How to plant a Manchurian nut in your garden
Manchurian walnut is a rare ornamental tree with a wide crown and valuable fruits. Many gardeners are interested in how to plant a Manchurian nut, because the plant is unpretentious in care and excellent frost resistance. Thanks to this, the tree can be grown in almost any region of Russia.
Botanical features of the Manchu walnut
Main features of Manchurian walnut:
- The height of the tree, depending on the growing conditions, can reach 25-35 m. The trunk diameter is 70-100 cm. The bark is gray with noticeable veins. Due to its value and beautiful structure, it is widely used in furniture production.
- The diameter of the Manchurian walnut crown is 7-10 m. The shape is most often spherical, spreading.
- The leaves of the Manchu walnut are spreading and wide, reaching 60-100 cm in length. The color of the foliage is grayish, by summer it becomes rich green, in September-October it is slightly golden.
- The inflorescences of the tree are divided into female and male. The first ones look like small brushes, the second ones look like lush and beautiful "earrings". The flowering period lasts from late May to the first half of June.
- The oblong fruits of the Manchu nut are collected in bunches of 4-8 pieces. Due to its many beneficial properties, it is widely used in traditional medicine.
The root system of the Manchurian walnut is highly developed and massive, due to which the tree perfectly tolerates strong gusts of wind. But such strong and spreading roots require a lot of space, so the tree should only be grown in large backyards.
How to plant a Manchu nut - basic rules
Growing a Manchu nut is a laborious process, but if the basic rules and nuances are observed, even a novice gardener will not have any difficulties. For successful cultivation, it is necessary to choose the right site suitable for a spreading root system, soil, and also be sure to take into account the optimal planting dates.
Site and soil selection
Before planting Manchu nuts, you need to take into account that it is extremely demanding not only on the size of the site, but also on the quality of the soil. Before growing a tree, it is advisable to drain and aerate the soil. For this, the soil at the site is loosened, and broken brick, crushed stone or small pebbles are added to the planting hole to prevent moisture stagnation.
The tree belongs to light-loving crops, so for planting it is best to choose well and evenly lit areas. But the planting of Manchurian nut seedlings should not be carried out in direct sunlight, as they can burn the foliage. To protect the seedlings, you should organize a temporary shelter from a profiled sheet or slate.
Planting dates for Manchurian nuts
The optimal time for planting Manchu walnut seeds is the first half of May. For reliable rooting of the plant, the seed material must be pre-soaked for at least 48 hours.
Planting the Manchurian walnut with seedlings is best done in the second half of September or early October, so that the young trees have time to take root before the first frost.
Planting Manchurian walnut seedlings
There are two ways to plant Manchu nuts - by saplings or seeds. When growing hazel with seedlings, it should be borne in mind that even a young tree has a powerful and well-developed root system, and its size can be 2-3 times the size of the aboveground part of the seedling.
Manchurian nut planting algorithm:
- Prepare the landing hole in advance - its depth should be at least 80-100 cm, and the diameter should be about 50 cm.
- Pour a layer of drainage into the hole - broken brick, rubble or pebbles.
- Pour a mixture of fertile soil and sand with the addition of humus on top of the drainage layer. Fresh humus cannot be used, as it can burn the roots of the seedling.
- Place the seedling vertically in the hole and attach it to the peg.
- Fill the hole with the remaining soil-sand mixture and tamp lightly.
After planting the seedling, mulch the trunk circle peat or sawdust - this will help protect the root system from possible frost and retain moisture in the soil. When planting several trees, it is necessary to leave a distance of 5-7 m between them.
Planting with seeds
Planting a Manchu nut can be carried out not only with seedlings, but also with seeds. For this purpose, whole, healthy nuts are used, without dark spots, mold and damage. To ensure good germination of seeds, you need to take fresh or annual fruits.
Landing technique:
- spray the nuts with kerosene - this will not affect their growth, but will protect them from pests and rodents;
- add 250-350 g of tree bark to fertile soil;
- dig up the site and form the beds;
- put the nuts on the edge at a distance of 8-12 cm.
Cover the seed beds with soil, water abundantly and mulch with sawdust or foliage. For the next year, choose the strongest and strongest seedlings and transplant them to a permanent place.
Manchu Nut Care
Knowing how to plant a Manchurian nut, it is important to know the standard agrotechnical measures - systematic watering, digging in a tree trunk, pruning and forming a crown. Proper care will ensure not only the active growth of the tree, but also its excellent fruiting.
Watering
Manchurian walnut is a moisture-loving crop. When growing a tree, you need to ensure that the soil in the trunk circle does not dry out for a long time. The most important is regular watering in the first 1-2 years after planting a young seedling.
During this period, the Manchu nut must be watered at least 2-3 times a week, after which the amount of moisture is reduced to 1 in 10-12 days. Adult hazels can be watered much less frequently, once every 4 weeks.
Under an adult tree, you will need to pour at least 2 buckets of water. After irrigation, the soil in the trunk circle should be mulched and all weeds should be removed at the same time. Then you can mulch the soil with needles, straw or dry, chopped leaves. This will keep moisture in the ground for a long time.
Crown pruning
Manchurian walnut pruning is carried out regularly - it ensures the rapid and full development of culture. It is best carried out during the period of winter dormancy, that is, from November to the second half of March.
During sanitary pruning, all dried, deformed and damaged shoots are removed, as well as branches that have begun to grow inside the crown and thicken it strongly. After that, it is not recommended to trim the shoots until September - this can provoke re-bud formation and growth.
Crown formation
The Manchurian nut is capable of forming itself independently. In the case of using a tree in landscape design, it can be given a different shape. The nut comes in the form of a sprawling, spherical bush with a lot of shoots or a neat palm tree.
The formation of the crown of the Manchurian walnut in the form of a palm tree is most often used in cases where the tree is planted in a small area or there are tall objects next to it that impede the growth of spreading shoots. For a palm tree, a trunk is created without shoots and buds about 2 m high. Starting from this level, there are skeletal branches, which, when growing, form a high and openwork crown.
When a sprawling bush with a spherical crown is formed, the lower shoots are shortened by about 2/3 of the length. In this case, the shortening length gradually decreases to 1/3 of the length towards the central part of the future spherical crown.
In a similar way, manipulations are repeated in the direction from the middle of the crown to its top. But the shoots are shortened in the reverse order - from 1/3 of the length, gradually increasing to 2/3 of the length. To create a neat and attractive spherical crown shape, strict symmetry must be observed.
Regardless of the chosen method, the crown can be formed no earlier than 2-3 years after planting the Manchurian nut seedling. The optimal time for the procedure is June and the first half of July, after the completion of active sap flow.
Manchurian walnut is a rare tree from the Walnut family that can decorate any home garden. Subject to all the rules of cultivation and care, the plant will not only become a spectacular element of the landscape composition, but will also bring a generous harvest of useful nuts.