Description of the best varieties of plums for the Urals, their planting and care

Plum is not considered a crop intended for regions with cold winters and sharp temperature changes in spring and summer. But breeders have pleased gardeners with winter-hardy plum varieties for the Urals. Every year the list of stone fruit hybrids is replenished with new specimens with improved qualities. But with such a wide variety, it is difficult to choose those varieties of plums that will successfully take root and produce full-fledged harvests.

Diversity and characteristics of plum varieties for the Urals

The difficulties of growing plums in the Urals and Siberia include the following:

• spring frosts destroy the plant;
• the risk of damping off in winter increases;
• The root system freezes during winters with little snow.

For a gardener, the question of which varieties are best to plant is important. They choose not only those that are winter-hardy, but those that can withstand the cold winds characteristic of a sharply continental climate. You should not choose those that are tall. Medium-sized shrubs and trees take root better and withstand the winter. But a big role for summer residents is played by the description of the fruits and their taste.

Pride of the Urals

The variety was obtained by pollinating the Zhemchuzhina plum back in the 50s of the 20th century. Since then, it has been zoned by Ural gardeners. But it is popular both in the Caucasus and Siberia. In addition to its resistance to frost below 30 degrees, plums are distinguished by:

• high yields of up to 35 kilograms per tree;
• precocity;
• plums ripen after 120 days;
• tree height is 4 meters;
• reddish fruits of medium weight.

Caring for the variety is easy. It does not require pruning and grows quickly. Fruits with a sweet and sour taste and tender pulp. They are universal in purpose. This plum variety requires pollinators.

Chemal's Gift

On a medium-sized tree, in the 3-4th year, round fruits with a deep funnel and a slightly noticeable seam appear.Under the orange skin with a red blush there is tasty greenish-yellow flesh. The fruits are harvested in the second half of August. Plum tolerates winter well, but is not resistant to damping off.

Pearl of the Urals

The variety was bred at the South Ural Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Growing and zoned since 2006. A medium-sized tree with a spreading crown has medium foliage. Bears fruit on mixed and fruit shoots. The plums ripen large, weighing up to 25 grams each, with a smooth green skin. The variety has a juicy pulp of a delicate structure with an elongated stone. In terms of taste, plums are given 4.7 points. There are more sugars in fruits than acids.

The culture is partially self-fertile, with average ripening periods. Shoots are rarely damaged by frost in winter, but there is partial damage to flower buds by frost in spring.

Chebarkulskaya

The plum tree reaches a height of 3.5 meters and has a spreading crown. The variety has blue, large fruits, weighing 30 grams each. The value is in the tasty pulp, medium-fiber, greenish-yellow in color.

Snow White

A specially bred variety for the Urals and Siberia tolerates frosts up to 40 degrees. The tree is not tall, but with a spreading crown of 4 meters. The surface of the plum fruit is yellow with a whitish waxy coating. With good care, they reach a weight of 30 grams, and the yield per tree is 20-30 kilograms. The plum tastes sweet with a slight sourness.

Ural prunes

The mid-late ripening crop is famous for its dark blue, almost black fruits. They weigh 15 grams, are elongated, have a sweet taste with a slight tartness. The medium-sized stone is easily separated from the pulp. The variety is winter-hardy, high-yielding, with excellent transportability. The fruits are good in dried form, compotes.

Ural golden

Appeared in the State Register in 2004. The appearance and taste of the fruits of the variety are of excellent quality. The main color of the skin is yellow, the flesh is the same color. The bone inside is medium in size and can be easily separated. Plum has good transportability. Harvests are harvested from a medium-sized tree annually, starting from the 4th year of life. The advantage of growing plums is its resistance to diseases and low frost damage.

Kuyashskaya

The plum is medium-sized, blooms and bears fruit on short shoots. The fruits are round without a seam, with a smooth surface of a reddish color. The pulp is yellow, slightly fibrous. It tastes more sugar than acid. Separability of the stone from the pulp is average. Fruiting periodically.

The tree is distinguished by the fact that it easily tolerates spring frosts down to minus 5 degrees.

Uyskaya

The plum variety has a sparse, non-thickening crown with a tree height of 3 meters. With an average yield of up to 15 kilograms per plant, it is valued for its original orange-colored fruits with a bright blush. The pulp is fine-grained, juicy, sweet. Plums are well pollinated by the Ussuri type of stone fruit crop.

Shershnevskaya

The variety was obtained by open pollination of the Ussuri plum. The plant is valued for:

• aroma and taste of fruits;
• good separation of the bone from the pulp;
• versatility of purpose;
• slight frost damage;
• resistance to fungal infections;
• annual fruiting;
• high yields.

Plum blossoms and bears fruit on bouquet branches.

Krasnoselskaya

The tree with a spreading crown has round leaves with a short pointed tip, green in color. Plum berries have yellow flesh, and the skin on top is smooth and red. The fruit weight is often 20 grams or more. Ripe plums are used for processing. The harvest ripens late.

Although the variety is winter-hardy, it is sometimes damaged by spring frosts.

Aylinskaya

The hybrid was bred by crossing a sandy type of crop with a varietal Golden plum. The tree grows weakly, but has a wide crown. The fruits have a purple coating with a strong waxy coating. Plums with light, yellowish-green flesh, sweet, with an easily separated pit. The tree blooms in May and ripens in August.

Uvelskaya

The seedling obtained by open pollination has average height and foliage. The leaves are rounded with a blunt base and a pointed tip of a rich green color. The fruits appear on shortened shoots. They reach a mass of 23-24 grams. The pulp has high sugar content and low acidity. Plum tolerates transportation well.

The crop is a late-ripening species that can withstand frost and rarely suffer from fungal infections.

Golden Niva

The hybrid belongs to plants of medium maturity. Plum is distinguished by the golden-sunny color of its round fruits. And their flesh is juicy, tender, sweet. The medium-sized stone is easily separated from the pulp. The tree is of average 2-meter height, with a wide crown, the branches inside of which are raised upward. The crop bears fruit regularly.

Manchurian beauty

The plum combines the qualities of 3 types: Chinese, Ussuri and Simon. A dwarf with a thick, rounded crown has a number of advantages:

1. Rapid awakening of the buds leads to strong branching of the tree.
2. A burgundy blush spreads on the yellow-orange background of the fruit.
3. The bone is small.
4. Plums reach ripeness in August-September.
5. The culture transmits valuable traits well to offspring.

It is known that the plant is winter-hardy and resistant to some diseases.

Pioneer

The original variety was obtained by open pollination from selected Ussuri plum. The tree reaches a height of 3-4 meters. It has a lush spreading crown. Dark red fruits reach a weight of 18-20 grams. Plums with a smooth glossy surface, a rounded base and a pointed apex. The fruits are sweet and ripen in mid-August. The variety is transportable, with a yield of up to 35-40 kilograms per tree.

Yellow Khopty

Self-fertile plums were brought from China in the first half of the last century and spread throughout the Far East and the Urals. The tree is different:

• vigorous growth;
• spreading but sparse crown;
• oval leaves;
• round fruits with flattening, weighing 12-14 grams;
• yellow plums, waxy on top;
• loose pulp with a sweet and sour taste.

The bone inside is large, but easily separated from the pulp. Plums do not tolerate transportation well. They are best consumed fresh.

Ural dawns

The advantage of the variety is that it:

• ripens early: late July - August;
• pleases with fruits of 25-30 grams;
• winter-hardy;
• develops into trees with a spreading crown, a trunk height of 2.5-3 meters.

Plums have a dark red cover, with a bluish bloom, and are delicious.

Honey

One of the unpretentious varieties of crops that delight with high yields, has a delightful aroma and taste of the fruit. The prevalence of the hybrid is high and tolerates weather changes in cold climate zones. Oval fruits with transparent yellow skin reach a weight of 30-50 grams. When ripe, plums turn orange with a whitish coating and are used universally.

Commander

Plum is a columnar species, so the tree has a compact crown and a height of 2 meters. Entering fruiting in the 2nd year of life, it pleases with fruits of 50 grams.They have juicy, yellowish flesh with a refreshing sourness.

Imperial

A new columnar-type hybrid has only recently become known to gardeners in the Urals. The crown of the tree looks like a narrowed pyramid. The height of the crop with a brownish trunk reaches 2 meters. The fruits are located throughout the tree and have a round shape. And the plum pulp is golden, with a honey flavor. The variety is winter-hardy and has strong immunity to fungal infections.

Blue Sweet

Columnar varieties of plums are represented in the Urals by the Blue Sweet hybrid. The crown of the tree has no side branches and is directed upward. The pulp of the fruit is hidden under a thick skin, but it is tender and juicy. The harvest is stored fresh for a long time, and it is large and reaches up to 80 kilograms from 1 column.

How to plant and grow a tree

Growing plums in the Urals is not much different from tree farming in other regions. But you need to choose the right time for planting so that the seedling has time to take root and grow stronger.

Preparation of planting material

For cultivation, it is necessary to select crops that are suitable for the Ural region. The hybrid must be a winter-hardy species and not be damaged by spring frosts.

When purchasing a plum seedling, make sure that it has a strong root system. The roots should not be dry or covered with rot. Annual seedlings usually reach 1-1.3 meters in height.

If the plum is prepared for spring planting, then it is buried in the grooves to a depth of 40 centimeters for the winter. Biennial tree specimens take root the fastest.

Timing and technology of planting

In spring, plums are planted as soon as the soil thaws, within 2 weeks. Then it is better to prepare a hole in the fall with a depth of 40-50 centimeters and a width of 70.

Autumn planting is carried out 1.5 months before frost. The hole is dug within 2 weeks. Be sure to add a bucket of humus, superphosphate and potassium salt to each hole. Fertilizers are mixed with the fertile layer and filled into the hole. For looseness, you need to add coarse sand.

The distance between seedlings can reach from 1.5 to 4 meters depending on the variety and crown width in the future. Self-sterile plum types need pollinators nearby.

Conditions for good growth and fruiting

To plant plums, choose a place well lit by the sun and sheltered from the wind. The soil needed for the crop is nutritious; loamy chernozem is suitable. The acidity of the garden soil should be neutral, and groundwater should lie no higher than 1.5 meters to the surface.

Regularity of watering

The first time they irrigate the ground around the plum after planting, using up to 20 liters of water for each seedling. During the summer, the crop should be watered once every two weeks, increasing the frequency during the hot and dry season.

For an adult plant, watering is reduced to once a month. It is also useful to sprinkle the tree by spraying the crown in the evening in hot weather. Mulching around the tree trunk will help retain moisture in the soil.

Foliar and root fertilizers

In the first year of a plum’s life, the nutrients it received when planted are sufficient. Water the trees with a nutrient solution of urea at the root in the 3rd year of the plant’s life. Foliar feeding is carried out with the addition of urea, 2 tablespoons per 5 liters of urea solution. The procedure is carried out in May. At the beginning of summer, feed with nitrophoska, 30 grams of product per bucket of water. Feeding should be foliar.

In August, the grooves around the plum are shed with organic and mineral solutions. To add organic matter, use chicken manure or humus; for minerals, use wood ash (70 grams) per bucket of water with superphosphate and potassium salt (15 grams each).

Tree trunk care

The tree trunk circle is designated during planting with a radius of one meter. It must be constantly loosened and freed from weeds. Mulch is applied around the plum tree at the end of winter on the snow, and in the fall, when digging, peat or humus is embedded in the ground. The circle is freed from mulching when the summer is rainy and there is already enough moisture.

Forming the correct shape

Plum trees are pruned regularly, in spring and autumn. It is needed to form the crown and thin it out. The procedure is carried out with well-sharpened tools: pruning shears, saw, garden knife.

After pruning, the branches are coated with varnish or disinfectant solutions.

In the first year of life, the tree is pruned so that the trunk is a meter high. The next year, skeletal branches of the 1st order are formed, and the trunk is shortened by one growth bud. In an adult tree, you need to free the trunk from the side shoots, cutting off last year's growth by half.

In the Urals, it is better to form a crown in early spring, and carry out sanitary and anti-aging pruning in the fall.

Preventive actions

Prevention measures against diseases consist of treating plums with Bordeaux mixture in spring and autumn after harvesting. Loosening and digging up the tree trunk circle after the snow melts and before wintering will help protect against pests and pathogenic microorganisms. You must not forget about cleaning the garden from plant waste, burning leaves and trimmed branches.

To protect the plum trunk from burns, it is necessary to whiten it in spring and autumn.And smoke piles in the garden will save you from spring frosts.

Preparing and covering the tree for the winter

Before wintering, the plum requires abundant watering and fertilizing with mineral fertilizers. The young tree requires shelter. Therefore, it can be wrapped in 2-3 layers of spandbond or other non-woven material. Small trees are covered with spruce branches.

Common gardening mistakes

Among the common mistakes in growing stone fruit crops is that:

1. Self-sterile varieties remain without pollinators.
2. Plants are not protected from diseases and pests, and therefore do not bear fruit.
3. Young trees are poorly watered, and they take a long time to develop.
4. Swampy and acidic soils lead to plant death.
5. The selected variety does not correspond to the growing region, therefore it does not bear fruit and withers.

Before you start growing plums, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules of the plant’s agricultural technology and consult with experienced gardeners about choosing a variety.