Autumn for gardeners is a time of concern for the harvest of the next year and for those plants that have just settled on the site. Despite the abundance of frost-resistant, their preparation for winter requires a special approach, because, contrary to idle opinions, saplings or fruit bearing trees need not only protection from frost breeders, but also from various pests that can destroy most of the plantings during the winter period.

Why do you need to protect the apple trees for the winter


  A beginner gardener may not even suspect how to shelter apples for the winter. Preparing apple trees for the winter is troublesome and rather difficult, especially when it comes to young seedlings. So, let's start with the main thing: consider the most important reasons why you should take care of protecting the orchard during the cooling season.

The usual opinion that most people who are far from gardening have is that by covering the apple trees they are protected from frost. In fact, it is not. An experienced gardener will never wrestle with how to warm an apple tree for the winter. He will first of all think about how to protect it from excessive drying under the rays of the winter sun and under the influence of icy winds. Secondly, the apple tree at any age requires protection from pests. This is what the “weatherization” measures are carried out for.

What trees need protection


  Before you choose a method (there are a lot of them), how to insulate for the winter, you should find out which trees of ages need it and whether it is possible to replace the banal winding of the trunk with an old sacking cloth with something more useful and efficient for each tree. It is worth reminding novice gardeners that apple trees need to be seriously insulated for the winter for only the first 5-7 years, after which protective measures are reduced to the construction of protection against rodents and the treatment of the trunk and tree trunks against pests and diseases, including lichens.

The most demanding with regard to protective measures are considered very young seedlings, which were planted in a permanent place this fall and have not had time to properly get accustomed. In this case, the owner will need to make maximum efforts and collect all the useful tips on how to warm the planted apple tree for the winter so as not to harm it and save it for future harvests. After all, everyone knows that the correct period of rest of the fruit tree means a great harvest next summer.

When to cover apple trees


Consider the basic rules of how to cover apple trees for the winter. The most important point - the timing of the selection of the plant. If you build protection before the complete cessation of sap flow and before the minus temperature is established, you can provoke the phenomenon of delayed growth of shoots.

What does it mean: a wrapped apple tree (especially first-year seedlings) after a short stay in the cold and to start growing after the heat returns. Remember, such a phenomenon in almost 100% of cases means the death of a tree, and this should not be allowed! That is why all experienced gardeners begin measures to protect seedlings only with the onset of resistant frosts with air temperatures of at least -10 degrees.

What to use to protect the apple trees


  No less important point in preparing apple trees for winter: competent selection of materials that will be used to protect the trunk of a seedling or an adult tree from rodents. Every gardener who has ever wondered how to warm an apple tree for the winter knows that it is absolutely contraindicated to use straw from wheat, oats and other cereals as protection. It so happened that it is the straw of the mouse and the rabbits consider unusually tasty and nutritious, and therefore this “protection” will work for them as a beacon, to which they will orient themselves when choosing ways of living in winter.

Another way to insulate an apple tree for the winter with a guarantee of almost 100% is the use of special materials and devices: agrofibre, roofing felt, spruce branches, rags of coarse-fiber material, or more simply, sacking, and even such unexpected things as old tights and fiberglass.

Gardeners should pay attention to what will be fixed insulation on trunks and branches. Wire for this is not entirely good, as it can injure the bark, especially on young seedlings. The usual construction adhesive tape and long tapes from fabric will be more suitable.

How to insulate an apple tree for the winter


So, let us consider the main points that should be paid attention to when warming and protecting apples for the winter time. First of all, let us remember that snow helps to transfer frosts to all plants in nature and use this knowledge in our own orchard. For the accumulation of a greater mass of snow in the area, that is, directly around the trees and in their crown, it is sufficient to place dried tops of garden plants not affected by diseases and pests on large branches. During the whole winter period it is important to fill up the snow in the tree trunk circle.

Another way to better shelter apples for the winter is also to build additional protection against rodents. To do this, it is necessary around the trunk of an apple tree to build a semblance of a trapping belt of spruce branches, glass wool or tightly wrap shtamb kapron stockings. For reliability, you can cover the winding from the top with a finely meshed metal mesh, then neither the mouse nor the rabbit can reach the delicious apple bark.

We harbor seedlings according to all the rules


  The gardener should pay particular attention to how to cover apple trees for the winter, because young trees can freeze out completely if they are not properly prepared. If the seedling has already been planted, then the rules of insulation for all apple trees can be applied to it with the only difference that not only the trunk should be wrapped with agrofibre, but also the crown of the tree. If apple seedlings have not yet found their permanent place in the garden, you can save them until spring as follows:

1. Prepare a shallow (up to 50 cm) trench in the driest part of the site. Making it too wide does not make sense, it will be enough 30-40 cm.

2. Saplings before placing in a trench must be prepared, namely dipped the roots in a thick clay mash.

3. After all the seedlings are laid in the trench, it is necessary to carefully sprinkle the roots with a dry mixture of humus and peat and cover them with spruce (rodents) and agrofibre from above.

4. During the whole winter period it is important to ensure that the place where the seedlings overwinter is covered with a thick layer of snow.

In the spring it is necessary to ensure that the deposited snow does not break the thin twigs. And with the onset of the first fine spring days, you can begin to remove the protective strapping. If in the area there are frequent return frosts, you should think about not to remove the protection immediately, but do it gradually.

In the cold regions of the country, gardeners are forced to cover a large number of crops for the winter, among which apple trees are no exception. The most thoroughly and qualitative shelter is needed by young apple trees, the frost resistance of which is much lower than that of adult specimens.

Young apple trees up to the age of seven need additional winter warming, especially in cold and little snow regions of the country. After 7 years of life, the tree has good frost resistance, so there is no need for high-quality organization of winter shelter.

Up to this point, apple trees are prepared for wintering every year and, depending on climatic conditions in the winter period, are covered in various ways. Young plants are not as resistant to frost and adverse factors as adults. Their yield and future growth depend on the quality of the winter shelter.

Unopened young apple trees are subject to severe freezing, as a result of which the bark begins to hurt. Frozen root system begins to rot over time, which results in the death of an apple tree.

When to cover

Since Russia is a huge country, in many of its regions the climate is different, therefore, it is impossible to determine the exact time of harboring an apple tree for the winter. In addition to the optimal timing of the event, the technology of organizing winter shelters also differs.


In spite of the fact that in the conditions of the Middle Band, the average temperature of the air is 15 0 С, more significant short-term frosts are not at all rare. Therefore, it makes sense to carefully cover young apple trees: mulch the near-stem circle and warm the trunk. It is possible to do work related to the organization of the shelter when establishing the average daily temperature -10 0 С.


Ural winters are unpredictable - in one year a lot of snow falls, in the other - a little. Given the severity of the Ural winter with frosts down to - 40 0 ​​С, young apple trees in the plots will need reliable winter shelters. The root system and the trunk are insulated with a bulk hill, which is up to 30 cm high. Sawdust, peat, straw or manure can be used as bulk material.

Since the air temperature is already steadily lowered by early November, it is during this period that young apple trees are sheltered.  In winter, snow rakes on them.


Protection of apple trees in the winter in Siberia conditions involves wrapping the trunk at a height of 1 ... 1.5 m. Lapnik or agrofibre are used as protective materials, it is fixed with a rope and or tape. At the end of autumn, apple trees cover, throw in as much snow as possible.


Winters in the Leningrad Region are mild and snowy, but young trees still need some protection. First of all, mulch the trunk circle and wrap the trunk with white paper.

Preparing for the shelter of a young apple


Before you cover the apple tree, you need to prepare it. The preparatory work begins with the cleaning of the near-stem circle from weeds, the collection of plant residues and debris. Some believe that fallen leaves will be a good protection of the root system, and you can do without mulching. This is not true. Favorable conditions are created in the rotting leaf for hibernation and pathogens, so it must be raked and burned.

After that, proceed to the inspection of the tree itself. If any twigs were damaged by fall, they are pruned. Normalized and shortened shoots, taking into account one rule: the smaller the root system, the smaller should be the elevated part. Pruned sprigs stretched out over the summer period, cut out shoots growing inside the crown and at an angle of 25-40 0 to the trunk. It is necessary to carry out this operation no later than 3 weeks before the arrival of frosts. Otherwise, the inflicted wounds will not have time to heal, and the frost resistance of the tree will sharply decrease.

When damage is found on apple bark, they are brushed and treated with 1% copper sulfate solution. Wounds close up with garden pitch.

The soil in the near-stem circle is gently loosened without touching the root system of the apple tree. If all the fertilizers have been applied to the planting hole, then you will not need additional feeding. When planting an apple in the spring, in the autumn phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are applied.

Before the onset of the first frost, it is necessary to have time to carry out abundant watering, which will charge young apple trees with moisture before hibernation. On one tree poured 3 buckets of water.

After leaf fall, proceed to preventive treatment of pests and diseases. Here you can use copper sulphate or Bordeaux mixture. Autumn spraying of a plant and the loosened soil in an okolostvolny circle will help to get rid of the wreckers and causative agents of diseases who had time to hide.

Apple trees in the first year of planting also need to whiten. Here are just pobelochnoy mixture cover the upper part of the tree that grows over mulch. Whitewashing protects the trunk from frostbite, and also for some time will scare off rodents and protect the bark from sunburn in March. And whitewashing is done with chalk, because the young stem needs to breathe.

How to cover young apple trees


In order for young trees to survive the winter, you need to take care of the protection of the trunk and roots.

  1. Root shelter for the winter

After loosening the earth in the near-stem circle and carrying out the prewinter irrigation, it is possible to proceed with soil mulching. Organic materials are used here: compost, manure. This will be an excellent feeding in the spring, when the snow melts and the melt water will penetrate into the soil along with fertilizers. A thick layer of rotted sawdust is laid on top of the organic material. At the same time, the weakest part of the tree - the root neck - is wrapped in a breathing material that passes air well, for example, agrofibre.

  1. Trunk wrap

The trunk also needs to be protected - strong frosts with variable thaws leave cracks on the bark, which then become a cozy place for the settlement of insects and fungi. Agrofibre or thick paper is glued to the barrel and wrapped around it 5 ... 6 times. The free edge of the material is securely fastened. It is recommended to use a white material that reflects the sun's rays well. You can not use the film, roofing material - these materials do not allow air and cause the crust to decay with increasing temperature.

After both the roots and the trunk are protected, a seedling of dry, loose soil is spread over the seedling. Its height can be about 30 cm. When a large amount of snow falls, it should be collected from the site and thrown to the apple tree.

Preparing young trees for wintering: video


In winter, in search of food, small rodents and hares are not averse to feast on the tender, sometimes young trees. Voracious animals are especially dangerous in areas close to the forest zone. To protect the trunks of seedlings by wrapping them in a material that will not let the animals to the bark. Here they use burlap, lapnik (directed with needles down), a fine-meshed mesh.

The main thing is that the trunk was protected by material to a height of 1 m from the ground level. It is recommended to additionally treat the selected material with a mixture with a strong unpleasant odor that will scare away uninvited guests, for example, with mint oil, mothballs, creolin, a mixture of mullein and clay, etc. To protect the trunk from rodents, some gardeners use old nylon pantyhose and stockings.

Rodents also gnaw the roots of young apple trees, so you need to provide protection for them. Any type of fencing (plastic, metal) is driven in to a depth of 30 cm around the perimeter of the near-barrel circle - 25-30 cm from the trunk.

If there is an opportunity to get to the garden area during the winter, you need to periodically trample snow around the landings. A dense layer of snow will not allow small rodents to get to them.

How to protect young tree saplings from mice and hares: video


Experienced fruit tree growers are well acquainted with preparing and wrapping young plants for the winter. Novice gardeners often have problems with these activities, which subsequently lead to freezing and death of trees. Statistics show that more than half of young apple trees freeze out due to improper shelter or lack of it, about 80% die because of damage caused by rodents in the winter.

The most common mistakes gardeners teapots presented below.

  1. Untimely pruning. Removing excess shoots and shortening just before frost reduces the hardiness of the apple tree.
  2. Leaving debris in the wheel circle. In plant debris and weeds winter pests and pathogens, which with new forces become more active next season.
  3. Wrong watering.  Water recharge irrigation is carried out before frost in order to saturate the plant with moisture, which it needs during wintering. If watering is too late, it will only harm trees.
  4. Late apple shelter. The actions for wrapping young apple trees are carried out at a temperature of -10 0 C. Too early wrapping at elevated air temperatures will trigger apple activity - in warm conditions, shoots can start growing, as a result, the tree will not be prepared for wintering and naturally freezes.
  5. Untimely removal of shelter.  With the arrival of warm spring days, you need to take care of unraveling the apple tree. Otherwise, the roots and root collar may swell. The old mulch is removed as soon as the snow melts - the earth in the near-trunk circle will warm up faster, and the apple trees will start to grow.


The shelter of young apple trees is troublesome, but necessary. High-quality wrapping trunks and roots will help them to endure the harsh cold winters.

Sheltering an apple for the winter protects it not only from freezing and subsequent death, but also from hungry rodents. This is especially true of young seedlings that are not adapted to frost and have a soft bark, which rodents prefer to feast on in winter.

Why cover the apple tree

The apple tree should be sheltered not only to protect it from the harsh winter, but also to protect it from the attack of rodents. If you properly cover the trunk, it will protect the bark from the north wind. In the spring the sun can cause burns on the bark, so you should properly cover the tree for the winter. The quality of apples of the next season depends on it. If a young tree is not covered, it may die, its skeletal branches and roots will freeze. With damaged bark, the apple tree will not grow and develop properly, it will often begin to ache.

How to start preparing the apple for the winter

Before covering the apple trees, they first form a crown in the fall, make water recharge irrigation, collect fallen leaves, remove lichens, mosses, and old bark. Be sure to whitish the bark of the trees, and only then you can cover the young apple trees for the winter.

Deleting branches

In order for the apple tree to grow more intensively and take the correct form, it is required to form a crown, that is, to cut off sick, dried, broken branches for the winter, as well as shoots directed inside the crown. This is done by pruning shears, pruning the branches at an acute angle.

Watering in the fall

In the fall, the absorbing roots, which are involved in the accumulation of additional nutrients that the apple tree will need in winter, grow very actively. Since many substances are spent on fruiting, they are very important.

Nutrients can only be picked up from the soil if it is wet. If the ground is dry, the growth of suction roots will go slowly or it will not be at all. Because of this, apple trees grow weakened.

In addition, wet soil freezes through slowly and to a lesser depth.

In winter, there are periods of thaw, and dry ground, starting to warm up, can make the roots work. With a sharp decrease in temperature in winter, the roots may die.

In winter, the branches just a little bit, almost imperceptibly evaporate moisture. Since without watering the water will be absent in the roots, the branches dry up.

Therefore, before covering the apple trees, they first water them. Do it in October or November. Watering time depends on the area where they grow. Air temperature should be +2 ° С. Under the young sapling, 4 buckets of water are poured, under apple trees, which are 10–15 years old, 5-7 buckets are poured, and older apples - up to 10 buckets.

Digging and feeding

Before covering the trees, you should feed the apple trees for the winter. Do it better in September. For this purpose, superphosphate is used, since it improves the budding of the kidneys for the next year. Pour 100 g of the drug in a bucket of water and spray the leaves on the trees.

Tip! You can feed the apple and the root, using rotted manure. Fresh can not be consumed, as it will burn the roots.

To do this, under one apple tree enclose up to 2 buckets of rotted manure and dig up the soil to a depth of 20 cm. After that, you should water the trees well.

Disease protection

In the autumn, before covering the apple trees to protect against diseases - fungi, pathogenic bacteria, larvae and pests, you need to collect the fallen leaves, dry branches, rotten apples and burn them. After that, the stumps and the soil near the tree trunks are treated with copper or iron sulphate, lichens and mosses are removed from the bark.

Then you need to whitewash the young trees with a solution of chalk, and the grown apple trees with a solution of lime for the winter.

When you need to start covering the apple trees

The last stage of preparing apples for winter is to cover them. It is required to correctly calculate the period when you need to cover the apple trees for the winter. If it is done early, young trees begin to grow and then die in winter. Therefore, it is advised to cover the apple trees when the movement of juices is completely absent, and the weather stops changing. This is done at a temperature of -10 ° C.

Necessary materials

To cover the apple tree, you need to pick up materials that allow air to pass through. You can cover with old stockings, rags, sackcloth, bags of sugar sand, after tearing off the film from them. To cover the trees, use newspapers. One of these materials is wrapped with a stem and lower branches. It can be covered with agrofibre, as it protects against frost and against mice, rats, and hares.

Previously, in order to cover the trunks of apple trees, they took straw, corn stalks, reeds, branches of spruce and pine trees.

Now, gardeners very often use plastic bottles to cover shtamps. They cut them, wrap them around the trunk, attach them with ropes. Bottles well deter rodents, as when the wind is noisy.

Tip! You can also wrap the boles and the lower branches with cheap and rough toilet paper in several layers.

Each tree should be covered with 3 layers of toilet paper, but more can be done. That the toilet paper did not fly away from a strong wind, it is fixed with a string.

To cover the apple trees for the winter, you can use polyethylene foam, which is used to insulate pipes. Polyethylene foam is cut along the seam, wrapped around each barrel, attached with scotch tape or twine so that it does not fall off. If you cover the apple trees in this way, then rodents won't get to them. It is such a material is inexpensive, and you can use it repeatedly.

A warning! You can use a film of polyethylene or roofing felt, but these are materials that do not allow air, because of this, if you do not remove them in time in spring, burns will appear on the trunk.

How to cover an apple tree for the winter

If you wrap breathable materials around an adult or young apple: natural fabric, spunbond, lutrasil, burlap, it will be good protection from frost and shelter from rodents.

How to cover apple seedlings for the winter

By the winter should be planted only frost-resistant varieties of seedlings. To do this, choose a dry place, not blown by the winds. You can choose a place so that in the north stood some structure. Dig a hole 0.5 m deep and 0.35 m wide. Before planting, the roots of seedlings are dipped in a solution with clay, after which they are immersed in a hole. Then they fall asleep with peat, humus, and leaf ground; the near-barred circle is mulched with agrofibre or with dry branches of spruce. The shtamb and base of the branches are wrapped with burlap or natural fabric, nylon pantyhose. In winter, it is monitored to have a layer of snow under the tree circle. Spring clean materials and branches.

Below is a video on how to cover seedlings for the winter:

Results seedlings shelter:

  1. Warming apple trees in the winter will protect them from low temperatures in winter, because of this, a large number of trees freeze because of this. This is especially true of young apple trees, since if only a part of the branches are frozen in the saplings, they grow slowly and often get sick.
  2. If you cover the stumps, then the bark will not crack and damage, as the bark of the seedlings is soft and easily deformed.
  3. If you cover trees in a timely manner, it will protect them from hares, voles, rabbits, rats. Otherwise, rodents gnaw the bark, and the trees will die from the cold.

There is another way to cover seedlings for the winter. It should pick up a place on the site, dig up the ground. If the soil is loamy, then pour sand, and in the sandy - add peat or rotted compost. Next, dig a trench from west to east. Carefully lay the seedlings so that the slope is towards the south, then they will be protected from sunburn. Then sprinkle with soil, pour abundantly. In March, the excess snow in the groove is removed.

Shelter of adult trees

Older apple trees that can not be harbored for more than 7–8 years, as they already have a rather rough bark, which is of no interest to rodents, and such trees tolerate low temperatures quite well. We are talking about varieties that grow in the center of Russia.

Attention! If the tree is healthy, you can not cover it, it will calmly survive the temperature to minus 35 ° C.

It is necessary to carefully water the apple trees under pristvolnymi circles before the onset of frost. This can not be done with frost or after them. It is also worth fertilizing the trees at the same time. When all the foliage has fallen, then the dead bark is removed from the trees, and the shafts are coated with iron sulfate, then mosses and lichens will not grow on them. Then you should warm the circle around the trunk. For this, a soil layer of 3 cm is poured under the near-stem circle.

How to protect the apple from rodents

To protect against rodents, as well as to cover seedlings for the winter, it is better to wind the trunks and part of the skeletal branches with airborne materials. To do this, take the sacking, old tights, natural fabric, gauze, non-woven materials - spanbond, lutrasil.

An apple tree should be prepared in advance, that is, a young tree should be whitened with a solution of chalk, and the grown tree should be made with a solution of lime.

It is possible to twist the trunk with spruce fur branches and attach it with ropes, or install a fence of plastic or metal wire around the tree, having previously dug into the soil mesh. To destroy rodents, you can place on the soil pieces of cardboard with the poison “Efa” scattered on it or buy an ultrasonic repeller.

Does the shelter affect the variety?

Important! When planting a variety, it must be remembered that some varieties are frost-resistant, but they tolerate thaws in the spring, while others tolerate warming well, but freeze during severe frosts.

So, the varieties intended for planting in Siberia and the Urals, are tolerated well in severe frosts in winter, but temperature fluctuations do not stand out well. They may die when a thaw first appears in winter, and then severe cold returns. The varieties that are planted in the Center of Russia are not very adapted to low temperatures, but they do well with sudden thaws and temperature changes. That is, some varieties need to be monitored during thaws, and others - with severe frosts.

Features shelter apple-shaped

The columnar apple has no spreading side branches, it looks like a column. And the apples she grows near the trunk. It differs from an ordinary apple tree by a small growth, and young seedlings begin to bear fruit much earlier than ordinary varieties.

Such trees can easily freeze in winter. In the columnar apple trees, the uppermost bud often freezes. From the lateral buds grows several trunks, and this spoils the overall appearance. Therefore, these apple trees are advised to cover the crown for the winter. To cover the shtamb, they begin to wrap it from the top down with agrofibre or sacking.

Be sure to use light material. And from below they pour snow under the tree circle.

Conclusion

Shelter apple trees in the winter begin with mulching pristvolnyh circles. It is imperative that water recharge irrigation is required in the fall. Then you need to handle the trunk - remove from it the moss, the old bark, whiten. After you should wrap the boles and the base of the branches with a material that lets air through. And in the spring this cover needs to be removed.

In late autumn, when all other work on the preparation of fruit trees and shrubs for winter (pruning, whitewashing, stripping of bark, treatment of diseases, spraying from pests, autumn feeding, cleaning debris, caring for pristvolnom circle) is completed in the garden, it is time for shelter plants for the winter.

Why shelter for the winter fruit trees and shrubs in the fall?

In winter, fruit trees and berry bushes are threatened by many unfavorable factors: frost, sudden changes in temperature, heavy snow load, strong winds, frost formation, rodents and hares. All these factors can cause various damage to the bark, branches and roots (freezers, peeling of the bark, freezing, vypryvanie, breaking branches) and even lead to the death of plants. Shelter of fruit trees and shrubs for the winter allows you to protect the garden from the negative effects of the winter period.

The main tasks of the shelter of garden plants for the winter :

1. Warming of trees and shrubs  due to snow retention and the use of warming materials

2. Protection of the bark from rodents and hares

3. Prevention of mechanical damage to the branches due to their binding or tight shelter

What fruit trees and shrubs should cover for the winter?

It should be noted that most adult fruit trees are winter-hardy enough and do not need regular shelter for the winter. But young trees, southern breeds (for example, grapes, apricots), non-resistant fruit varieties, many dwarf and columnar plants with a surface bedding of the root system in the Moscow region should be covered annually for the winter.

What to cover for the winter fruit trees and shrubs?

For the winter shelter of fruit trees and shrubs use a variety of different materials, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages and is selected individually for each specific case.

Materials for sheltering plants for the winter :

  1. Lapnik  perfectly keeps the snow and protects the bark from rodents, but it is not available to all gardeners
  2. Peat  perfectly protects the root system of plants from freezing, but it is highly caking and acidifies the soil
  3. Polyethylene film  does not pass water, but at the same time interferes with normal breathing
  4. Nonwoven fabric  (agrotextiles) and burlap allow air to flow to the plant, but during thaws, unfortunately, can get wet
  5. Organics  (foliage, straw, hay) are good insulants, but rotting and used by pests as shelter
  6. Frame dome structures  made of wood, metal or plastic are a safe haven for young fruit trees and berry bushes, however, they are too bulky and expensive

How to cover for the winter fruit trees and shrubs?

Before sheltering from under the trees and shrubs, scattered foliage and fruits are raked. In berry bushes (currants, gooseberries) and very young fruit trees, branches are tied in bunches to prevent them breaking off under the weight of snow or during a strong wind. Lianas (grapes, actinidia, lemongrass) removed from the supports and laid on the ground. Flexible shoots of non-resistant varieties of raspberry and blackberry also bend to the ground.

To insulate the root system of plants, the near-trunk circle is covered with a thick layer of peat, foliage, straw or hay, on top of which polyethylene film or agrotextile is laid. Sometimes the film is laid under the layer of insulation, so that the litter can be easily removed in the spring. In the process of insulating the root system, it is very important not to fall asleep to the root neck of the tree, since this can lead to the death of the plant. Also, the weatherization of the roots contributes to the compaction of snow in the circle of a wheel.

Protect the trunk of a young tree from the cold, rodents and hares will help lapnik, which can be spread around the plant or tie them trunk. Winding from a nylon stocking, burlap or nonwoven material (agrotextiles) will also be an excellent remedy for rodents. Note that to protect the tree bark from hares, it is desirable to wrap the trunk and branches to a height of 1-1.5 m, since in snowy winters hares are able to gnaw plants at a high enough height.

For the shelter of the most valuable and least winter-hardy fruit plants, you can use frame dome structures, both ready-made and home-made. The interior of these structures is either left empty (air serves as insulation), or filled with insulating material (foliage or hay). Best of all, oak foliage is suitable for this purpose, which in the first year practically does not clot and does not rot. On top of the frame tension film or non-woven material. Sometimes on top of the domed structures fall asleep on top of foliage, hay or peat. When properly installed in such frame shelters, plants can survive even the most severe winters.

When to shelter fruit trees and shrubs for the winter?

The shelter of fruit trees and shrubs for the winter should be started after the topsoil freezes in late October - early November. Earlier shelter can lead to the weakening and even death of plants due to their decay. For the same reason, it is very important to take shelter in spring in time.

For next year to be something to pick from the branches, you need to know how to cover the young saplings for the winter. In winter, they become very attractive for small rodents. Rescue measures are resorted to not only for these reasons. They should also be protected from strong winds.

How to cover young seedlings for the winter?

It is a lot of recommendations how to cover young saplings for the winter. Before listening to them, it is important to know one thing, there is no universal method. This is due to the fact that the gardens are located in different climates, the weather conditions do not repeat every year. The only thing that can be done is to observe the garden, the weather forecast.

Preparation of young apple seedlings for the winter is as follows:

  1. Mainly - this is the warming of the space around the trunk and roots. For this is suitable mulch, land from the garden. She lay out a 3-centimeter layer to protect the root system. The most vulnerable place in the apple is the basal neck. She must be covered additionally.
  2. Trimming is also among the first measures. If the tree remains extra branches, they will take away the precious nutrients.
  3. Before the arrival of winter, apple trees should be watered and fertilized with fertilizers. Nitrogen fertilizers are not recommended during this period. Potassium sulphate and superphosphate are more suitable.
  4. Fallen leaves, which are often burned, are best used as organic fertilizer. They are plowed into the earth around the tree circle.
  5. The trunks of young trees must be whitened with a solution of chalk and water.
  6. So that the wind does not dry the bark of the apple tree, they create a barrier around it. Often it is a palisade of dry branches. He will hold a gust of wind.

September is considered to be a suitable time when sapling young trees for the winter. But each summer resident may have his own time. Snow will help in deciding how to insulate young apple saplings for the winter. Many gardeners trample it, carrying out activities for concealment. Instead, it is better to throw more snow. Even with the most severe frosts, life is in full swing. As soon as a new one comes out, the hilling is performed anew.

Rodents are another disaster from which young trees should be protected. About how to hide young saplings from rodents, a lot of advice. Some gardeners wrap trunks and skeletal branches with nylon stockings and pantyhose. Others propose to tie the straps with an insulating layer. It consists of juniper branches, hazel, and maybe of roofing material. The main thing before strapping to wrap wood matting. Carrying out the necessary activities will cover the apple trees for the winter and protect them.