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There are not so many varieties of apples that, having a good fruit taste, would be stored until the end of spring, practically without losing their consumer qualities. One of them is Bogatyr.
The history of the appearance of the variety
In 1926, Ukrainian breeder Sergei Fedorovich Chernenko was invited to work in a nursery run by Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin. There he began work on filling out the "Apple Calendar of SF Chernenko", designed to become a set of apple varieties that allow you to consume healthy fruits throughout the year.
One of the first in the “calendar” was the late winter variety Bogatyr. As his parents were chosen: Antonovka, from which the new variety received winter hardiness and unpretentiousness, and Renet Landsberg, which gave him good taste and large fruit size. The variety turned out to be successful, widespread and still lives. To increase its winter hardiness, the daughter of Sergei Fedorovich, who also became a breeder, crossed Bogatyr with Red Kitayka. The result was a wonderful variety in Memory of Budagovsky, which in many ways surpassed its parent.
Why do gardeners love this old apple tree so much? To understand this, let's compose a detailed apple variety description Bogatyr, reviews of which are most often positive, and let's look at the photo.
Description of the variety
Apple tree varieties The hero is distinguished by great vigor of growth and reaches a height of 4.5 m if it is grafted on a seed stock. The crown is up to 6 m wide. The tree is powerful with strong branches, the lower branches are located almost parallel to the ground. If you plant an apple tree Bogatyr on a dwarf rootstock, the size of the tree will be much smaller, but the crown will still be spreading.
The shoots are reddish brown. Large leaves are dark green, leathery with a crenate edge, slightly curved at the ends.
The flowering of this apple variety takes place at a later date. Flowers are smaller than average in size, almost flat, their color is white-pink.
The Bogatyr apple tree begins to bear fruit 6 years after grafting, specimens grown on dwarf rootstocks a little earlier. Usually 3-4-year-old shoots bear fruit, but sometimes there are apples on 2-year-old wood. The main fruits are concentrated on the ringlets.
In the central apple, the peduncle is long, and in the lateral ones it is thick and short, it has a thickening at the point of attachment to the fruit.
The yield of the Bogatyr apple tree is not only constant, without periodicity, but also high. Already from a 10-year-old tree, you can remove up to 60 kg of apples, and 17-year-olds will yield up to 80 kg of fruits. But this is not the limit. Experienced gardeners, with good care, remove up to 120 kg of apples from an adult tree.
Apples of the Bogatyr variety, presented in the photo, deserve a detailed description.
The size of the fruit is impressive and justifies the name of the variety. Even the average weight of apples ranges from 150 to 200 g. The largest specimens grow up to 400 g.
The apple shape is typical of Calvilles. They are flat-round, have a wide base and apex, ribbing is clearly visible on them. Rustiness takes up not only the entire funnel, but often goes beyond its limits.
The color of the fruit in removable maturity is light green, during storage they turn yellow. In some years, Bogatyr apples are decorated with a red blush, usually on the side more illuminated by the sun.
Apples have a pleasant sweet and sour taste, a good combination of acid and sugars makes it harmonious.The apple is crispy with a fairly juicy snow-white pulp. This indicator largely depends on the observance of the timing of picking apples, which needs to be discussed separately.
Usually apples of late winter varieties are harvested at the very end of September, but not allowing them to freeze. It is very important for the Bogatyr variety that the fruits reach full removable ripeness. Apples that have not picked up juice become wrinkled during storage and lose their taste. Such fruits will in no way be able to lie for the entire prescribed period, and in the Bogatyr variety it lasts until the end of May, and sometimes even until June.
You should not try them before - they will be tough and tasteless.
The winter hardiness of this variety is estimated at an average level, therefore, Bogatyr realizes the highest potential for yield and quality of fruits when grown in the Central Black Earth Region, although it is zoned in the North-West and in the Central Region. The apple tree of this variety is affected by scab to a small extent.
Composition of apples
Bogatyr apples are low in calories - only 43 kcal / 100g. They contain a lot of pectin substances, they contain P active substances - about 135 mg and vitamin C - about 13 mg for every 100 g of pulp, which is a lot for a winter variety of apples.
The maximum benefit and quality of the fruit can only be achieved with proper care and planting.
Choice of place and timing of boarding
If the apple tree is grown on a seed stock, it needs room for growth. Taking into account the spreading crown, the distance between neighboring trees should not be less than 6 m. The roots of the apple tree penetrate deeply into the soil and therefore are sensitive to high humidity in the lower layers of the soil, which means that the groundwater should not be high. Water should not accumulate at the landing site even in the spring when the snow melts. The Bogatyr apple tree is very plastic and can adapt to any growing conditions, but it will be best when planted in fertile loams in a sunny place.
The timing of planting an apple tree largely depends on the growing region. In the south, autumn is long and the time between the end of the growing season and the onset of frost will be quite enough for the seedling to take root. In the middle lane and in the North-West, spring planting is preferable.
Seedling and planting pit preparation
Prepare the pit at least two weeks in advance for autumn planting and from fall for spring planting. The soil in the hole should be compacted so that there are no air bubbles left in the soil in which the roots of the seedling cannot develop. For the same purpose, you will need to lightly shake the apple tree seedling when planting, covering its roots with earth. It is very important that by the time of spring planting, fertilizers can already be well absorbed by the plants. Some of them, especially phosphoric ones, dissolve slowly. Therefore, it is better to prepare the nutrient soil for filling the hole in advance.
The depth and diameter of the pit on the loam is 0.8 m. Sandy loam soils are poorer, so the hole should be dug more. If the soil is completely clayey, you cannot plant an apple tree on a seed stock. It is possible to plant the graft on a dwarf rootstock, but in a loose mound.
If you bought an apple tree seedling with open roots, its root system must be placed in a container with water a day before planting. After that, the roots are examined, the damaged ones are cut off. To disinfect the sections, they must be covered with crushed coal. It is very good to dip the roots of the apple tree in a mash made of clay, to which a root formation stimulator has been added.
Planting an apple tree
An apple tree seedling with open roots is placed on a previously poured mound of fertile soil from the top layer of soil mixed with humus.Watered with a bucket of water, covered with the same soil, in the upper layer of which phosphorus and potash fertilizers are laid - 150 g per seedling. They form a "saucer", making a side out of the ground, into which another bucket of water is poured. The soil is covered with mulch.
A young seedling of the Bogatyr apple tree needs weekly watering, at least for the first 2 months. Then you can do this less often. In the first growing season, a young apple tree does not need feeding. But it is necessary to protect it from rodents in the fall.
Bogatyr apples are able to ensure the consumption of these useful fruits throughout the winter. Productivity and unpretentiousness, early enough entry into fruiting allow this apple tree to take its rightful place in every garden.
