of water, infused for 24 hours, then diluted with water 1: 5).

From the defeat of pests can protect the treatment of mountain ash on the leaves before the start of sap flow with a solution of 100 g of copper sulphate in 10 liters of water. The spring treatments of trees and the soil beneath them with Nitrafen have proven themselves well. For preventive purposes, every autumn, fallen leaves and plant debris are removed from under the trees and they dig up the soil in tree trunks.

  Rowan breeding

Rowan ordinary breeds seed and vegetative methods. Seeds, as a rule, propagate the mountain ash. Sowing seeds carried out in the fall: they are washed from the pulp, close up to a depth of 5-10 mm and mulched on top of the fallen leaves. If you decide to sow the seeds in the spring, then mix them with coarse sand (1: 3) and hold them before sowing for one or two months at room temperature, and then 3-4 months in the vegetable box of the refrigerator. When shoots appear, they are regularly watered and weeded, the soil around them is loosened, and in the fall, the seedlings are transplanted to the shkolka. Rowan seed begins fruiting in the fourth or fifth year.

Valuable varieties of mountain ash multiply vegetatively: grafting, lignified and green cuttings, shoots and layering. As seedlings for grafting a varietal cutting, seedlings of rowan, nevezhinskaya or moravian can serve. Budding is carried out in April, at the beginning of sap flow, or in July-August. The dressing is removed after 3 weeks. The top of the rootstock is cut, leaving a thorn to which a growing varietal shoot is subsequently tied up.

Overgrown breed only root-bearing trees. In the process of rooting of green cuttings, only 45 to 60% of the planting material takes root, and woody cuttings of mountain ash rooting even worse.

  Types and varieties of mountain ash

In culture, many species of mountain ash are grown. Some of them are ornamental plants, but most of them are fruit plants.

grows wild in the Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Kuriles and Japan. It is a beautiful shrub up to 2.5 m in height with a rare ovate or rounded crown, bare, straight dark brown shoots with a bluish bloom, gray branches with conspicuous lentils and unpaved pedigree up to 18 cm in length with lance-like stipules. The leaves consist of 7–15 pointed oval dark green leaves, almost naked and shiny, arranged on reddish petioles. Reddish or white flowers with a diameter of up to 1.5 cm are collected in complex shields. Pedicels and twigs are covered with reddish pubescence. Juicy edible spherical bright red fruits up to 1.5 cm in diameter have a sweet-sour taste without bitterness and have a pleasant aroma. They can persist on the bushes until the spring. The species is characterized by winter hardiness, drought tolerance and unpretentiousness to soil conditions.

or cure   in nature it is common in the Caucasus, in the Crimea, south-western part of Ukraine, Western Europe and Asia Minor, growing alone or in small groups. This tree is up to 25 m high with dark gray bark in longitudinal cracks on the trunks and from olive on young shoots. The leaves of the plant are broadly ovate, simple, up to 18 cm long, rounded and cordate at the base and pointed, with 3-5 lobes on top. The upper side of the leaf plate is shiny, dark green, the bottom is hairy pubescent. In autumn, the leaves turn orange or yellow. White flowers with a diameter of up to 1 cm form a loose corymbose inflorescences up to 8 cm in diameter. Orange or reddish roundish fruits with a diameter of up to 18 mm turn brown with time. Their flesh is sweet and sour, mealy. The species is characterized by high winter hardiness, however it does not tolerate drought well. Rowan glogovina has two decorative forms:

  • with pinnately dissected leaves;
  • with pubescent leaves.

or mountain ash large-fruited (Crimean) grows in the Crimea and in the south of Western Europe in the undergrowth of deciduous forests in groups or individually. It is a slow-growing tree up to 15 m high with a spherical or broad-pyramidal crown. Its bark is fissured from an early age, but the shoots are smooth, almost bare and shiny. Complex asymmetrically pinnate leaves up to 18 cm long consist of lanceolate sharp-bladed smooth and shiny green leaves up to 5 cm long. Pinkish or white flowers with a diameter of up to 1.5 cm form branchy, wide-pyramidal felt-pubescent inflorescences up to 10 cm in diameter. The fruits of the mountain ash of the Crimean pear-shaped or oblong-ovate, up to 3 cm in diameter, red, greenish-yellow or brown, with an astringent and aromatic powdery pulp of a sweetish taste with a large number of stony cells. The species is almost not affected by pests and is drought-resistant and winter-hardy. It has two forms:

  • apple-shaped;
  • pear-shaped.

or aria,   or powdery mountain ash   occurs in the mountains of Southern and Central Europe and the Carpathians. This is a vigorous tree up to 12 m in height with a broad pyramidal crown, light brown or reddish brown bark on the trunk, and tomentose shoots. The leaves of this species are solid, leathery, rounded-elliptical, sharply-double-serrate at the edges. When opening, the leaves are white-felt, then the upper side of the leaf plate becomes green, and by the fall the leaves are painted in shades of bronze color, and the tree becomes like alder. The flowers of the aria are white, gathered in corymbose inflorescences up to 8 cm in diameter. Edible, spherical, salmon-colored or orange-red fruits, up to 1.5 cm in diameter. The flesh is sweet and sour, mealy, in taste is inferior to the sweet fruit varieties. In a culture view from 1880, has several garden forms:

  • Decay  - A plant with larger leaves and flowers;
  • edible  - with oblong or elliptical leaves and larger than the main species, fruits;
  • chrysophylla  - a species with yellowish leaves throughout the season and oily yellow in the autumn;
  • manic  - a tree with snow-white when blooming leaves that turn green from above in summer and become bronze in autumn. Fruits are red, pubescent with white pile;
  • majestic  - tree, reaching a height of 15 m, but not forming fruits.

- a natural hybrid of rowan ordinary and rowan intermediate, representatives of which can be found in the nature of Northern Europe. The plant has complex leaves, which are a combination of simple lobed and feathery leaves. From above leaves are bare, green, from below they are covered with whitish or grayish down. In culture, they often grow another natural hybrid, a Thuringian variety, formed by crossing a mountain ash with a rowan leaf. This plant blades on the leaves are not so deeply cut, they are wider and more dulled than the leaves of mountain ash hybrid.

Mountain ash

the description of which we gave at the beginning of the article has many decorative forms, differing in the shape of the crown, the color of fruits and leaves: Burka, liqueur, garnet, Michurin dessert, Russian, pyramidal, weeping, Beisner, Nevezhinsk, Moravian, or sweet, Fifean ... All of them are very beautiful during the whole growing season, but some need to be described in more detail:

  • nevezhinskaya variety of mountain ash  outwardly, it is not much different from the main species, but its fruits are devoid of astringency and bitterness even in an immature state, whereas the fruits of the main species become edible only after the first frost;
  • rowan sweet  or moravian,  was found in the Sudeten mountains. It has more delicate leaves than other rowan trees, and it blooms a little later, and its inflorescence sometimes contains up to 150 flowers. The fruits of the rowan Moravian scarlet-red with orange juicy flesh of sweet-sour taste;
  • mountain ash  - a species obtained by Michurin from crossing a mountain ash with an aronia black chokeberry. This is a very winter-hardy plant with purple-black fruits;
  • rowan garnet  - The result of crossing a mountain ash with a large-fruited hawthorn, obtained in 1925. The tree is only 4 meters tall. It has simple, smooth and shiny dark green leaves up to 17 cm long, pinnate-dissected in the lower part, and whole, ovate or elliptical in the upper part. The fruit of the plant is burgundy, the size of a sweet and sour cherry. Rowan garnet differs high winter hardiness;
  • rowan burka  It was bred in 1918 when the alpine rowan and the rowan ordinary were crossed. Its leaves are simple, pinnately dissected, slightly pubescent, dark green. Fruits are oval-oblong, medium-sized, red-brown. The plant maintains decorativeness throughout the season;
  • rowan Michurin dessert - A hybrid between the German medlar and rowan liquor. It is a tree up to 3 m in height with a broad crown and complex odd-pinnate leaves up to 18 cm long, consisting of 6-7 pairs of light green leaves slightly pubescent from the underside. Dark red, medium-sized fruits of this rowan resemble in shape the fruits of medlar. The plant is very decorative and winter hardiness.

In addition to the described, in the culture such species of mountain ash are grown as mixed, intermediate, or Swedish, alder, Köhne, Vilmorena, Amur and some others.

As for the varieties of mountain ash, the best of them are:

  • Bead  - srednerosly tree with juicy fruits, taste like cranberries;
  • Vefed  - winter-hardy and high-yielding slukoplodny variety of table-dessert destination with elegant yellow-pink fruits;
  • Solar  - steadily fruiting variety, bright orange fruits with a red blush are tasty both fresh and ground with sugar;
  • Sorbinka  - winter-hardy and productive variety with large red fruits, suitable for processing and for fresh food.

Such varieties of mountain ash, such as Kirsten Pink, Red Type, Carpet of Gold, White Max, Chimi Glow, Leonard Springer, Fastigiata, Integromrama, Jermins, Titan and others are in demand in culture.

Rowan trees are combined with deciduous trees - linden, black poplar, maple, ash and white willow. Many species of mountain ash emphasize the beauty of viburnum, mountain ash, honeysuckle and wrinkled roses. A hedge of shrub rowan will be the perfect backdrop for perennial flowers. However, when planning the planting of mountain ash in one place or another, it should be borne in mind that it does not tolerate gas pollution and smoke in urban air.

  Properties of mountain ash - harm and benefit

Useful properties of mountain ash

The fruits of mountain ash ordinary contain a huge amount of vitamin C, it is even more in them than in lemons. In addition to ascorbic acid, the rowan fruit contains vitamins P, B2, PP, K, and E, as well as provitamin A, glycosides, amino acids, pectins, bitterness, tannins, organic acids (succinic, citric and malic), flavonoids, iodine, potassium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, alcohols, volatile oil and volatile production. The fruits of mountain ash have a choleretic, diaphoretic, diuretic and hemostatic effect. In Hungary, they treat dysentery, in Norway they use rowan for edema and as a wound healing agent, and in Bulgaria the fruit is used to remove kidney stones.

Rowan juice stimulates appetite, so it is prescribed for exhaustion, as well as for rheumatic pains, stones in the bladder and kidneys. It removes puffiness, lowers cholesterol in the blood, normalizes metabolism, stops bleeding and has an antimicrobial effect. The use of juice in gout, atherosclerosis, asthenia, capillary fragility, hypertension, arrhythmia, bleeding and malignant tumors, as well as in carbon monoxide poisoning is shown.

Not only fruits have useful properties, but also flowers, leaves, and rowan bark. Broth bark is used in the treatment of hypertension, and to combat scurvy prescribed drug from the leaves of mountain ash, because they contain more vitamin C than in the fruit. And with metabolic disorders, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and colds in traditional medicine using drugs from the fruits and flowers of mountain ash.

Rowan is used externally for burns, wounds, warts and various inflammations.

As a multivitamin remedy, the fruits of mountain ash are a raw material for the confectionery industry. They produce candy, liqueurs, vodka, liqueurs and tinctures, jam, marmalade, jelly, marshmallow, jam and soft drinks.

In veterinary medicine, a rich decoction of rowan fruit treats pulmonary diseases in animals.

And for healthy people, a tonic drink will be very useful in the morning: take a full tablespoon of dried or fresh barberry, mountain ash and rosehips in the evening, place them in a three-liter thermos, pour boiling water and screw the lid on. Drink this tea all the first half of the day, after which again fill these fruits with boiling water, let them stand and drink again. After you drink the secondary tea, remove the fruit from the thermos, crush it and refill it in the thermos with boiling water. Thus, you use the same fruits three times, and with each cup of tea your body will receive vitamins and biologically active substances.

,

In Russia, mountain ash was considered one of the most beloved trees. That is why it is very often called affectionately rowan or mountain ash. Due to the strong similarity of the leaves of this tree with ash, its name was translated from other languages ​​as mountain ash or false ash. Rowan is very beautiful not only during flowering, but also with ripe clusters on the branches. Ripe berries on the branches hold a very long time, they are resistant to frost, and very tasty in the form of marshmallow, jam, jams, juices, jelly, or even just ground with sugar. Based on them, home medicine is often prepared. Therefore, so many gardeners are interested in planting mountain ash trees on a site. After all, it is a traditional classic of the Russian landscape. Even the ancient Slavs attributed to this magnificent tree the ability to protect their house and yard from all evil.

Common mountain ash is a tree, and in mountainous areas a shrub from five to ten meters high, although it was not rare that it grew up to twenty, it has a very wide crown of about six meters. Since ancient times, mountain ash was taken to be planted near the house in order to protect all households from the evil eye. And from her berries were preparing various desserts, drinks, and medicinal infusions. The wood of this tree was used by woodcarvers, turners and joiners. In the modern world, mountain ash is used for landscaping plots, as it has a beautiful decorative look, attracts nomadic birds in autumn and winter, freeze-resistant and shade-tolerant, and it is great to endure the conditions of the city. Rowan is able to decorate your plot with bright fruits in the autumn, in spring beautiful blooms and delicate leaves.

In order to plant rowan, you must choose one-year or two-year-old seedlings. Rowan will grow equally well both on darkened and in sunny areas, not stagnant, but moist places like it. The soil is not very demanding, but it does not tolerate alkaline soil, soil compaction pristvolnogo circle, and the presence of any weeds. If the soil is highly acidic, it is recommended to preliminate the liming. It prefers to grow on sandy and loamy soil.

Planting mountain ash can be both in spring and in autumn. September is considered the most suitable month for this process. For planting they dig in a rather spacious pit about sixty centimeters by sixty centimeters in size and fill it with good humus soil. And do not forget to carefully spill it. Six hundred grams of superphosphate is added to the prepared pit, twelve kilograms of humus and one hundred fifty grams of potassium salt. They also make a drainage layer of rubble ten to twenty centimeters. If I plant several trees, the distance between them should not be less than five meters. Also pay attention to the level of the root neck after the soil has settled, it must be the same level with the ground.

Then they make a small mound in the very center of the pit, spread all the roots on the seedling and cover it with earth. If in the process of planting we deepen the mountain ash, then it will give quite a lot of root growth, which is so necessary to cut each time, and on the very basis.

In order for the soil to adhere well to the roots, it is necessary to carefully spill each layer of water at the very moment when the soil is poured into the pit. Thus, under the roots will not appear emptiness. It should not be tamped strongly around the planted mountain ash, very often it is done with the help of the legs, as it is so compacted so strongly that it does not allow microorganisms to work actively. In addition, in very dense soil, the roots have poor air circulation, which they really need. If a very tall tree is planted, then first of all it must be tied to a cola. But it is recommended to drive in three stakes, tilt it to the seedling and tie it to each other. Planting mountain ash, thus, will be safer and more reliable for the plant itself.

Rowan transplant transfers very well. However, it is worth remembering that it has a deep root system, and therefore the planting material must be dug very deep. If you can carry out the vaccination, then you need to dig up a small mountain ash in the forest and transplant it to your site. Once the plant has taken root, it will happen next year, then in the spring, you can graft on it several cuttings of different varieties. As a result, you can get rowan for every taste. In this case, you should always cut off the root growth. Otherwise, otherwise, you will begin to die all recently vaccinated cuttings, and there will be one wild.

Where to get cuttings?

First ask around neighbors or other gardeners by correspondence. If the neighbors refuse you in the branch, then you should ask for at least a few buds, and then in August carry out an eye vaccination. If you have not yet learned how to plant plants, then you should take up this business, because it is not so difficult. Root growth of wild mountain ash that grows on your site can be safely used as a stock. In order to do this, it is deposited from the parent plant, and inoculated to cultivated varieties. Do not forget that it is forbidden in this way to propagate the already grafted trees of mountain ash, since it has root from scion, wild. Rowan excellent, propagated by cuttings and layering.

How to care for rowan?

The rowan is moisture-loving, therefore the lack of water will noticeably slow down the development and growth. During the dry period, it must be watered from the following calculation ten liters of water per square meter of crown projection. Radical growth of this tree should be removed in due time and not even small stumps should be left in the upper layer, because they slow down the growth of the tree. In order for the root growth to become smaller, it is necessary to loosen the surface no deeper than five centimeters. Rowan responds well to fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers in springtime, one kilogram of mullein, ten grams of urea, fifteen grams of ammonium nitrate per ten liters of water, and twenty grams of nitroammontic phosphate in the autumn time with potassium phosphate. If you grow a mountain ash of a tall variety, pruning will help settle its thickening and height. As a rule, skeletal branches are formed at an angle of forty-five degrees. In early spring, you need to remove all the dried branches. For the winter period, tree trunks of this tree are mulched with sawdust or peat with a layer of fifteen centimeters.

Sorbus is a genus of deciduous trees and shrubs of the Rosy family, uniting according to various sources from 84 to 100 species. The Latin name comes from the Celtic word "sorb" - a bitter one, hinting at the tart taste of the famous fiery scarlet fruits. The most well-known and valuable representative of the genus is the mountain ash, ordinary or red, whose specific name translates as “to lure the birds”. Entrepreneurial hunters, knowing the passion of birds for the bitter berry, used it as bait.

In Russia, special attention is given to rowan: poems, fairy tales, songs, proverbs have been devoted to it, and the beauty in different regions of the country is styled in its own way - yarembina, grabina, ryabik, robin, serzhenbin, orobin. For a long time liqueurs, kvass, preserves, fillings for pies and medicinal broths were prepared from its ripe berries. And in the old rowan attributed to numerous magical properties: it was believed that a tree planted in the front garden would protect the house from witchcraft and dashing people, and the staff made of it would save the traveler on the road. Today, the magic abilities of the rowan are considered prejudices, but in the garden culture she is still a welcome guest. Well, no wonder! The closest relative of apple and cherry is extraordinarily good-looking, unpretentious in content and perfectly adapted to the harsh conditions of the middle lane.

In addition, mountain ash is very plastic and easily propagated by all known methods. So if there is a tree in mind, the exact copy of which you would like to get, then it is not necessary to spend money on purchased seedlings. After all, it is much more interesting to grow a slender tree-charm on your own. It is not at all difficult to do.

Growing from seed

For generative (seed) breeding of mountain ash, collect the ripest large berries at the end of the season, mash them with a fork and cover them with clean water. When the pulp pops up, wash the seeds, sow them into the digged fertile soil to a depth of 5-10 mm and cover the crops with fallen leaves.

If you plan to sow rowan in the spring, then the collected material should be carefully prepared:

  • Dry the washed seeds to a free flowing state.
  • Spread the seeds in wet gauze or filter paper, place in a container with a tight-fitting lid and store at + 12 ... + 15 ° С.
  • In early January, that is, about 4 months before the start of planting, put the container in the refrigerator, where the material should be stratified until spring at a temperature of 0 ... + 1 ° C.

Immediately after the snow melts, the cold-treated seeds are buried in slightly damp soil to a depth of 6–8 cm and the surface of the bed is mulched with humus or sawdust. When the grown seedlings form the first pair of leaves, a picking is performed, during which a distance of 3-4 cm is left between adjacent plants. Next time the young ryabinki are seated in the 4–5 leaf phase in 7-10 cm increments.

In the summer, the seedlings are watered regularly, fed with weak organic infusions, weed and loosen the soil of the tree trunk circle. With the onset of autumn, the trees are transplanted to a special garden bed, where they are grown for another 2-3 years. In fruiting your little ash will enter the fourth or fifth year. Seed method is very good, but unfortunately, it is applicable only to the species of the genus. Valuable varietal mountain ash of hybrid origin is recommended to propagate vegetatively to preserve maternal characteristics.

Cuttings

It is very convenient to grow rowan from cuttings, lignified or green. In the first case, the procurement of material and planting begin in the second half of September:

  • From the selected rowan tree, one or several annual shoots are grown, which grow on two to four-year-old branches.
  • Cuttings 15–20 cm long are cut from the lower or middle part of the shoot, the tip with underexposed wood is not suitable for this purpose. The upper cut is made oblique, the lower - straight, just below the eye. Each stalk should have at least 5-6 healthy viable buds.
  • Cuttings are planted on a bed at an inclination of 45 °, leaving only 2 upper buds above the ground, after which they are squeezed with soil, watered and mulch the soil surface with dry peat.

For the green grafting of mountain ash during the active growing season, young tops of the shoots are cut from any part of the crown. The following procedure is as follows:

  • Cuttings 10–15 cm long are cleaned from the lower leaves, and 2–3 leaf plates on the crown are shortened by 2/3.
  • The lower sections of the cuttings are immersed for 6–12 hours in a solution of the root-forming agent (“Heteroauxin”, “Kornevin”), then rinsed under running water.
  • The cuttings are planted in a cold greenhouse at an angle of 3-4 cm. The best rooting substrate is a mixture of peat and sand (1: 1).
  • Landings are sprayed with separated water and cover each future rowan with a transparent cap (a 5-liter plastic bottle with a cut out bottom is suitable).

With systematic watering and high (95–100%) ambient humidity, green cuttings take root in 3-4 weeks. They are left to winter in a greenhouse, and in the spring of next year they are transplanted to a garden bed.

Budding

If you are lucky enough to get a sprig of varietal rowan, you can try out the method of grafting a bud (peephole) onto a seedling of your own:

  • Prepare a stock: wipe the stem from dust with a damp cloth, then from the north side make a T-shaped section of the bark at a height of 5–8 cm from the ground.
  • Peel the varietal sprout from foliage and cut off a well-developed bud with a fragment of bark and wood (heel). The optimal heel length is 2.5–3 cm, width - 0.3–0.5 cm.
  • Carefully insert the kidney with the heel into the slit of the stock, squeeze the bark with your fingers and wrap the inoculation area with plastic wrap so that only the kidney remains outside.
  • After 2-3 weeks, the bandage can be removed, and in March-April of next year, cut off the upper part of the stock, leaving a spike 5-7 cm above the kidney.

Fruiting in grafted seedlings comes early - for 3-4 years, but the budding method has a significant drawback - the branches from which you will take buds must be cut from the mother tree on the day of grafting. In extreme cases, the cuttings can be put in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Landing

When choosing a place in the garden should be borne in mind that mountain ash loves the sun and does not tolerate long-term stagnant moisture. It is desirable that the site from the side of the prevailing winds was protected by buildings or strong adult trees. The best soil for cultivation is light or medium loam, moderately moist and nutritious.

Planting is carried out in the spring (before the awakening of the kidneys) or in the fall (1.5 months before the soil freezes):

  • Dig a pit in the area with a depth of 0.8 m and a diameter of 1 m for a tall rowan or a depth of 0.5 m and a diameter of 0.8 m for a small seedling.
  • Fill the pit with nutrient soil mixed with humus or peat (2–3 buckets). Add superphosphate (200–300 g) and potassium salt (100–150 g). When planting in a sour soil, the fertile mixture should be diluted with lime (1 kg).
  • Plant plants with a root depth of 4–5 cm.
  • After planting, pour 2 buckets of water under each tree.
  • Cut the skeletal shoots of young mountain ash by 1/3 of the length, and shorten the center conductor so that it rises 20-25 cm above the branches.
  • The final stage of work is the mulching of the tree circle with peat or humus.

Note! For better pollination, experts recommend having 2–3 different-sized rowan in one area. Low-growing trees are planted in 2–3 m; between middle and tall ones, a distance of 4–4.5 m should be maintained.