Korean fir is distinguished by short needles and beautiful purple or blue cones that sit on green branches, like New Year's toys. Breeders have bred many interesting varieties of this fir that combine common care requirements.
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Korean fir: description and varieties of plants
In nature, Korean fir grows up to 15 meters, cultivars are diverse and can be quite miniature.
They are combined into 5 groups in terms of annual growth:
- microscopic varieties grow up to 3 cm per year;
- miniature - up to 8 cm per year;
- dwarf - up to 15 cm;
- srednerosly - up to 30 cm;
- full-grown - more than 30 cm per year.
For the garden, you can choose a variety to your liking with a cone-shaped, bushy or pillow-shaped crown shape. Varieties differ not only in height and shape, but also in the color of the needles.
There are a lot of them, here are just a few:
- Aurea. The needles are golden green, the young needles are yellow, the old ones are green. It grows over 10 years to 1.5 m, the shape of the crown is conical.
- Brillant. Bonsai with oval crown shape. At 10 years old, it reaches about 60 cm in height and 40 in width, the needles bright green with age darkens.
- Dennis At the age of ten, the size of a dense, rounded crown does not exceed 10 × 30 cm, the needles are silver-blue.
- Glauca. It grows about three meters, the crown is conical, the needles are gray-blue.
- Gruebele. Dwarf tree dome-shaped with green needles.
- Horstmann Silberlocke. A 10-year-old plant with a conical crown reaches 1 to 2 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter. The needles are very unusual, silver-green.
- Molli. It grows up to 7 m in height, 2 m in diameter, the crown is dense and lush, pyramidal.The needles are flat, green-blue, the young growth is bright green.
Many firs are loved by many gardeners for their high decorative qualities, unpretentiousness in care and durability. They are widely used in landscape design.
Landing Korean fir in the open ground
Sapling is best purchased in the nursery. Trees with a closed root system, which are sold in containers, take root better, they are planted from April to September, the whole warm season. Saplings with an open root system can be planted only in spring or autumn, their survival rate is worse.
Site selection and soil preparation
For growing fir, it prefers fertile soil. For the landing pit, a mixture of sheet soil, peat, sand and clay (3: 1: 1: 2) is independently prepared.
When choosing a landing site, you need to pay attention to the grade of fir. Trees with bright, decorative coloring of needles prefer well-lit places. Some varieties lose their density and beautiful crown shape if they grow in strong shading. Most firs tolerate partial shade well.
How to plant
Saplings at the age of 5 years with a closed root system take root well. If the tree is young, with a thin trunk, it is tied to a support in order to protect it from strong winds.
The sequence of actions during landing:
- Prepare a landing hole in size a little larger in advance than a container with fir. If the root system is open, make a hole half a meter in depth and width.
- From the broken brick, drainage is formed at the bottom of the hole, and it is sprinkled with prepared soil. You can add up to 10 kg of sawdust and fertilizers for conifers to the hole.
- They plant fir. If it grows in a container, an earthen lump is not broken. The root neck of the tree should be at ground level.
The planted tree is watered, the soil in the near-stem circle is loosened and mulched with lapnik, sawdust or peat.
Outdoor Fir Care
Fir loves moisture, which is why when planting in the hole add clay, which has the ability to retain water in the soil. If the tree is not watered in the summer or if it is not done regularly, it will lose its decorative qualities; the crown will be rare and ugly.
In addition to watering, top dressing, protection against diseases and winter cold is important for young fir. The tree easily tolerates pruning, but especially does not need it.
How to water
Fir is watered in the hot summer 1 time in 7 days. Young seedlings can be watered more often. Strong drying of the soil in the near-stem circle should not be allowed. Mulching the soil under fir will help maintain moisture longer.
Fir loves sprinkling, it can be carried out on top of the needles. It is advisable to do this early in the morning or in the evening so that the sun's rays do not leave a burn on the wet needles.
Fertilizing and fertilizing fir
Every spring, the first two or three years after planting, fir should be fed with mineral complex fertilizer. Adult firs are not so demanding on top dressing.
Ordinary fertilizers that are used for vegetables and fruit trees should not be used.
Conifers need special fertilizers that do not create a high concentration of soil solution. The composition of such preparations contains less nitrogen than potassium and phosphorus, but there is magnesium, which gives a bright color to the needles, and mycorrhiza. It is mycorrhiza that helps coniferous roots absorb nutrients from the soil.
Fertilizing under fir can be done in two steps:
- first time in March or April;
- and the second at the very beginning of summer.
Granular preparations that dissolve in the soil for a long time, it is advisable to use in early spring.
To feed fir, you can use rotted compost. For this purpose, in April, a tree trunk circle is dug up to a shallow depth, compost is poured with a layer of 5 cm, and mixed with soil.
Cropping technology
Pruning is carried out at the end of February or in March before the active movement of the juice along the trunk of the plant begins. Remove all broken and dried branches. Pruning can also be done in autumn when active fir growth ends.
For trees with a crown in the form of geometric shapes, spirals or silhouettes, formative pruning is performed in spring. To direct thin shoots in the right direction, use wire. All sections are treated with garden varieties for speedy healing.
Breeding korean fir
Korean fir is propagated by seeds or cuttings. Cones on a tree begin to grow only at 8 years of age. In Korean fir, they are very beautiful, but when they mature, they quickly decay. Therefore, if there is a desire to collect seed, young cones need to be tied up with gauze in advance. Then the ripened seeds will not become food for birds and will not fall into the ground under a tree.
Seeds are sown in autumn or spring. Before spring planting, they are stratified for a month. Depth of seeding during sowing is about 4 cm.
For propagation by cuttings, healthy annual shoots with apical bud are cut. Root them in a moist substrate, covering with a transparent film or a jar. The first 10 years, seedlings grow very slowly.
Common Diseases and Pests
Immediately notice the disease on fir is quite difficult, especially if it has a dense crown. Therefore, it is important to inspect the tree from time to time, checking whether there are branches on it with yellowed needles or small specks.
One of the first signs of fir disease is a change in the shape of young shoots - they bend and dry.
Falling needles may indicate fungal diseases or the attack of insect pests, such as spider mites.
Some diseases can be caused by the condition of the root system. If the roots lack nutrients or air, they can be affected by phytopathogenic fungi and rot. You can determine the disease by the characteristic smell of beautiful leaves from the soil under fir.
Korean fir in landscaping
Korean fir with blue cones looks beautiful in single plantings on a flower bed, an alpine hill or in a rockery. Miniature varieties will decorate a small area. You can plant trees in the group with different colors of needles to emphasize the beauty of each instance. Korean silver silberlock fir with silver needles looks interesting next to green junipers.
Tall firs can be used to create hedges or decorate walls and fences.
Fir can hide from the prying eyes a gazebo or a bench for relaxing in the garden, decorate the entrance to the house.
These plants remarkably protect the site not only from prying eyes, but also from noise. The distance between the seedlings in the hedge should be about two meters, so that the crowns of adult trees close. If fir is planted on a site along with deciduous plants, a beautiful composition can be obtained, the main thing is that the trees do not interfere with each other's growth.
From fir, you can form a tree of any shape - similar to a weeping willow or bonsai. These amazing plants provide an opportunity for a fantasy flight and creating a beautiful garden.
