If you decide to decorate your summer cottage or a country house with blue firs, you need to do it according to all the rules and very carefully. Growing spruce on any soil that fell under your arm, you can not. For example, you should not grow spruce in a place where potatoes have recently grown, this can trigger the infection of the seedling with a fungus of the genus Fusarium. There are rules for the care and cultivation of this plant.
Planting of blue spruce
The choice of soil for planting a seedlings depends on the type of blue spruce. For large varieties, a very nutritious soil is needed, but for stunted fir trees it will not work, the crown will not be properly formed and the tree will stretch too far upwards.
It is not advisable to plant blue spruce in the calcareous soils. If such soil is on the site, it should be acidified before planting. Acidifying agents can be ammonium nitrate, ammonium chloride or ammonium sulfate. But you need to do everything in moderation, otherwise you risk ruining the plant, spruce prefers a weakly acidic soil.
Do not forget about the good drainage. Drainage can be the most common: broken brick or rubble. This will prevent wetting and rotting of the roots in especially rainy periods. In addition to excessive soil soaking, for the root system spruce is very harmful and drying out.
When planting, it must be taken into account that spruce tends to grow rapidly. It is impossible to plant a tree very close. The most successful is the distance between the blue spruce seedlings of 2-3 meters. If the transplant is necessary, you can do it at any time of the year. But the most favorable is considered to be March, when the soil completely thawed.
The optimal depth of planting is 55-65 cm. This value is common for all types of spruce. If to consider an ideal variant for each tree, there are following recommendations: the pit should be on 25 sm more deeply and 20 sm more broadly a root coma. When planting, loosen the soil in a pit for 10 cm. Try to plant fir trees in open places, because this plant is very fond of the sun.
Blue Spruce: Care
How to grow blue spruce for envy all neighbors? Of course, you need to look after her well. The first 5 years, it is necessary to feed the tree with mineral fertilizers once a year. Spruce should be fertilized in the spring immediately after the ground thawed. Remember the main rule: never fertilize spruce with fresh manure!
In the first 5-7 years, try to closely monitor the crown of the spruce. Remove dry twigs and diseased shoots. This should be done in the spring and autumn. During the summer drought, always water the plant and loosen the soil in the root zone.
For a beginner, it is quite difficult to grow a blue spruce, as the tree will get from the mild conditions of the nursery to the harsh conditions of your plot and the slightest mistake can cost you a seedling.
Especially closely monitor the root system. When planting a tree in the winter or spring period, water the plant
Blue spruce: reproduction
You can grow blue spruce from seeds or cuttings. If you decide to grow a blue spruce from seeds, you should start training several months before landing. Of the winter cones, you need to extract the seeds and prepare them. Seeds need to be soaked for a day in water or a pink solution of potassium permanganate. After soaking the seeds are subjected to snow. This contributes to the hardening of the plant in the future. Plant the seeds in a loose sandy soil to a depth of 1 cm. After 20-25 days, sprouts can be seen. Sow the seeds should be given frosts: the shoots should ascend after the end of frost. Sowing seeds should be sufficiently thick, thin shoots in such a way that there is a distance of at least 15 cm between them.