Cherry Plum Kuban Comet: Description And Characteristics Of The Variety, Advantages And Disadvantages, Planting And Care Features With Photos And Reviews

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

Cherry plum Kuban comet - description of the variety and growing rules

The Kuban comet is not quite cherry plum, although many call it that. The correct name of the species to which it belongs is Russian plum. The small and rather sour fruits of its Caucasian relative, cherry plum, are incomparable with those that ripen in the gardens of the lucky owners of this variety. The appearance of the Kuban comet was facilitated by the painstaking work of scientists who created this amazing plum.

Content

• 1 History of creation and description of the hybrid cherry plum variety Kuban comet

  • 1.1 Description of the variety of Russian plum - video
  • 1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of the variety - table

• 2 Landing features

  • 2.1 Planting dates for plum trees

  • 2.2 Selection and preparation of a site for planting

    2.2.1 Preparation of planting holes

  • 2.3 Selection of seedlings with open and closed root systems

  • 2.4 Step by step process for planting seedlings with open root system

    2.4.1 Planting a plum tree - video

  • 2.5 Growing seedlings of the Kuban comet from cuttings

• 3 Plum care

  • 3.1 Crown formation and pruning

    3.1.1 Crown formation at the plum - video

  • 3.2 Watering

  • 3.3 Fertilizers

    3.3.1 Feeding plum trees during the growing season - table

  • 3.4 Caring for the plum tree trunk circle
  • 3.5 Preventive maintenance in spring and autumn

• 4 Diseases and pests of plum Kuban comet

  • 4.1 The most dangerous plum diseases Kuban comet - table

    • 4.1.1 Dangerous plum diseases Kuban comet - photo gallery
    • 4.1.2 Treatment of a tree from gum disease - video

  • 4.2 The most dangerous pests of plum Kuban comet - table

    4.2.1 Dangerous Plum Pests - Photo Gallery

• 5 Harvesting
• 6 Reviews of gardeners about the Russian plum Kuban comet

The history of the creation and description of the hybrid cherry plum variety Kuban comet

The hybrid cherry plum, to which the Kuban comet belongs, was created by Russian breeders. The history of its appearance goes back to the distant 40s of the last century. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, many abandoned gardens remained in the Crimea. Scientists of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden found there several cherry plum trees with sour fruits, which ripened a month earlier than domestic plum varieties. By crossing this variety with a large-fruited Chinese plum, we got a new species that had many advantages: large fruits ripened early and had excellent taste. Only one circumstance upset the breeders: the varieties obtained did not differ in winter hardiness.

The fruits of the Kuban comet at the time of full ripeness are not only tasty, but also very beautiful

To adapt the Russian plum to the more difficult conditions of the Center and North-West of our country, in the Kuban, in the Crimean experimental selection station (Krymsk, Krasnodar Territory), they crossed the Pionerka cherry plum with the Skoroplodnaya Chinese plum. The hybrid, created in 1977, was named the Kuban comet. The plant is suitable for growing not only in the south, but also withstands more difficult climatic conditions. There is information that a tree of this variety, growing in the Vladimir region, not only survived, but also gave an excellent harvest after winter frosts of -39 ^o C.

The tree of the Kuban comet is low, the crown is wide, sparse. The bark is gray, smooth. There is no tendency to underpin the root collar and cambium. Plants can be propagated by green or woody cuttings.

It can set the fruit alone, that is, the variety is self-fertile, but the presence of cherry plum or Chinese plum nearby increases the yield several times. The color of large fruits weighing up to 35 g is red. The more ripe the plum, the darker it is. The wax coating is thin and bluish. Under a significant crop load, the fruits may shrink.

The taste of the yellow juicy pulp is sour-sweet, very good. The tasting committee rated it 4.6 points.

Begins to give yields already 2-3 years after planting. And in the future, from one adult tree, subject to complete pollination, you can collect up to 150 kg of plums.

The crop ripens early - in the second half of July. After ripening, the fruits do not crumble for a long time, do not crack, and are transportable. They can ripen during storage. At a temperature of 0-1 ^o C in the refrigerator, they are stored up to two months. You can eat fresh, prepare various dishes, prepare various jams and juices for the winter. The yield of the Kuban comet is fantastic.

Description of the variety of Russian plum - video

Plum The Kuban comet tolerates the difficult climate of the Moscow region, Pskov and Leningrad regions. It grows in the Urals and the Far East. Trees are quite demanding on moisture, they do not tolerate drought well. In dry years, without additional watering, the fruits become smaller and crumble.

They rarely get sick, mainly where the rules for growing this type of plant are not followed. In unfavorable weather conditions, with high humidity, fruits can be affected by fruit rot. It is weakly affected by pests. With good care, the tree can live and bear fruit for up to 50 years.

To protect the branches of the Kuban comet loaded with crops, special props are required

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety - table

What is remarkable	What is undesirable
Early, 2-3 years after planting, entry into fruiting	Poorly detachable bone in fruits
Stable annual very high yield
Great fruit taste
Early ripening of the crop	When the crop is overloaded, the fruits become smaller
The ability of ripe fruits to hang on a branch for a long time without shedding and cracking
Large-fruited
Transportability	Low drought tolerance
The ability to ripen during storage
Consumption versatility
Long shelf life of fruits
Winter hardiness of trees	In damp and cool summers, plums can be affected by fruit rot.
The possibility of propagation by green cuttings
No tendency to support the root collar and cambium
Resistance to clasterosporium disease, monilial burn

The main advantage of the Kuban comet is a consistently high yield of delicious plums.

Landing features

To grow productive trees, you must follow a number of rules:

• Choose the right landing time.
• Place plum tree successfully.
• Prepare planting holes or fill mounds.
• Purchase seedlings.
• Plant correctly.

Planting dates for plum trees

The spring planting is considered the most successful for the Kuban comet, therefore, the seedlings purchased in the fall are kept in the prikop. The best way to preserve plants purchased in the fall is a basement or cellar. The roots overwinter well in wet sawdust.

In spring, seedlings should be planted as early as possible, as soon as the ground thaws, before the buds swell. Saplings with blossoming buds, it is permissible to plant only if they have a closed root system. Container-grown plants can be planted any time of the season.

Selection and preparation of a site for planting

Plum grows well in places sheltered from the cold northeast wind, on small slopes. At the walls of buildings or fences. It is better if this area is on a hill, since water and cold air accumulate in the lowlands.

A plum tree that blooms first in the garden is important to protect from cold winds by choosing the right place for planting

It is useful to dig up the soil in the future garden, remove the roots of perennial weeds and larvae of harmful insects. Especially carefully it is necessary to select the larvae of the May beetle and the scoop that can destroy young trees.

Mark the places for planting holes with pegs, and sow the rest of the soil with lawn grass. The most suitable for these purposes is the bent bent. It has a superficial root system that will not compete with the tree and take away nutrients from it.

Preparation of planting holes

The diameter of the planting pit is 1 m, and the depth is 70 cm. In heavy clay soil, holes are dug no deeper than 50 cm. Poor, heavy soil is replaced with light and nutritious.

1. The fertile soil of the upper soil layer, for convenience, is immediately poured into buckets, and the lower one is scattered over the site.
2. Any organic matter is placed at the bottom of the pit with a layer of 20–25 cm: leaf litter, chopped branches, hay, mowed grass and grass, etc., and tamped.
3. Several buckets of humus or compost, 500 g of ash from deciduous trees, 200 g of bone meal are added to the pit, the collected fertile soil is poured so that the pit is filled to the top.
4. The resulting mixture is watered abundantly to settle the soil.

After 2-3 weeks, a tree can be planted in this hole.

The planting hole for the seedling is filled with a nutritious soil mixture

Selection of seedlings with open and closed root systems

When planting plants with an open root system, it is best to choose one or two year old seedlings. Buy them in fruit nurseries, where a tree will be dug out in front of you.

Signs of healthy plants with open roots:

1. The vaccination site is easy to determine. If it is impossible to find the place of transition of the rootstock into the scion on the seedling, then it is grown from a cuttings or root shoots. The grafted seedlings begin to bear fruit earlier.
2. The foliage is green and healthy.
3. The bark is free from damage and stains.
4. Annual seedlings can have only one shoot with a thickness of at least 1.5 cm.
5. Biennial plants have the rudiments of skeletal branches.
6. The color of the bark corresponds to varietal, that is, gray. The bark is smooth, without cracks or damage.
7. Under the bark, if you make a small scratch, you can see a green cambium.
8. The roots of the seedling are numerous, fibrous, light on the cut.
9. There are no outgrowths, sagging, black spots on the roots; they do not break when bent.

In two-year-old plum seedlings, the grafting site is clearly visible

The step-by-step process of planting open-root seedlings

1. Before planting, place the roots of the selected seedlings in a solution of root-forming preparations (Kornevin, Heteroauxin, etc.) for 6–12 hours.
2. Make holes for roots in pits or mounds prepared in advance.
3. To fix the tree, drive a peg into the hole.
4. Place the plant vertically in the hole, north of the peg, spreading the roots to the sides. The ends of the roots should lie loosely, without upward bends.
5. Sprinkle with removed soil, shaking the seedling so that all voids around the roots are filled with soil.
6. The root collar of the tree should remain 5-7 cm above the soil level.
7. Make a hole around so that there is a hill around the stem.
8. Water abundantly, pouring in water gradually so that the earth around the roots settles and closes all the voids.
9. Mulch the soil of the trunk circle with any organic mulch: husk of sunflower seeds, pine nuts, rotted sawdust, crushed dry grass, etc.
10. Tie the seedling to the peg with a soft rope or twine, a figure-eight knot, so that the young bark is not damaged.
11. The top of a one-year-old seedling without branches is cut at a height of 40 - 60 cm, and in two-year-old plants with rudiments of skeletal branches, all branches are shortened by 1/3.

In order not to damage the tender bark of the seedling, it is tied to a peg with a "figure eight" knot with a soft rope or elastic band

The selection and planting of seedlings with a closed root system is carried out in the same way. Just a few additional criteria should be added:

• The seedling must be grown in the exact container in which it is sold. This is evidenced by the roots growing through the drainage holes.
• The lump of earth in the pot is dense, does not fall apart, the whole is braided with light thin roots.
• A small amount of weeds are allowed on the soil surface.
• If the soil in the container is covered with a layer of green moss, the seedling grows in the pot for a long time, the roots are intertwined too much. You do not need to take such a plant.

The advantage of planting such seedlings is the fact that when they are transferred to a permanent place, the roots are not damaged and the plant takes root faster.

Seedlings with a closed root system can be planted throughout the season

Planting a plum tree - video

Growing seedlings of the Kuban comet from cuttings

Plum Kuban comet can be propagated independently by cuttings, both lignified and green. In early summer, cuttings of 20-30 cm are cut from an annual shoot. Each should have at least 2-3 buds. The lower part of it is placed for 12 hours in a solution of root-forming drugs (Kornevin, Heteroauxin), after making notches on the bark.

In a greenhouse or on a sheltered bed, a substrate is prepared from peat with sand (1: 1). Prepared cuttings are planted obliquely, leaving 1 bud on the surface, watered abundantly and covered with a film to maintain constant humidity. Protect from the sun using shading, making sure that the temperature in the cuttings is kept at 25-30 ^o C. Roots should appear in 2-3 weeks. As soon as signs of growth appear, the film can be removed.

If the cuttings were planted in containers of 3-5 liters, with the onset of frost, it is better to lower them into the basement and keep them until spring. In such a container, a seedling can grow for 1–2 years.

Before the onset of constant frosts, the bed is sprinkled with dry peat, with a layer of at least 10 cm, covered with agrospan, and on top with a film, protecting it from moisture. In spring, rooted cuttings can be planted in a permanent place.

Before planting, plum cuttings should be held in a solution of preparations for better root formation.

Plum care

Plum needs regular pruning, thinning of ovaries, watering, feeding, caring for the trunk circle and trunk, preventive treatments for diseases and pests.

Crown formation and pruning

The crown of the Kuban comet can be formed in different ways: in tiers, a bowl, a bush, in the form of a ball. Depends on the tastes of the owner and the climate. The colder it is, the lower the crown should be.

In the middle lane, this plum is often grown by a bush. With a stem no higher than 20–30 cm and 4–5 skeletal branches arranged in a bowl shape, without a central conductor.

Too long young shoots are shortened in summer. As a rule, they are trimmed as soon as they reach a length of 80 cm, by 1/4 of the length.

Every year, branches thickening the crown are cut out, growing inside the crown. In the spring, sanitary pruning is carried out, removing damaged, dried, broken shoots.

Crown formation at the plum - video

Watering

In the spring, after the snow melts, the soil has enough moisture and the Kuban comet does not need watering. It is especially demanding on water during flowering and fruit setting. A weekly abundant watering with 2-3 buckets of water will fully cover the needs of the tree. Watering is stopped during the filling and ripening of the fruits, which, in the absence of excess moisture, will become sweeter. It is necessary to water the trees abundantly after harvest, if the summer is dry.

To make the trees better overwinter, before the onset of cold weather they are watered abundantly, pouring 3-4 buckets of water under each plant

In a garden equipped with a drip system, trees do not suffer from drought

Fertilizers

The first two years after planting, the trees use the nutrients that were laid in the hole during planting. With the onset of fruiting, the need for food from the Kuban comet increases.

Feeding plum trees during the growing season - table

Period	Top dressing composition (1 of the suggested)	Quantity for one tree
Dissolving buds and flowering	Manure infusion (1:10) Infusion of bird droppings (1:20) Weed infusion (1:10)	10 l
Pouring berries
After harvest	Overripe manure or compost + 1 kg ash + 300 g bone meal	1 bucket of mixture
After shedding leaves	Humus or compost	2-3 buckets

Plum tree trunk care

The near-trunk circle of the Kuban comet must be mulched with any organic matter. The soil under a thick (7–10 cm) layer of mulch holds moisture well, does not overgrow with weeds and receives additional nutrition due to overheating of organic matter. With constant mulching, the need for loosening and digging up the soil disappears. A thick layer of organic matter traps harmful insects in the soil when they come to the surface after wintering, and in the summer prevents them from going to winter.

It is useful to plant flowers along the border of the trunk circle: marigolds, calendula, nasturtium. Pests do not like these plants and will bypass the plum tree.

Marigolds planted in the plum's trunk circle will protect the tree from pests

Preventive maintenance in spring and autumn

To protect the tree from frost cracks and fungal infections of wood, plum bark, before the onset of cold weather, is whitewashed with lime with the addition of copper sulfate. This whitewash can be purchased at any garden store.

In the spring, after the snow melts, plum trees, for the prevention of diseases, are sprayed with 3% Bordeaux liquid.

Diseases and pests of the plum Kuban comet

The Kuban comet is immune to one of the most dangerous diseases of stone fruit crops - moniliosis and clotterosporia. But in unfavorable years, there is a danger of contracting other diseases. There are also dangerous insects that can destroy crops.

The most dangerous plum diseases Kuban comet - table

Disease	Symptoms	Treatment and prevention
Polystygmosis or red spot	With high humidity, shiny red spots appear on the leaves. Leaves crumble, fruits do not gain sugar content, lose taste	Spray first with 3% Bordeaux liquid (over the green cone), and after flowering again with 1% solution
Milky shine	The leaves on the plum become light, silvery. But this is a secondary sign, indicating that the tree is infected with a fungus from the inside. Infection occurs when freezing. The wood darkens, the fungus very quickly spreads through the vessels of the tree, clogging them and causing the death of the plant	Remove the diseased branch at the first sign of the disease. Rinse the slice with 3% copper sulfate. If the disease spreads further, the tree must be urgently uprooted and burned.
Hommosis (gum flow)	Sticky, tar-like discharge from lesions in the bark. May indicate infection with a tinder fungus. Strongly weakens the tree and may cause its death.	All damage to the bark, frost cracks, cracks, cuts, process with 3% copper sulfate and cover with garden varnish
Fruit (gray) rot	In a cool and humid summer, the fruits are covered with a gray bloom, rot

Dangerous plum diseases Kuban comet - photo gallery

Polystygmosis or red spot weakens the tree and the fruit loses its sweetness

Milky sheen disease is deadly for plums

Damage to bark and wood causes gum leakage, or tree gommosis

Gray rot appears on the Kuban comet in years with very damp and cool summers

Treatment of a tree from gum disease - video

The most dangerous pests of the plum Kuban comet - table

Insect	Damage	Protection and prevention
Plum sawfly	The insect lays eggs in buds and flowers, eating away the contents.	Before flowering and then every 10 days, spray the trees with Bitoxibacillin. To enhance the plant's immunity, add Epin-extra + Cytovit + Zircon to the solution (2 drops of each substance per 1 liter of water)
Plum moth	The butterfly lays eggs on the buds, and the larvae bite into the growing fruit and feed on the pulp of the ripening plum
Puffy leg	The larva hatched from the egg gnaws the bone and feeds on its contents. The fruits fall off.	Collect insects by hand. Use pheromone traps for insects and systematically collect any that come across. After flowering, spray the plum once every 7-10 days with a solution of the following preparations: Bitoxibacillin or Iskra-bio (according to the instructions) + Epin-extra + Cytovit + Zircon (2 drops of each substance per 1 liter of water)
Aphid	Small insects inhabiting young shoots and leaves. Suck the juice from the plant.	At the first signs of the appearance of insects, carry out 2-3 sprays with a solution of Iskra-bio with the addition of liquid soap (1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water)

Dangerous plum pests - photo gallery

Plum damaged by sawfly larva

The female sawfly lays eggs in the bud, and the larva eats it from the inside

Plums with moth larvae become inedible

Moth larvae settle in fruits and feed on their pulp

Aphid colonies on the plum weaken the tree

The puffy leg can destroy the entire crop

Infected by the larva of the thick-stemmed plum, it crumbles without ripening

Harvesting

The fruits of the Kuban comet can be harvested from the second half of July. With good care, with pollination with another variety of Russian plum or cherry-plum, the tree can produce up to 150 kg of fruit. If removed unripe, they can be stored for up to 60 days and matured while lying down. Transportable. Filmed ripe, stored in the refrigerator for 5-7 days.

They can be eaten fresh, various desserts can be prepared. Preparations for the winter are also tasty.

Delicious, fragrant fruits of the Kuban comet - a reward for a gardener for work

Reviews of gardeners about the Russian plum Kuban comet

Gardeners who were lucky enough to plant and grow the Kuban comet miracle plum in their garden never cease to admire its wonderful taste, productivity and unpretentiousness, and the seedlings of this variety are invariably in demand.