Main characteristics of apple varieties:Apple is an easy-to-grow tree, suitable for all types of soil. High and stable yield, no dangerous pests. If the tree is cut early, it will bear fruit early next year.Techniques for planting and caring for apple trees:

Planting season and spacing

The main planting season is spring, February to April. If the seedlings are grafted early, they can be planted from November. In spring, if the weather is favorable, the tree grows quickly. At the end of the year, the tree will bear a lot of fruit. The usual planting distance is 3 – 4 m per tree.

How to dig a planting hole, base fertilizer:

Planting hole size 40x40x40 cm. Base fertilizer for each hole is 15-20 kg of composted manure + 0.5 kg of superphosphate + 0.3 kg of potassium + 0.2 kg of lime powder. Fertilizers are mixed well with soil, put into the hole, and raised 20cm above the ground (do not plant trees directly with fertilizer).

If there is no manure, you can use microbial phosphate fertilizer with the amount of 5-7kg/hole.

How to plant:Dig a small hole in the middle of the mound, place the tree pot horizontally with the mound surface, and compact the soil around the pot. Cover the base with straw and sprinkle a layer 2-3cm thick. Water each tree immediately after planting with 2-3 buckets of water

.Care and fertilization:

In the first week, water the tree once a day in the morning or late afternoon, one bucket of water each time. After that, water every 2-3 days until the end of the month. When the tree grows, water less frequently, ensuring the soil is always moist.

It can be said that apple trees need water very much during the growing stage, especially when they are developing. If there is drought and not enough water, the fruit will be small, the skin will be thick, the taste will be astringent, and the fruit will be of poor quality.

Every year, it is necessary to fertilize the tree after harvesting and pruning, to restore the strength of the tree for the next spring crop, with the following amount of fertilizer per tree: 30-50kg of manure, 5-8kg of phosphate, 3 to 5kg of potassium, 0.5-1kg of urea.

Pestcontrol Diseases

– Root rot, stem cracking: Often found in wet areas, fungi penetrate and damage the taproot, then destroy the entire root causing the tree to die. Sick trees have a sparse canopy, the leaves turn light green and fall off, the branches gradually die from the top down to the main trunk. Prevention is to avoid excessive moisture in the root area, early detection of longitudinal cracks and blackening in the wood vessels.

– Branch drying disease: Caused by the fungus Colletotrichum cloeosporiodes penetrating the branches causing the branches to dry and die. On old fruit, the fungus penetrates through the wound causing the fruit to soften. In addition, the disease is also caused by direct sunlight for a long time.

– Diseases on mature fruits: Fungi invade when the fruit is developing, creating small black spots on the fruit skin, shaped like a plus sign on the fruit skin. These black spots crack and split, reducing the appearance and selling price. Prevention requires creating an airy garden, cleaning up debris, and spraying fungicides after fruit set. Pests

– Root-damaging insects: Commonly found objects such as termites, grubs, crickets, ants, especially mealybugs, concentrated in the soil layer from 0 – 50cm above the ground, diseased plants have pale yellow leaves, weakened plants are easy to die.– Stink bugs: Sucking sap from young shoots, young leaves causing wilting and bunches of shoots, especially young fruits, creating black spots on the fruit skin, causing many fruits to fall, being the gateway for many types of fungal diseases, significantly reducing productivity and fruit quality.– Stem and branch borers: Appearing from the middle of the rainy season quite often in the beginning to the middle of the dry season, although the holes are small and the tunnels are short, they reduce the growth and development of the tree and branches are easy to break.Leaf-cutting worms, leaf rollers, red spiders, fruit borers. In June and July, there are hair clippers that lay eggs on the tree trunk. To prevent, use the following drugs:- To prevent sucking insects, use the drugs: Sherpa (0.1%), Trebon (0.1-0.2%), Depterx (0.2%), Dantiol (0.1-0.2%), Monitor (0.1-0.2%), Bi 58, Basudin.- To prevent leaf-eating insects, use one of the following drugs: Azodrin 50 DD (0.2%), Score (0.05%), Alieett (0.3%), Mancozeb (0.25%).- For ants, termites, beetles that damage roots and stems, use the drugs: Basudin, Lidanfor, Sevidol to treat. Use one of the above drugs, mix 1 drug – 10 sand and sprinkle around the base and hole.Apple PruningDepending on the characteristics of each apple variety and the purpose of production, there are different ways to prune apples. Apple fruit branches grow on the mother tree branches in the spring of the same year, so prune the branches so that many branches grow in the spring, strong branches, to have high yield. There are 2 ways to prune apple trees as follows:- Light pruning: Do it regularly every year after harvest to have high and stable fruit yield.- Hard pruning: The purpose is to create a canopy for young trees 1-3 years old and for large trees, cut all branches leaving only a stump of 3 large branches grown in the previous year to create a canopy for high yield.HarvestingApples are harvested 2-3 months after flowering, when the fruit is large, plump and bright in color. Harvest apples manually and avoid crushing during transportation.