Secrets of growing and caring for conic spruce

If a gardener dreams of decorating a live Christmas tree with his own hand every New Year, then planting a conic spruce would be an excellent solution. A small cone-shaped tree goes well with various types of flowers and shrubs. Landscapers plant the plant one at a time, as well as in small, picturesque groups. The combination of conic and echiniformis on the sunny glades of Canadian fir trees is considered a classic.

A little about the fluffy beauty

Canada is famous for its deep forests. More than a hundred years ago, travelers brought a small copy of a huge Canadian spruce - a conic. The latter grows up to three meters only if all planting rules and quality care are followed. The compact tree is popular among breeders for its unpretentiousness and great decorative effect.

Tip: if a tree in a pot is bought at the market, then planting can be delayed. A seedling with an open root system requires immediate placement in the hole.

Conic spruce grows only a few centimeters per year. With the growth of the plant, growth also slows down significantly. Gardeners rarely notice large cones (5.5-6 cm) - with proper care, the tree spends all its strength on the formation of shoots and needles of an unusual gray-emerald color. The needles are soft, not prickly, short (2 cm) and fragrant.

Which breeding method is best?

The easiest way to get a spruce in your home is to buy your favorite specimen on the market. But for a true lover of green spaces, it is important to grow a tree himself. Conic spruce, like echiniformis, can be obtained from seeds. In autumn, ripe cones are collected, the seeds are dried and planted in seed boxes to a depth of 1 cm. In a cool place, with moderate soil moisture, the first shoots will appear in three months.

Tip: Young plants can be immediately planted in large pots. They will grow up over the summer, but a transplant will not be required with further care.

Stronger seedlings are obtained from cuttings, new trees will retain all the characteristics of the original sample. Together with a piece of bark, the lower branch of the spruce is cut off, and then the excess is removed, leaving 8-15 cm with a “heel” from the bark. After drying the cutting, it is immersed in a solution of any growth stimulant for several hours. At this time, a soil mixture is prepared from equal parts:

• leafy land;
• bottom peat;
• river sand;
• turf.

Cuttings are planted in separate flowerpots, deepening by 2-3 cm. For high-quality care of seedlings, you need to find a bright, cool place. Watering young plants is necessary as the top layer dries, the conic needles also like spraying. The tree will stay indoors for 3-4 years, and then the time comes to settle the Canadian beauty on the lawn.

The best place for a Christmas tree

An excellent choice for planting a Canadian Christmas tree will be a plot near the house. Soft diffused lighting prevails here. These trees, like echiniformis, can be planted in open space, but only if the hot summer is not characteristic of the area. Cold piercing winds have a negative effect on the conic tree.

Tip: trying to protect the plant from the heat, do not plant it in a shady place. Even with good care, the compact spruce will always stretch out, and the needles will fall off.

Like its forest cousins, the tree loves the soil acidified, enriched with nutrients. Planting on ground with slightly alkaline PH values ​​will also not bring disastrous consequences, but if there is an excess of lime on the site, it is better not to plant Canadian spruce at all.The hole must be made wide (up to 1 m), but shallow (up to 0.5 m), add a bucket of rotted manure there and dig it up well.

Easy care

In the summer, you need to pamper the conic spruce by arranging a soft shower from a hose. Watering the tree can be plentiful, 2-3 waterings weekly in the early morning or evening are enough. Young plants in greenhouses are often watered and sprayed in summer, and in winter they only slightly moisten the soil. Waterlogging of the plant will inevitably end in death from decay of the root system.
Spruce is sick if:

1. The branches are covered with brown spots (rust).
2. There is a rapid fall of the needles (rot).
3. The needles began to acquire a reddish tint (tracheomycosis).

Diseased trees must be dug up and burned. Undamaged specimens are treated with a solution of a drug with fungicidal activity. The root system of the Canadian spruce, like the roots of echiniformis, is shallow below the surface of the soil, so loosening should be careful. When loosening, you can apply organic fertilizers or complex fertilizing.

Tip: in late autumn, you need to wrap the Canadian spruce crown with breathable material (burlap). Reflecting from ice crystals, the sun's rays burn fragile needles.

The Canadian herringbone has excellent care quality - it requires little or no pruning. The conical crown of the tree grows evenly, if you have to cut it, then only a couple of knocked out branches. In spring and autumn, gardeners carry out a preventive inspection of the plant, and also remove dry shoots and needles. You can immediately mulch the soil surface under the spruce with peat, leaves, sawdust.

Konik spruce, like echiniformis, is so unpretentious that it can be planted in the fall. The species is frost-resistant, suitable for planting in the middle latitudes of our country. Spruce has been growing in one place for about three hundred years. So, grandfather can safely tell his grandson about caring for a tree.

Taking care of the Konik spruce is equivalent to a wellness walk. Inhaling the aroma of needles, a person gets a charge of vivacity for the whole day. If tall trees are planted in the background, and a flowerbed with flowers is planted in front of the spruce, the garden will look exquisite. And a magic tree in a pot for New Year will be a surprise for household members.