Boskoop, Boskop apple tree – planting, care and cutting

The best season for planting is autumn. In the gardening trade, fruit trees are mostly offered as container goods, which can usually be planted at any time. In spite of everything, planting in summer is not recommended because it would then have to be watered every day for the tree to grow at all.

Before planting, the root ball should be watered for about half a day. It is also sensible to drive a stake in the ground at a sufficient distance from the tree before planting, to which the tree is tied for the first few years, for example with coconut fiber, until it has grown well.

Then a planting hole is dug, which should be about twice as large as the root ball. The soil in the planting hole should be well loosened. Now the container is removed and all damaged parts of the root are cut off. Then the tree can be used. It is important to ensure that the refinement point is above the surface of the earth, at a height of about 10 cm. Then it is filled with soil and additionally with compost.

When backfilling, keep shaking the tree so that the earth can settle well and the tree has sufficient support. After planting, the earth is carefully trampled and the whole thing is washed in thoroughly.

Apple trees must have a so-called pollinator tree within a radius of 20-30 m. At Boskoop, this should be an apple variety that flowers at the same time. Apple varieties such as Cox Orange or James Grieve come into question. If there is not enough space for another large apple tree, smaller ornamental apple varieties can also be used for this. It can take up to five years for this apple variety to bear fruit for the first time.

location

• Boskoop is growing rapidly both in height and in width.
• Accordingly, choosing the right location is particularly important.
• Otherwise the apple tree could soon shade the surrounding areas of the garden too much.
• Humidity locations near bodies of water are best suited.
• As a rule, the location should be full sun to partial shade.
• Too much shade will result in less bloom.
• As a result, fewer or no fruits grow.
• In particularly cold locations, the boskop should be sheltered from the wind.

floor

The Boskoop thrives best on well drained, calcareous, moist, moderately nutrient-rich and heavy soils as well as soils that are not too cold. Slightly acidic and neutral soils are also suitable for cultivation. The Boskoop is relatively sensitive to waterlogging, as well as to drought.

Watering and fertilizing

Since this apple tree is very sensitive to drought, it should be watered regularly, especially the young trees, so that the soil is well moistened up to about 20 cm deep. The top soil layer should never dry out, especially with newly planted apple trees.

In the first year of standing should not be fertilized so that the roots can spread well in the ground. Otherwise the soil should be limed every autumn. A layer of mulch, for example from raw compost or lawn clippings, can make fertilizing and watering superfluous.

Falling leaves should also be left on the ground in autumn, as they add important nutrients to the soil when they rot. Normally, depending on the nature of the soil, fertilizing with compost or manure is completely sufficient. Too intensive fertilization should be avoided, which usually only promotes growth and inhibits fruit formation. In addition, the tree grate should be kept as free from weeds as possible.

To cut

The right pruning is particularly important with the apple tree, as with all other fruit trees. This can be done in spring as well as in autumn, whereby the temperatures should not be below -5 degrees, otherwise the wood could become brittle. It is best to cut back after flowering, whereby the boskoop should not be cut back too much.

In the so-called clearing cut, all inward growing, crossing or mutually hindering shoots are cut out. Furthermore, you remove dead and diseased branches, dry shoots and so-called water shoots, these are shoots that grow steeply upwards.

Water shoots are usually formed by incorrectly pruning a tree. They seldom bear fruit and when they do, they are mostly of inferior quality and deprive the branches below of nutrients and light. Branches that grow downwards can be completely removed or shortened so that they no longer overhang.

Shoots that compete with the leading and central branches are also completely removed, ie directly at the base, without damaging the astring. If you let these competing shoots stand, the branches below could not develop properly. 3-4 of the main branches should always be retained, otherwise numerous water pits can form again.

Small secondary branches, the so-called fruit wood, form on the horizontal side shoots. The flowers and finally the fruits develop on these branches. As a result, they should be shortened a little at most, and only if they grow downwards significantly. When shortening, make sure to cut the shoots just above an outward-facing bud. If older branches are to be removed, you can cut almost down to the astring. Each branch on the trunk of the wood forms a so-called astring. On astring therefore means directly on the trunk.

Multiply

Propagation by grafting
Apple trees, like the Boskoop variety, can best be propagated by grafting. For this purpose, a branch of the variety to be propagated is required and an appropriate base. A root system with a part of the trunk is called a root, which should always come from a different variety of the same botanical family. As a result, vines from Boskoop can only be grafted on a base of another apple variety or an apple seedling.

There are several forms of finishing. The so-called oculation method, an eye refinement, which is also the simplest form of refinement, is very suitable for refining older apple varieties, which also include the Boskoop.

The best time to do this is when the bark can be easily removed and for apple trees it is the end of July. The vines of the variety to be propagated should be from this year’s shoot and have well-developed buds. It should only be cut immediately before processing. All leaves are removed from the rice in order to keep evaporation as low as possible.

All secondary shoots are cut off from the base, which should be at least as thick as a pencil. Then a T-shaped cut is made in the bark of the base and the bark is loosened with a bark loosener or the back of a knife and carefully unfolded.

Now a well-matured eye (bud) is cut from the middle part of the branch tip by cutting from below in the direction of the shoot tip, over a length of about 3 cm. You should only cut through the bark, not deeper. Then the precious eye is pushed into the T-cut of the base from above and the protrusion of the eye is cut off flush with the horizontal T-cut.

Finally, the finishing area is wrapped with raffia or a special inoculation tape and sealed with tree wax or high-grade resin to protect it from moisture. After about a year, remove the first buds that have formed on the grafted branch. The first apples can then be harvested a year later.

Propagation by sowing
Propagation by seeds does not make sense, because the resulting plants are usually very weak and hardly bear fruit.

Diseases and pests

Apple scab The
heat and high humidity at the same time can cause apple scab, which can be recognized by small dark spots on the fruit. Treatment with sprays is not necessary; in most cases, thinning out the tree in question is sufficient.

Tree
cancer Tree cancer occurs mainly in older trees and can be recognized by cracked, dry, brown or orange spots on the bark. In the event of an infestation, you should cut back into the healthy wood and treat the interfaces with an appropriate wound closure agent. Most of the time, however, affected trees die. Cut parts of the plant should be disposed of immediately or burned.

Fire
blight Fire blight is one of the most dangerous plant diseases and must therefore be reported. Leaves, flowers and shoots turn brown or black and die, they look like they have been burned.

Smaller infested trees must be completely removed. Older ones are cut back into the healthy wood and the clippings are burned. You should inquire about the further procedure at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Core rot
Externally, an infestation cannot be recognized at first. Only when the apples are cut open do the reddish-brown discoloration of the core appear, which then spread to the entire fruit.

The apples should not be harvested too late. An annual pruning is also necessary. Over-nitrogen fertilization should be avoided and fruit mummies should always be removed.

Aphids
When an aphid infestation occurs, the leaves are rolled up and crippled and the small, dark aphids are on the underside of the leaves. Blossoms, young shoots and even apples are attacked and crippled.

In the case of severe infestation, chemical control, for example with neem products, makes sense. Control or prevention should take place before flowering. All parts of the plant should be visibly wetted with the agent in question.

Codling moth
If the apples fall from the tree prematurely, this can indicate an infestation by the codling moth, as well as drilling holes in the apples. Apples lying on the ground should always be thrown away.

To combat this pest, you can hang special traps against this butterfly in the treetop from mid-May and leave them there until the end of August. If there are more than five butterflies in the trap, you can also inject a biological preparation.

Meat browning
In meat browning, the inside of the pulp is soft and discolored in places or completely brownish, often only during storage. The causes are mostly errors in fertilization and water supply. To prevent this, you should not harvest too late and ensure that the storage temperatures are correct. You can harvest from late September to early October.

Conclusion
An apple tree should actually be in every garden. The Boskoop, a tasty old apple variety, would certainly be a good choice for this. In order to be able to look forward to a rich harvest for many years, an annual pruning is essential. Otherwise, care is relatively unproblematic, and if gross care errors are avoided, nothing stands in the way of harvesting your own apples.