Cherry Malyshka: Description And Characteristics Of The Variety, Advantages And Disadvantages, Planting And Care Features + Photos And Reviews

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 22:26

Favorite Baby: a beautiful cherry in your garden

The Malyshka cherry variety is well known to Russian gardeners. The tree is small, unpretentious to care for, disease resistant. The baby continues to take root in our gardens and gain popularity.

Content

• 1 Description of cherry variety Malyshka

  1.1 Video about the Saratov variety

• 2 Advantages and disadvantages: table

• 3 Planting cherries

  • 3.1 Video on how to properly plant a young tree
  • 3.2 Landing dates
  • 3.3 Selection and preparation of the landing site
  • 3.4 Preparation of planting holes
  • 3.5 Step by step planting process
  • 3.6 Selection of seedlings

• 4 Cherry care

  • 4.1 Watering, loosening, weeding, mulching
  • 4.2 Fertilization
  • 4.3 Video: caring for cherries
• 5 Preparing for winter

• 6 Cropping

  6.1 Video: pruning cherries

• 7 Diseases and pests

  • 7.1 Table: cherry diseases and treatment
  • 7.2 Photo: cherry diseases
  • 7.3 Cherry pests
  • 7.4 Table: Cherry pests and control measures
  • 7.5 Photo: cherry pests
• 8 Harvesting
• 9 Reviews

Description of cherry variety Malyshka

The external attractiveness of the Baby's fetuses is rated 5

The variety was bred at the Saratov Experimental Gardening Station and in 1995 was included in the State Register with a recommendation for cultivation in the Lower Volga region. The authors of the variety are breeders Kruglova, Dymnova and Kaverin. The correct name for the variety is Saratov baby, but among the people, then in literature, they began to call it simply Baby.

The baby is a hybrid of cherry and sweet cherry, therefore, like other hybrids, it is distinguished by good winter hardiness, abundant harvest and sweet berries. In addition, hybrids do not suffer from coccomycosis and moniliosis. The cherry tree of this variety is fast growing with a compact, spherical, slightly spreading crown. Height 2 or 2.5 meters. The bark is smooth brownish, the shoots are thick arcuate. Winter hardiness of wood and buds is high. The leaves are large with a concave plate. Most of the fruits are formed on bouquet branches. The plant is self-fertile, that is, it needs pollinators. The varieties Lyubskaya, Turgenevka, Molodezhnaya and Nord Star are suitable.

The baby's fruits are the same size, 5 grams each, slightly flattened. The color is dark red, the skin is of medium thickness, the pulp is also dark red, juicy. Fruits contain 7.5% sugars, 1.2% acids, 8 mg ascorbic acid per 100 grams. Tasting score 4.4 points. Baby begins to bear fruit at 3-4 years old. Average yield per adult tree is 15 kg. Trees bloom in mid-May, and berries ripen after June 20. The main purpose of the variety is table.

Video about the Saratov variety

The baby is lush blooming

Advantages and disadvantages: table

Advantages	disadvantages
Compactness of wood	Doesn't bear fruit without pollinators
Frost resistance
High yield
Early ripening
Excellent presentation
Good taste
Suitability for transport
Does not suffer from some fungal diseases
Suitable for freezing

Fruits of the Baby have a wonderful presentation

Cherry planting

Preparations for planting cherries begin well in advance. If planting is planned in the spring, it is better to prepare the planting holes in the fall. In any case, the finished planting pit should stand for at least a few weeks. This is necessary for the soil to restore its structure, microflora, and settle.

Video on how to plant a young tree correctly

Landing dates

It is believed that in the southern regions of the country, cherries are best planted in the fall until mid-October. It will take root before the cold weather, and in the spring it will quickly grow. In the north, it's the opposite. When planting in spring, the trees will completely take root by the fall and grow ripe wood necessary for successful wintering and subsequent growth. Spring planting is carried out before bud break. You can transplant cherries from pots, closed containers, or with a clod of earth in the summer.

Selection and preparation of the landing site

Cherry is very sensitive to light, so you should choose a place where it will not be shaded by buildings or tall trees throughout the day. It will grow beautifully even with partial shading, but the twigs will begin to stretch towards the sun and form fruit buds only in the illuminated areas of the shoots, mainly at the ends. Such trees bear little fruit.

The next requirement concerns the depth of groundwater. If it is less than two meters to them, then you can try to plant a tree on a loose mound.

The ideal pH value for cherries is 6. On acidic soils, it withers rather than grows, so if necessary, you should adjust the acidity of the soil with lime, gypsum or dolomite flour.

In cherry neighbors, you can choose raspberries, strawberries or grapes, but apples and pears are not suitable. These trees oppress each other.

The plot intended for cherries is dug up and weeds, especially perennial ones, are removed. Align so that water does not stagnate in the recesses and mark the pits. Since Baby's growth is small, the distance between plants can be no more than 3 meters. Planning should include a site for planting pollinator varieties.

A sunny place is allocated for cherries.

Preparation of planting holes

The sizes of the planting holes depend on the soil on the site. If the soil is loose, it will be enough to dig a hole 50 cm deep and 60 cm in diameter. If the ground is dense, poorly permeable to water, the depth should be 60 cm, and the diameter 80 cm.

The soil to be removed is laid out on two sides. The upper, fertile layer is about the size of a shovel's bayonet on one side, the lower one on the other. After that, the top layer of soil is mixed with humus or compost in a one-to-one ratio with the addition of half a liter of ash and returned to the pit. Pour 2 buckets of water there to seal. The pit is ready. You should leave it for a while.

A planting hole for spring planting is prepared in autumn

Step-by-step planting process

1. Remove the top layer of soil from the hole in such a way that the root collar of the seedling is flush with the soil surface.
2. In the center, form a mound and place a seedling on it, straightening the roots on the sides. They should fit freely without kinking or twisting.
3. Install the landing peg.
4. Fill the roots with small portions of earth, making sure that there are no voids under them.
5. Pour half a bucket of water into the hole to compact the soil, and then continue filling. If the enriched soil is not enough, the top layer can be put the earth from the bottom of the pit.
6. Lightly compact the soil around the stem, tie it to the planting peg and form a watering circle.
7. Pour with two buckets of water and when the water is absorbed, mulch the soil.

The root collar should be flush with the surface

Selection of seedlings

When choosing seedlings, you first need to determine the place of purchase in order to purchase exactly the variety that is announced. It is better to buy planting material from nurseries or specialized stores. It is desirable to acquire annual seedlings, they take root better. Their growth does not exceed 1 meter, the number of lateral branches is 8-10, the length of the roots is 25 cm. The root and trunk should not have spots, outgrowths, thickenings, scratches, broken branches.

Be sure to inspect the vaccination site. It should be 5–15 cm higher than the root collar. At this point, the stem is slightly curved. The twigs and roots should also be slightly bent. In a good seedling, they are elastic to the touch and easily, without crunch, bend into a ring. If they crunch or bend with effort, the seedlings do not need to be purchased, they are most likely overdried.

Cherry Baby for normal fruiting requires additional pollinators, therefore, when buying, you should definitely find out about the availability of suitable varieties and purchase them too.

Cherry care

Cherry care consists of simple procedures that you can use to get good harvests.

Watering, loosening, weeding, mulching

Freshly planted cherries are often watered, especially on soils that do not retain water. In the early days, you need to ensure that the soil is moist. As they take root for the first 2-3 months, you can switch to watering once every 2 weeks, and fully rooted cherry trees are watered 4 times per season. This is done during especially important periods of plant development:

• after flowering,
• during the pouring of fruits,
• after harvest,
• in early or mid-October (pre-winter watering).

Watering rates are selected depending on the age of the plant. For an annual tree, you should spend 2 buckets of water, for an adult 5–7. The indicated terms and norms are valid only for an ordinary summer, but if it is dry, additional watering is needed, and in case of prolonged rains, it may be completely abandoned.

Cherries are watered not often, but abundantly

Loosening is carried out after each watering. This procedure is most relevant for cherries, because it especially needs air flow to the roots for normal development. That is why cherries grow better on light soils. Loosening is carried out after the water is absorbed and the surface of the earth dries slightly. The resulting crust must be broken.

The fact is that the layer hardened after rain or watering interferes with the normal flow of oxygen to the roots, and this makes it difficult or completely stops their nutrition. In addition, a lot of moisture leaves the ground through cracks in the crust. Regular loosening is also useful because weeding occurs along the way. Weeding is necessary as weeds draw water from the soil and create a moisture zone that is comfortable for the development of fungal spores, pathogenic bacteria, and shelter for insect parasites.

It is necessary to loosen the near-trunk circle near the cherry not deeply so as not to damage the roots by about 8-10 cm, and at the very trunk of a young tree by 2-4 cm. In autumn and spring, instead of loosening, they dig up the near-trunk circle, This is done because the loose earth freezes less and also in order to destroy the winter shelters of insect pests and, thus, destroy.

It is useful to keep the trunk circle under mulch. It retains moisture and, as it decays, serves as a fertilizer for the tree. Compost, sawdust, straw are good. You can mulch the tree trunk circle with cones, which look very picturesque.

The trunk circle, mulched with cones, looks elegant

Fertilizer

The cherries are fed at the same time as they are watered. From spring to half of summer, plants need nitrogen fertilizers in order to quickly build up green mass. You can use urea or ammonium nitrate from a store with a dosage according to the instructions, or you can fertilize with mullein, chicken manure infusion or vermicompost.

To prepare fertilizer from cow dung or poultry manure, it is placed in a container and filled with water in a ratio of one to three by volume. Insist from three to seven days. The resulting mullein infusion is diluted with water 10 times (1 liter per bucket of water), and bird droppings 20 times (0.5 liters per bucket of water). After dilution, watered at the rate: 1 bucket per 1 sq. meter of the projection of the crown. Biohumus is also insisted. Proportion: 3 glasses of vermicompost for 1 bucket of water. Insist for a day. No need to breed. The watering rate is the same.

In the described way, the first and second feeding is carried out. After harvesting, nitrogen fertilizers are no longer needed, therefore the third and fourth feeding should be carried out with superphosphate. Dosage of the drug according to the instructions on the package. You can replace superphosphate with ash, 0.5 liters per 1 sq. meter of the projection of the crown. There are three options for fertilizing:

• sprinkle the preparation evenly over the trunk circle, and then loosen,
• dig the annular grooves starting from a distance of 50 cm from the trunk, scatter fertilizer over them, and then close them up with a flat cutter. The last groove should extend 50 cm beyond the crown projection, because the root system has a large area,
• dissolve the required amount of fertilizer in water and water.

Water the tree after fertilizing. Remember that:

• the first two years after planting cherries do not need to be fertilized,
• feeding is also not applied if the annual growth of shoots is more than 50 cm,
• overfed trees tolerate winter worse,
• organic top dressing in the form of rotted manure, compost is applied in 1 bucket per 1 sq. meter no more than 1 time in 3-4 years,
• once every 4–5 years, lime or dolomite flour is added to the trunk circle in an amount of about 400 grams per 1 square meter. If the soil in the area is acidic, the acidity in the near-trunk circle should be determined annually and, if necessary, adjusted.

Video: cherry care

Preparing for winter

Cherry varieties Malyshka tolerates cold well, even the buds do not freeze, however, some activities at the end of the gardening season should be carried out.

First, you need to protect the trunks of young cherries from mice and hares. To do this, they are bandaged with strips cut from sugar bags or old tights. You can put plastic bottle tubes on the barrels or wrap the barrel with wire mesh to a height of at least one meter. All these protective structures are removed at the beginning of the snow melting, otherwise the bark can support.

Secondly, trunks and skeletal branches should be whitened to prevent winter bark burns and destroy pests. Whitewashing is performed with a lime solution with the addition of 10 grams of copper sulfate per 1 bucket.

Whitewashing protects cherry trees from winter burns

Pruning

Cherry refers to plants that need to form a crown, remove damaged and unnecessary branches. Without this, it thickens very quickly and bears fruit poorly.

Sanitary pruning is done as broken or diseased branches are found.

Formative - over several years, usually in the spring. The purpose of formative pruning is to grow strong stems and skeletal (growing directly from the stem) branches. Since the Baby is a short tree and it is not necessary to limit its growth, the forming pruning touches the branches. Tree formation begins in the second year after planting. At this time, the plant grows to a height of about 2 meters and has 10-12 lateral branches.

Trimming starts at the bottom. At a height of 40 cm, a strong branch is chosen and shortened by one third. This will be the first skeletal branch. Above the trunk, choose another strong branch, which is directed to the other side of the trunk. The distance between them should be at least 10-15 cm. Cut it off by one third too. In the same way, you should select the third skeletal branch and cut it. As a result, the lower layer of skeletal branches was formed.

After that, you should start forming the second tier. In varieties such as Malyshka, it consists of one branch, located 60–70 cm higher than the third. The last fifth skeletal branch is formed another 60–70 cm higher. All other shoots below the fifth skeletal branch to the very ground should be removed from the trunk to a ring, that is, cut off at the level of the trunk surface without hemp. In the subsequent time, all seedlings appearing on the trunk must be removed in the same way.

The next year, the cut skeletal branches will give their lateral shoots. From them, skeletal branches of the second order should be formed, by analogy with last year's process. There should be 3-4 of them and directed to the sides. Shoots growing at a distance of 50-60 cm from the tree trunk are selected. Shoots growing up, down and in the center of the crown are cut into a ring.

In subsequent years, every spring, all last year's shoots should be shortened by one third for better branching. After the beginning of fruiting, the tree trunk is cut 20–25 cm above the skeletal branches. The cut is made over the kidney, pointing to the side.

A year after the beginning of fruiting, rejuvenating pruning should be started, it consists in clearing the middle of the crown from dead and old 6-year-old branches that have buds only at the very tip.

Video: pruning cherries

Diseases and pests

Cherries, like other fruit trees, are affected by various diseases. If you closely monitor the plantings, you can see the onset of the disease and take timely action.

Table: cherry diseases and treatments

Disease	Description	Control measures
Clasterosporium disease	Fungal disease. The source of infection is plant remains of diseased plants: leaves, wood. Small spots of red-brown color on the leaves subsequently with a crimson edging. As the infection progresses, leaf tissue necrosis occurs and through holes appear. Leaves fall en masse.	Cut off all affected leaves and branches. Cover the cuts with a lime mortar with the addition of copper or iron sulfate. Treating trees with 1% or, in case of extensive damage, 3% Bordeaux liquid. If necessary, the processing is repeated.
Rust	Fungal disease. Swollen, orange-brown, rust - like spots form on the leaves.	Collect and destroy the affected leaves immediately. Hom preparation before and after flowering. Dosage: 40 grams per 5 liters of water. Consumption per adult tree. The processing is abundant. After fruiting, treatment with 1% Bordeaux liquid.
Scab	Brown spots appear on the leaves. Leaves curl, dry, crumble. The fruits stop growing and dry out.	Remnants of leaves, damaged fruits are destroyed. The soil is dug up, loosened. Spraying with 1% Bordeaux liquid in the budding phase, after flowering and harvesting.

Photo: cherry disease

Clasterosporium disease can damage all foliage

The scab dries up the leaves and fruits

Rust damages leaves, reduces yield

Cherry pests

Garden pests, unfortunately, do not bypass cherries. Timely processing of trees and soil allows you to get rid of them.

Table: cherry pests and control measures

Pests	Description	Necessary activities
Cherry fly	The cherry fly lays the larvae in the cherry fruit. A massive invasion can ruin the entire crop. The insect hibernates in the surface layer of the soil.	Repeated loosening of the trunk circle since spring. Destruction of aphids, as the cherry fly feeds on its secretions. Spray from the beginning of acacia flowering with preparations Karate, Spark, Lightning. Repeat after 2 weeks.
Slimy sawfly	The larvae of the mucous sawfly eat away the upper surface of the leaves. Leaves dry. With a large number of insects, the foliage is damaged so much that the tree does not have time to prepare for winter.	Autumn and spring digging of near-trunk circles. Spraying trees and soil before bud break with urea solution: 700 grams per bucket of water. Preparations Kemifos, Fufanon in a solution of 10 grams per bucket of water.
Hawthorn larva	The caterpillars of the hawthorn butterfly actively eat foliage and can leave the tree naked.	Manual collection of caterpillars. Preparations Metaphos, Teofos, Alatar, Kinmiks, Inta-Vir according to the instructions. It is impossible to process during flowering.

Photo: cherry pests

The slimy sawfly feeds on cherry leaves. With a mass invasion, it can cause great harm

The hawthorn caterpillar eats cherry leaves, reaching 45 cm in length

Cherry fly larvae can ruin the entire crop

Harvesting

Baby matures amicably. The variety is early, therefore it seems especially tasty. Cherries are harvested in dry weather. Baby's fruits tolerate transportation well, do not wrinkle, but it is still better to collect them not in deep buckets, but in small containers. The harvested fruits should be removed from sunlight. They are not kept fresh for long. In the refrigerator for a maximum of 10 days.

The best use for cherries is to eat them fresh, straight from the branch. The usual blanks are also very good:

• Jam,
• compote,
• jam, dried and sun-dried berries,
• the juice,
• tinctures and liqueurs,
• freezing.

Cherries make excellent dumplings, pies, desserts.

Cherries in chocolate are every child's dream

Reviews

The baby has earned the sympathy of gardeners with a combination of diminutiveness, unpretentiousness, and excellent taste of fruits. This variety is not afraid of frost, gives a bountiful and early harvest and remains in demand.