Hybrids of plum, apricot and peach: names and descriptions of new fruits
Growing fruit trees in your garden is a fun and rewarding activity. The more labor you put in, the better the harvest will be. Plum, apricot, peach, apple, cherry plum, nectarine - all these fruits, like many others, are tasty and healthy. But many gardeners prefer not just to plant traditional seedlings, but to place hybrids on their plots, for example, plums, apricots and peaches, having previously studied the names and descriptions of new fruits.
Kinds
For many years, breeders have been trying to develop different varieties of hybrids in order to improve the quality of fruits, make them more resistant to aggressive environmental factors and pests, easier to care for and discover new unusual tastes. When creating a new hybrid, two or more cultures are mixed. Here are some of them, which may not be familiar to all consumers, but are widely known to gardeners who know a lot about fruit trees and follow all the new products that appear in this area.
- There are two types of apricot plum hybrid: Aprium and Pluot. Aprium is two-thirds apricot and one-third plum. The pulp of the fruit is not as juicy as that of an apricot, but more dense. The surface, unlike the velvety apricot, is smooth. The fruits are sweet due to the high content of fructose. In pluot, on the contrary, the main role is played by the plum. And the appearance is similar to this fruit, and the taste is more apricot. The description of the fruit suggests that its flesh is red and juicy, and the surface has a purple or pink tint, it may be green.This hybrid, in turn, has more than ten varieties.
- Plum crossed with peach is called plum nectarine. Its flesh is yellow in color, is quite dense and very easily moves away from the stone. The fruit itself is round and similar in appearance to a peach, but unlike it has a smooth skin.
- An apple combined with a peach forms an apple nectarine. It is very juicy and has white or beige flesh. In size, this species is smaller than plum. The skin has a pink hue and a glossy sheen.
- A hybrid with the interesting name sharafuga came from three fruits at once: peach, apricot and plum. The color of the fruit was taken from plums, the shape from apricot, and the size from peach. The flesh of the sharafuga is usually sweet and juicy, and you can catch hints of plum and apricot in the taste.
You will learn more about the characteristics of a plum crossed with a peach in the following video.
Advantages and disadvantages
Before planting fruit tree hybrids on your site, it will be useful to read the reviews of those who have been engaged in similar experiments for a long time and know a lot about the pros and cons of different varieties.
The benefits of gardening include:
- beautiful fruit appearance;
- high yield;
- self-pollination;
- pests and diseases affect them much less frequently than ordinary fruit trees;
- unusual and interesting flavors.
But with all the positive qualities, there are also disadvantages:
- it is impossible to get seeds from a hybrid;
- trees have their own characteristics in terms of growing, and you need to adapt to them;
- the soil needs fertile, which needs regular feeding, otherwise the harvest will be poor;
- hybrids have a negative attitude both to cloudy and cool weather, and to excessive heat and sun - a golden mean is needed;
- abrupt changes in temperature can be the death of a tree;
- seedlings of hybrid crops have a higher cost than conventional fruit trees.
Landing and care
When planting hybrids, you need to take into account the characteristics of each particular tree, but there are also general planting and care rules that can combine them.
Gardeners with experience in growing these crops usually plant hybrids in early spring, but in regions where weather conditions allow. This gives them the opportunity for a sufficiently long period to get used to climatic conditions, to take root before the onset of cold weather.
Before planting trees, you need to find out at what depth the groundwater passes: they must be at a depth of at least 1.5 meters.
For hybrids, you need to choose even, elevated places, which will prevent the accumulation of precipitation and meltwater. 10 days before planting, you need to dig a hole to a depth of at least 70 centimeters and with the same width.
Neutral or alkaline soil is suitable for hybrids. It needs to be dug up well and fertilized, including compost in the amount of two buckets, superphosphate - 60-80 grams, potassium - 30-50 grams. If the acidity of the soil is increased, then it needs to add lime in the amount of 300 grams per 1 square meter.
It will be good to make drainage from stones: they will save the plant from excess moisture.
The roots of the seedling are carefully straightened, then sprinkled with earth, the first layer is compacted, then the pit is supplemented with soil and gently tamped again. Then water well. Experienced gardeners recommend immediately mulching the soil, which will help retain moisture longer. This is especially true for sunny days.
Hybrids are those trees that cannot do without top dressing, and this must be done constantly.Early spring is the time to supply the soil with nitrogen-containing fertilizers. For this, urea or ammonium nitrate is usually used: at least 25 grams per 1 square meter.
After the trees have faded, they need foliar feeding. Some gardeners use for these purposes a composition such as "Kemira-universal". After an interval of 10 days, the procedure is repeated and fertilizers are applied again through the same interval. The interval between fertilizing can be 15 days, as long as it is the same.
In autumn, they dig up the earth, add humus, compost or manure in the amount of 2 buckets for each tree.
With diseases and pests in hybrid trees, the situation is much better than in ordinary ones. They endure their attacks with firmness. Therefore, preventive pest control procedures are not required. It is only necessary to make sanitary pruning and whitewash the tree stem in time.
Excessive moisture and excessive drought have a detrimental effect on hybrids. Therefore, it will be necessary to develop an individual irrigation regime and, at the same time, take into account the climate, precipitation and other factors.
It is believed that they have good frost resistance, and there is no need to cover them. But if the trees grow in the northern regions, gardeners insure themselves and cover the trees with mulch, dry branches and special covering material that can be purchased in stores.