Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov is all about apple trees. Video course “Alternative method of gardening. Apricot Manchurian. Close-up
"Efficient cultivation of southern fruit crops
in the conditions of the north of the European part of Russia and Siberia"
Garden of Valery Zhelezov Harvest of Apricots 2013 Garden of Zhelezov V.K. (Sayanogorsk)
Friends, I present to you the garden of Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov - an amazing person who devoted his life to creating a unique Siberian garden, where dozens of varieties of world-class fruit trees grow and bear fruit.
The garden is located in Sayanogorsk, on the border of Khakassia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in a temperate climate zone with a sharply continental climate. Steady frosts begin here in November and last until about March. Winter is not snowy, in some years frosts down to -40 occur. And in such unsuitable conditions for gardening, Valery Konstantinovich manages to grow southern varieties of apricots, peaches, plums, apples, pears and other crops unusual for Siberia.
Landscape architect A. Sapelin comments:
Amazing garden! And there is no design in it, and there is no landscape architecture in it, but admiration is boundless. This is how it happens. Siberia and metallurgist Valery Zhelezov, who once, at the market in Sayanogorsk, was surprised to discover for himself the diversity of fruits, not limited to ranetki, and came to the conclusion that considerable gardening could be achieved here too. The 90s came and off they went. The first experiments in grafting, growing, pruning. The first failures, but it is thanks to them - amazing conclusions, sometimes running counter to official science. And now he is already looming on the horizon - a handsome garden with hitherto unseen fruits and crops in these places. Can it be so good? Misfortune is not long in coming. There is a fire: there is no house, no garden, there is nothing that has been done, worked out, and plans have collapsed. But maybe it was this test that helped, maybe it was this that allowed me to look at the garden differently, to start everything from scratch, but taking into account the experience of previous years. And she began, her majesty - selection. Selection, tough and merciless, leaving only the best of the best. Years of victories and disappointments, and the results - convincing doubters and bestowing believers. Now it is a beautiful garden and a beautiful person whom someone idolizes and someone criticizes. But he, in spite of everything, continues to work and I would like to wish him good luck in this.
It all started in 1985. In a casual conversation, I suddenly heard a phrase that turned my whole life upside down: REAL plums grow in the city of Sayanogorsk under construction. I take a vacation, I come, I get to the city market - an exhibition of agricultural products. I walk through the market, I see an amazing picture: sixty people are sitting on the market square, in front of each from one to 10 buckets of selected plums of all colors of the rainbow - yellow, blue, dark blue, black, red, red-pink, yellow-red, etc. d. I go further - giant vegetables, the hostesses immediately offer seeds (from them I grew the first crop in my life - carrots the size of a bottle and beets the size of my head). And then - 500-gram apples of Aport-Almaatinsky, Borovinka, White Bulk, Papirovka, a variety of Ranetki and semi-culturing! It became an event, more precisely, a revelation of my life. The wonderful world of Sayanogorsk gardening opened before me. It was then that the myth collapsed in the minds that only ranetki could flourish in Siberia.
What I saw and studied is a real fairy tale! From that moment on, like many tens of thousands of builders, power engineers and metallurgists in the 80-90s, I became a gardener, I never missed a chance to get another seedling or at least cut off the top. At first - some failures (or dead vaccinations or "freaks"). But after many years, the understanding came that the best fragment (stalk) for grafting is not even the middle of a cut branch (literary sources), namely the lower 2-3 buds, not counting 2 sleeping ones. This important discovery, along with similar others, made it possible to grow plums and apricots up to 2 - 2.5 m high, with a powerful skeleton of dozens of branches and hundreds of mature flower buds, in ONE short summer on 2-year-old rootstocks.
Learned to vaccinate. Instilled like everyone else - in the "stump under the bark." Excellent result. But! Years passed, and already adult apple trees began to dry out or, worse, to collapse under the weight of the harvest. Conclusion - "fixing" a stock with a scion is not right! After trying a few more tricks, he settled on exactly “improved copulation” and “into a stump - into a split.” Excellent, reliable adhesion of the scion to the stock.
The makings of a future breeder showed up in a little trick. Since the summer cottage is not dimensionless, I go to the forest, I do a hundred vaccinations for the wild berry apple tree Sibirka, aged 1-3 years. By autumn, I choose the most powerful seedlings (some ALREADY with fruit branches) and transfer them to my garden. Then the first observations appear: the older the stock, the faster the scion; the lower the grafting site, the more powerful the seedling; the lower the grafting site, the fewer dead or stunted grafts.
In the very first spring of 1985, he bought a summer cottage in the Shushensky district (the village of Krasny Khutor). Now it has become a place of pilgrimage for journalists, television, scientists and ordinary gardeners. Over the years, they have eaten tons of delicious fruits in my garden. And it began like this: an old neighbor advised me to plant cultivated apple trees on the berry apple tree Sibirka. She clearly did not read I. Michurin, who "sentenced" Sibirka in one sentence, arguing that stands for frost-resistant rootstocks do not affect the frost resistance of the crown. Yes, and modern authors have not gone far, accusing Sibirka of incompatibility with large-fruited varieties of apple trees. Meanwhile, Sibirka is the only LOCAL resident of fruit trees. And the flowering of Sayanogorsk apple gardening is connected precisely with it.
I, still an inexperienced grafter, got good seedlings, and in half the cases I waited for the harvest of any varieties in the form of cuttings, ordered or brought from European Russia and Ukraine.
Worse was the case with cultivated pears. Everything offered by the local market was inedible or almost inedible. Found in an abandoned garden dozens of old Ussuri pears with annual crazy harvests. Here they are - the long-awaited rootstocks! The result exceeded all expectations. A young pear orchard (third-fifth generation) of world standard varieties passed the exam after the last forty-degree snowless winter. Most varieties of pears "did not notice" it and gave a normal harvest.
Thanks to gardeners unknown to me who brought (God knows when) Chinese (Ussuri) plums, and rootstocks for luxurious southern plums also ceased to be a problem. For southern cherries and sweet cherries, a frost-resistant stock was also found. It turned out to be the Siberian standard cherry, brought in ancient times by the "Stolypin" settlers. For a long life in Siberia, it has grown wild, lost the size and taste of fruits, but as a frost-resistant rootstock it has no equal.
In 1992, a new stage in my life began. For the first time in the history of Russia, land was distributed free of charge to future farmers, but they demanded that I, a metallurgist, pass the exams in gardening. I ran to the library, surrounded myself with books for students of universities and technical schools. It turned out that we need to start with growing a living wall of wild plants protecting from the wind. And this is how many years it takes! Then you need to apply mineral fertilizers (full set) and plow all 5 hectares. Then get only zoned grafted seedlings in state nurseries, etc.
The result - I passed the exam, but everyone did it in their own way. They didn’t apply fertilizers, why poison the LIVING soil. They didn’t plow, why cripple the LIVING soil. Even then, I had seditious thoughts that the health and frost resistance of fruit trees depends primarily on the state of the soil, UNtouched by a plow and a shovel, i.e. from the life of the entire underworld. A cart of earth poured out on top of the turf, and already in it a small hole strictly according to the size of the straightened roots
In the autumn, 1650 READY seedlings were brought from the taiga (literally nearby) - Siberian stocks and immediately planted in PERMANENT places. The first years were windy. The most powerful seedlings broke and fell, even when tied to stakes. Adapted. Grafted lower and lower and annually shortened the tops and skeletal branches. The trees turned out to be squat, stocky, with a thick trunk and thick skeletal branches. And the lower he planted, the taller and faster the trees became.
Two troubles came unexpectedly. The partner (a talented engineer) made a career and transferred to Moscow. And by the time of the big harvests, I completely lost interest in the commercial garden - the selection completely captured me. He rented a thriving garden and next spring it burned down - someone set fire to the grass. All the oaths of the "tenants" about fire-fighting plowing and protection remained on paper. All the money spent on equipment, building a house, growing a garden burned down. Future millions in revenues also burned down. The remaining hundred of scorched, but still living trees, for several more years gave fantastic harvests of apples without care and watering (up to 30 buckets from one tree). And what is interesting - namely large, selected apples. I explain this by the fact that the roots have reached the aquifer. It is this example that I use when I criticize in the press the "struggle" of scientific circles with the central root, in scientific terms - "picking". And I call the trees mutilated by the amputation of the central root “childhood invalids”.
So, there are unique experiences, observations and technology alternative to science. Since he didn’t die of a heart attack, he had to quickly turn into a breeder, already without quotes.
Having come to his senses after the tragedy, he took an ax in his hands and cut down with a saw on a summer cottage in the village of Krasny Khutor (25 acres) almost all the old fruit-bearing trees of the first generations (of those varieties that were in many gardens). He left priceless trees that gave me seeds for growing super-frost-resistant rootstocks: Manchurian apricots, Chinese plums, Ussuri pears, Siberian cherries. The most important task - if I am destined to remain poor, then I will grow the best garden in Siberia, and then in Russia.
I started by planting an unmeasured amount of seeds and seeds and growing seedlings. What about cultural grafts? The garden burned down. Cut branches of cultivars in the gardens of my friends with whom I previously shared my clones. Then a hard culling of already one-year-old seedlings. The remaining grafts. He left the best of the best forever IN THE PLACE, sold the rest for the sake of daily bread, or exchanged them for cuttings of new varieties. The next year, I cut cuttings not from mother trees, but from a new generation. Planted another generation of seedlings. Again left ON THE PLACE the best of the best, And so up to 3-5-7 times. With each generation, annual seedlings grew larger and more reliable to climatic anomalies and in most cases gave stable yields.
It didn't stop there. I wrote cuttings from the best gardeners in Russia, sparing no money, according to the principle - only the best. And he also searched hundreds of gardens and took all the best from there. Of course, this is not all in one year. Instilled everything indiscriminately. Waited for fruiting (about half of the cases) or death of trees (in the other half of the cases). If the fruits are good for everyone, but smaller than expected, he destroyed the trees above the graft and grafted other varieties on the same rootstock, saving time. In some cases, it was possible to get a crop in the second year and quite often in the 3rd-4th year.
I call the super-early Manchurian apricot a gift from God. In addition to frost resistance, huge growth and large yields, he has been giving me seeds for 20 years, seedlings from which lay flower buds for 4-5 years, and in some cases for the third and (do not believe it!) For the second year. It turns out that if you combine super-fast-growing rootstocks and scions with flower buds, it becomes possible to try the fruits in the second year, and if you are not lucky, then in the third. I clarify - when working not only with apricots, but also with plums and peaches.
In order to prolong the age of freezing southern varieties (and this is inevitable at the first stage), he never inflicted wounds on the trunk and skeletal branches. Well, shortening the side branches and tops is a necessary measure, otherwise you won’t grow a powerful tree that is resistant to winds and crops. For himself, he deduced the BASIC LAW OF SELECTION: DO NOT HELP THE BREEDING TREES IN ANYTHING - do not cover, do not insulate, do not treat, do not water, do not replant. This is the only opportunity to promote these particular varieties to the North and East.
Today I walk through the beautiful garden, as if ENCHANTED, and I am surprised - everything is too easy and everything works out. Or maybe it's because I love the garden and try not to hurt him. And every year, the behavior of people on their own, well-groomed to insanely beautiful, piece of land becomes more and more understandable. No, we are not descendants of monkeys. We lived in Eden, for unknown reasons we lost our beautiful ancestral home, we became wild and we are trying to realize the love for the perfection and beauty of nature inherent in GENE MEMORY in OUR garden. This is my main proof on the difficult path to God.
Text Zhelezova V.K.,
Used materials from the site: http://sadsib.narod.ru/
http://www.prof-sad.ru/gardens/gardens_20.html
Two years ago, the "Herald of the Gardener" had an article about an outstanding gardener from Sayanogorsk Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov, his Siberian garden is shown, which is just right to be in the Kuban. He endlessly plants, grafts, grows, collects, analyzes. And he writes a lot.
SPEECH 1: Mysterious large-fruited apricot clones in my garden
Friends, you have already got acquainted with seedling apricots, which I called “mysterious”, since, except for the old patriarch, the Manchurian apricot, all of them have changed beyond recognition in a matter of years or even in one year (the last one), especially the fruits.
Well, how are things with medium and large-fruited?
SPEECH 2: The Enchanted World of Gardening and Its Amazing People
SPEECH 3: Notes of an Enchanted Siberian Gardener-1
Hello friends! I hope you are not in danger of drowsiness, turning into a deep sleep, when reading my stories. Yes, yes, just stories, not boring instructions. You - those who do not have monkeys in their ancestors, but people with brilliant brains and high morals - easily adapt to my, not quite ordinary philosophy.
SPEECH 4: We all came out of the people, children of the working family
Once upon a time, back in the pre-war years, 2,000 selection scientific plots were created. It is unlikely that they were useful in the era of illiteracy of the peasants and the persecution of "geneticists". Then a time of disappointment and, finally, high (Academy) and even practical (NII and GSU) science became a closed order, classified to the limit ...
SPEECH 5: Siberia-Ukraine: you can’t execute - pardon ...
I'll start with a letter:
"Valery Konstantinovich! Perhaps you will remember me: last year we corresponded with you about the publication of your articles in a Ukrainian newspaper. Now the first book on your alternative gardening has already been published in our Organic Farming Club (Kyiv). I would like to accept your tree planting method
SPEECH 6: New times have come - we must keep up!
(From the endless Notes of an Enchanted Siberian Gardener).
Friends! The whole world is in shock - Russia "sent" the West and decided to feed itself.Alas, I never got into politics and explained many negative things in garden life not by the machinations of "enemies", but by our unwillingness to keep up with the West,
CATALOG "SEEDS" (seeds and seeds) from the collection of Y. Brodsky
Attention friends and future friends!
By purchasing seeds Yuri Vasilyevich Brodsky, you become a participant in a grandiose experiment that has no analogues on the entire planet for all centuries ...
For contacts : 6921135, Primorsky Territory, Dalnerechensk, st. Mira, 32, phone: 8-902-526-47-81, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view. . Site of biologist Yuri Brodsky
NEXT TO THE GREAT: Boris Iosifovich Bodnar
Meet the hydro-builder from the village of Cheryomushki (a suburb of Sayanogorsk). And part-time - the best and most successful of the Sayanogorsk, amateur gardener Boris Iosifovich Bodnar. His art of growing the most capricious and non-frost-resistant crop, cherries, has no analogues throughout the cold part of Russia and the world. An absolute Michurinian, and I. Michurin's books are his garden bible.
IRON NURSERY: production of non-killable seedlings
Friends, what you have read before and will read now does not fit into everyday practice in Russia.
BETTER TO SEE ONCE: video about pruning, ants and seedlings
This time I want to offer you a few videos. Shooting Sayanogorsk television. The action takes place in the summer of 2014 in the village of Krasny Khutor, Shushensky District, Krasnoyarsk Territory. The most topical topics …
What rich material! A healthy gardener will find a lot of useful things here. If you are not as hot-tempered as Zhelezov, are not inclined to constant experiments, are not ready to endlessly re-graft and increase the frost resistance of plants by “layering a mentor”, but you want to quickly get the fruits of southern crops, then close your cherries, peaches the way the son of Valery Konstantinovich does.
VIDEO LESSONS AND LECTURES BY VALERY ZHELEZOV
This page contains truly invaluable material - all video tutorials and lectures in outstanding gardener from SayanogorskValery Konstantinovich ZHELEZOV. The master generously shares his experience and knowledge with everyone - just absorb ...
Foreword by SC Editor-in-Chief Alexander Rebrik.
Today I would like to tell you where they came from and how they served the development of apricot gardening.
The contribution of ancestors to apricot gardening.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, wagon trains of immigrants to the Far East were drawn from Ukraine and Belarus on oxen. After a long four years, some of them reached the place. With their own eyes, the settlers looked in surprise at the spring hills, covered with white and pink shades of blooming wild gardens. Here they first got acquainted with wild-growing fruit and berry plants - the wealth of the Far East, and later - the basis for the development of cultural gardening.
Hello, dear visitor of our blog!
We invite you to visit the virtual video tour of the garden of Valery Zhelezov called "Autumn master class in the garden." To do this, we recently visited Krasny Khutor and shot the most interesting and practical video material.
Valery Zhelezov:
Friends, I get a lot of questions from you about sheltering delicate southern crops for the winter. Thank God that there is still enough snow in Russia.
Unfortunately, not all crops tolerate snow shelter well, especially wet in the thaw and late winter.
To "strong" for freezing and damping, I include the roots and crowns of apple trees, plums and cherries. But they are just the most frost-resistant and, as a rule, "uncovered" for the winter. With the most heat-loving crops (grapes, cherries, peaches and pears), things are worse. They can be given an oblique crown shape by strong pruning or bending, get several harvests, and in some especially wet, snowy winter with thaws, they suddenly take off and sop.
But!!! My archive is invaluable, curiosity is limiting and now you will see photos that practically do not need comments and, taking into account the foregoing, will benefit you.
Note: my son Sergei Valerievich made several shelters, he is more prudent, namely, as a nurseryman (he has “his own” mother peaches - an insurance fund).
In today's newsletter, we have prepared a short video for you. This is an excerpt from a large training master class in which Valery Konstantinovich talks about the intricacies of organizing a fruit nursery and making money on it. A video lasting 17 minutes will briefly talk about new directions (methods) of selection that Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov developed and uses in his garden. Now they are not yet recognized by science, it is strongly attached to the Michurin school. According to the author, despite the rejection by science, all his developments do not contradict the traditional school, but are its development.
There are three of these breeding methods, they allow you to get “new varieties” and unusual fruits in your garden, adapt varieties to the conditions of your site, increase biological compatibility, increase frost resistance and much more.
If you are interested in experimenting in the garden and you are fascinated by everything new, then this material is for you. Click on the link or on the image to view.
Article by Valery Zhelezova.
I'll start with a letter from Denis Yermolovich - I remind you - now is the 21st century:
Good day! My question to Valery Zhelezov:
In the book of Ovsinsky I.E. The New System of Agriculture has this observation:
As we said before plant reluctance to form seeds is explained by the fact that this process significantly depletes the plant, and often becomes even the cause of its death. There are many similar facts in the plant world.
For this reason, the fields are bushed and do not want to ripen bread, as a result being exposed to diseases (rust) and eventually producing very little and bad grain. Vegetables (cucumbers, melons) grow into leaves in gardens, fruit trees do not bear fruit in gardens, flowers do not want to bloom in greenhouses ...
Memo for buyers of seedlings with an open root system.
Now is the season for planting seedlings of fruit trees. Many millions of seedlings will be sold, transported and planted. Huge amounts of money will be and have already been squandered, which is most offensive, not the richest people - gardeners, summer residents !!! But the statistics of the survival rate of seedlings with an open root system cannot be diminished! It can be said without a doubt that most of them will not survive the first winter. Why is this happening? This is due to 2 things - the quality of the seedlings themselves and inept planting / transplanting.
And how to make sure that even a seedling of perfect quality is not destroyed during transplantation, takes root, prepares for winter and pleases with rapid growth? In this, it would seem, not the most difficult operation, there are a number of pitfalls that are important to avoid. To do this, we have prepared a short material called: “Memo for buyers of seedlings with an open root system”
The Internet publishing house "Life on Earth" presents paid and free video courses, lessons and books from a gardener with 30 years of experience Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov and an experienced winegrower Alexander Petrovich Rykalin, based on practical methods that can be called an alternative gardening method.
The educational materials of these gardeners have been distributed for many years with the help of many Runet sites. During this time, they have shown that the methods of alternative gardening outlined in them really work even in the most difficult climatic conditions and allow people to grow abundant organic crops. This is evidenced by the many grateful reviews of gardeners from different parts of Russia, who used the alternative gardening method of Valery Zhelezov and Alexander Rykalin.
In his educational books and video lessons, as well as on his official website sad-sib.ru, Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov talks about how to grow an environmentally friendly and highly fruitful orchard in the harsh climate that is characteristic of most of the Russian Federation, based on his own , time-tested practical developments.
People call Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov a magician, because he created a magical garden that amazes with an abundance of cherries, apples, pears, plums ... Few people can boast of such a garden, especially if the garden was created in the harsh conditions of the Siberian climate. And, more specifically, in Khakassia, where winters are not snowy, and in winter the temperature stays below thirty degrees of frost for weeks. And, fruit trees in the garden near Zhelezova overwinter without any special shelters.
Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov achieved such successes thanks to his own selection practices. As a result of many years of research, he came to the conclusion that in just a few years it is possible to grow fruit trees that will grow perfectly in your climatic conditions, no matter how harsh they are.
More detailed information about the activities of Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov can be obtained on his official website. On the same site you can view and order a catalog of seeds and a catalog of seedlings.
The Internet publishing house "Life on Earth" is also engaged in the popularization of the gardener with 20 years of experience, Alexander Petrovich Rykalin.
Alexander Rykalin is known as a successful gardener who taught himself (and now teaches others) how to grow southern grape varieties in the northern territories. He himself lives in the village of Shushenskoye, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Engaged in the cultivation of grapes since 1994. During this time, Alexander came to a seemingly paradoxical conclusion that grapes are the most noble and reliable berry of the northern garden.
The fact is that grapes can very quickly adapt to local climatic conditions and take root well and bear fruit even where there is not much heat. Alexander talks about how to adapt grapes to specific conditions in his training materials, based on his many years of practice, which can also be classified as alternative gardening methods.
For more information about Alexander Rykalin, please visit http://sadisibiri.ru/vin-rikalin.html.
Free books and video tutorials by Valery Zhelezov and Alexander Rykalin on alternative gardening
Attention!
Free book "Zhelezov's Golden Postulates of Alternative Gardening in Pictures"
FREE DOWNLOAD
This book is a methodology for regions with an unfavorable climate for gardening and is intended primarily for beginner gardeners who will help create their own luxurious garden.
Gardener-practitioner from Siberia Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov created this method of alternative gardening based on personal practical discoveries.
Free book "A Complete Guide to Buying and Planting Seedlings from Valery Zhelezov"
READ THE BOOK FOR FREE
Other Free Alternative Gardening Education Materials from Life on Earth
Free video lessons of Valery Zhelezny "Grafting fruit trees in a simple way"
5 video lessons from Alexander Rykalin for planting grapes in regions with a cold climate.
7 day series of video lessons from Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov based on answers to questions from gardeners.
Paid courses from the online publishing house "Life on Earth"
Attention! The courses of Valery Zhelezov and Alexander Rykalin have been discontinued. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the courses of the Internet project from Evgeny Fedotov and Roman Vrublevsky.
Video course "Alternative method of gardening"
The course is intended for all those who want to grow their dream orchard.
Video course "Your orchard from A to Z"
This course by Valery Zhezlov is designed for both experienced and beginner gardeners.
Seminar by Alexander Rykalin "Growing southern grapes in regions with a cold climate"
The recording of this seminar will teach you how to grow southern grape varieties on your plots.
Video lessons in the form of seminars by Valery Konstantinovich Zhezlov
Recording of a 10-day master class on growing fruit trees in regions with a cold climate “An alternative gardening method. Video lessons of Valery Zhezlov».
At I learned from my own experience that it is not so easy to create a good garden. This will require not only knowledge and skills, but also significant financial investments. And the articles of famous gardeners in the “Boss” are also very helpful. Therefore, I want to say a big thank you to such wonderful people as V.A. Krylovich, A.P. Surovtsev, V.F. Cherkas, M.M. Shilo, N.K. Kozich, A.A. Mikolenko, A.I. Boldisov and others. They helped me when laying the garden not only with good advice, but also with cuttings and seedlings. And recently I met in absentia with another master of his craft. I think not many have heard of the famous Siberian gardener Valery Konstantinovich Zhelezov. Near Lake Baikal, not far from the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, he planted a garden where there are not only ordinary apple and pear trees, plums and cherries, but even heat-loving apricots and peaches. And despite the short Siberian summer, they ripen there. It is amazing that these southern plants have adapted to such a harsh climate, although all this did not come at once. Only thanks to persistent work in the garden of Valery Konstantinovich, apricots of the varieties Amur, Artem, Korolevskiy, Khabarovsk, Levitskiy, Peach, etc. grow beautifully.
Having learned about this excellent gardener, I wrote him a letter asking him to send me seeds of wild Manchurian apricot in order to grow the most frost-resistant and productive seedlings and use them as rootstocks. Soon a package arrived from Sayanogorsk, and it contained 4 discs with video films and a letter from Valery Konstantinovich himself. He reported
that he cannot send seed-stones from Russia to Belarus - customs rules prohibit it. At first I was upset and put the videos aside. But in vain!
When I later looked at them, I was simply shocked by what I saw. To say that he is well done is to say nothing. A man of the people, simple, courageous and resolute, in his films he simply and clearly tells and shows how to grow plants in the garden, how to graft, feed, water, harvest and store the crop.
I believe Zhelezov's advice will help Belarusian gardeners in their work or even change their views on already established concepts to some extent.
1. About grafting fruit trees. Which of the ways are the best? According to V.K. Zhelezova, the most reliable are improved copulation and in splitting - scion and stock are connected firmly and reliably. But eye budding and simple copulation are not entirely reliable methods of grafting: the first can freeze out in harsh winters, and the second can lead to breaking off the entire crown at the grafting site. Vaccination for the bark, which we carry out in late April - early May, Zhelezov recommends doing only on thin rootstocks. On thick rootstocks, the cuttings take root around the cut of the rootstock, and the middle dries and rots, after 7-10 years this leads to breaking off of the branches.
3. Grafting on the trunk should be as low as possible , then all the juice from the roots will go into the stalk - and it will grow rapidly.
4. It is desirable to plant several varieties on one tree , then there will be better pollination of varieties by bees and higher yields.
5. About planting seedlings. VC. Zhelezov argues that there is no need to dig any landing holes. He does this: he brings 2-3 wheelbarrows of fertile land, pours it into the place where the seedling should grow, forms a mound out of the earth in the form of a small mound, makes a recess in it along the diameter of the root system and, driving a peg, plants the seedling on the north side, without deepening the root collar. Fertilizes with humus and ash, waters from a watering can, mulches. Thus, the seedling grows on a mound. “If you dig a planting hole and, having planted, deepen the seedling, then you will destroy it,” Valery Konstantinovich believes. If possible, he tries to plant seedlings with a clod of earth. After that, he sows shoot-bearing bent grass around, it grows with a lush green carpet, protects the soil from overheating by the sun, moisture is stored under it, which helps the growth of the tree. When planting a seedling, pruning is required.
6. About growing seedlings from seeds. A seedling can also be grown from a seed, but it is almost impossible to predict what qualities it will have. Even if 100 seedlings grow from 100 seeds, only 4-5 of them will correspond to the mother plant. The rest will be non-hardy, with small and tasteless fruits, i.e. semi-wilds requiring grafting with a cultivar. Therefore, seedlings from stones should not be allowed into the garden. Especially if they are of southern origin. For example, apricots grown from seeds have no chance of survival. They do not live with us for a long time, they usually freeze and die after the first severe winter. Only grafted plants should be grown in the garden. When choosing, for example, an apricot seedling on the market, you first need to look at whether it has a grafting site and whether the roots are dried. Otherwise, he will not take root and die. Since the apricot is self-infertile, it is necessary to plant 2 seedlings of different varieties either in the same planting hole or at a distance of 5 m from each other. If there is only one apricot tree, then 2-3 other varieties must be grafted onto it, which will ensure excellent fruiting.
7. Stamps of trees for the winter Glands do not whiten , but wraps them in white fiberglass or white sugar bags.
8. Young trees are not tied to metal pegs, because it is harmful.
9. When buying seedlings on the market, the gardener advises choosing more expensive ones with a closed root system. . Do not take cheap seedlings, otherwise a wild garden will grow.
10. If a stone fruit tree has died in the garden, then plant pome trees in its place, and vice versa. Use in the garden to mulch the soil around the plants, thereby building up a layer of humus under them.
Alexander SENYUKOVYCH,
Soligorsk