How to grow horse chestnut from walnut. Grow chestnut from seeds in the Urals. How to grow chestnuts in the country Will chestnuts grow in Siberia
The chestnut has a wide crown. Prefers to grow in bright places, tolerates shade well, but does not bloom well without exposure to direct sunlight.
For normal development, there should not be any buildings or plants within a radius of 5 m from the chestnut tree.
Timing
seedlings are planted in early spring or in November, and the sprouted nuts are planted in early May or left in the ground since autumn.
Soil preparation
The chestnut tree has a shallow root system.
So that the roots do not rot and the water does not stagnate, the tree is planted in moderately moist, neutral or slightly acidic loose soils with good drainage. Suitable chernozem or loamy substrate mixed with lime and sand. You can add a little clay to the sandy soil.
Features of planting seedlings
When growing chestnut, there should be no plants within a radius of 5 meters from the seedling
Dig a hole in a cubic shape, 50-60 cm deep and wide.
At the bottom, lay out a layer of sand mixed with crushed stone, 30 cm thick. This will provide drainage.
If necessary, add humus to the soil mixture, with increased acidity - dolomite flour.
When planting a seedling in a hole, make sure that the root neck is at the level of the soil.
To avoid exposing the trunk, make the planting hole 10 cm higher. After planting, water the tree with plenty of water (3-4 buckets).
Install supports around the seedling on four sides - this will protect the fragile tree from gusty winds.
reproduction
Chestnut is propagated by cuttings, layering, root suckers and seeds. The latter method is more often used; it is not difficult to grow a tree from a walnut.
Features of seed reproduction
Fully ripe fruits are suitable for germination. Whole and undamaged nuts that have fallen to the ground are used.
Seeds germinate only after stratification, which can be carried out in natural conditions - at the end of autumn, plant the collected fruits in open ground and warm with dry leaves on top. Many seeds will germinate in spring.
With this method of reproduction, there is a risk of damage to the walnut by rodents.
For artificial stratification, the fetus is placed in a tightly closed container filled with wet sand in a cold place for a period of two to five months.
Five days before planting, the fruits are soaked in warm water, which is changed from time to time. This softens the hard skin of the nut and promotes further germination. Treated chestnuts are planted in the ground to a depth of 8-10 cm.
Grow a chestnut from a nut in late autumn
At the end of winter, chestnut nuts can be planted in pots, and in May they can be planted in open ground, pinching the taproot, which will allow the plant to develop a strong root system.
In the first 3 years, and in colder regions - 5 years, the tree is grown in greenhouses, putting it outside for the summer.
You can learn about the species of fast-growing trees.And you can find out how to properly care for thuja at this link.
Care
Care in summer period consists in weeding, shallow loosening of the earth, top dressing.
Young individuals need regular watering, adults - only in the hot, dry season. Watered in the evening.
top dressing
The tree is fertilized in early spring with this solution: for 10 liters of water - 1 kg of mullein and 15 g of urea.
autumn- 15 g of nitroammophoska are mixed into the same volume of water. For fertilizer, the near-stem circle is also mulched with a layer of 10 cm of wood chips, peat or peat compost.
pruning
Chestnut is formed in the form of a stem tree with a main trunk. To make the drooping branches look better, the trunk should be at least 2-3 meters in height.
The central trunk with evenly spaced branches is formed from the main shoot, which is maintained as long as possible.
When the crown is formed, the tree practically does not need pruning. In early spring, cut off damaged and dry branches.
In summer, if the crown has grown excessively, young shoots are removed. All summer cuts are covered with garden pitch.
Winter care, preparation for winter
The tree is frost resistant.
Only young trees need additional protection in the first 2-3 years after planting. Their trunk circles are mulched with a layer of fallen leaves 20 cm thick, and the trunks are insulated with burlap. In the event of cracks in the bark due to severe frosts, an antiseptic is applied to the damaged area and covered with garden pitch.
As the tree grows older, the winter hardiness of the tree increases.
Pest and disease control
Most often, chestnuts are attacked by chestnut (or mining) moths, tree mites and powdery mildew.
Chestnut moth primarily damages the foliage of a tree
When attacked moth diseased chestnuts shed their leaves in mid-summer, and new foliage and flowers grow in autumn. As a result, the tree is very weakened and may not survive the winter.
In the fight against this pest, special chemicals help. For example, the drug Lufox 105 EU, which destroys the insect at all stages of development.
Leaves that have fallen as a result of illness during the summer and autumn are collected and burned, as the moth lays larvae in them.
Often affects chestnut fungal disease – powdery mildew.
On the upper side of the leaves, a white-gray bloom or rusty-brown spots form, the leaves turn yellow and quickly fall off. The disease is treated with fungicides. They also process a tree for preventive purposes, and also feed them with nitrogen or phosphorus fertilizers.
To prevent the occurrence tree mite chestnut is treated with karbofos or fitover every two weeks.
Would you like to plant heather in your garden? How to do it right, find out in this. Varieties
For temperate climates, varieties such as American chestnut, European and horse chestnut are most suitable. They are resistant to sub-zero temperatures and are quite unpretentious.
American chestnut, also serrated, has brown bark, yellowish shoots, on which there are many long lenticels.
The leaves are large with sharp teeth. Nuts are edible, covered with fluff, sweet in taste. The tree develops quickly, but requires a lot of sunlight.
European sowing chestnut has brown bark and ribbed reddish or olive shoots. The branches are covered with glandular hairs.
The leaves are oblong with sickle-shaped teeth, covered with a grayish fluff below.
Male dense spikelets-inflorescences reach 35 cm in length, female ones are short and knocked down. The fruits are edible, covered with a prickly shell.
Horse chestnut is very decorative. It has a spreading dark crown and cone-shaped inflorescences.
Leaves with long petioles, five- or seven-fingered.
The fruits are inedible, round, hidden in prickly pericarp. This variety prefers to grow in loamy soils mixed with lime. Horse chestnut is an excellent natural air filter.
Photos of chestnut varieties can be viewed in the gallery:
(variety description, photo)
horse chestnut- high (up to 30 m) deciduous tree with a wide dense crown. The leaves are opposite, long-petiolate, palmately compound with 5–7 sessile, obovate, elongated-pointed leaves. The flowers are irregular, white with red-pink spots, collected in erect pyramidal panicles. Blooms in May. The fruit is a round capsule up to 6 cm in diameter, covered with large soft spines, inside which are 1–2 large brown shiny seeds. The fruits ripen in September-October.
Decorative. The plant is an excellent honey plant. Has decorative value. Chestnut leaves turn yellow, brown, purple, crimson in autumn. The inflorescences are large, pyramidal, erect racemes.
Usage. Very beautiful tapeworm, goes well with tall conifers.
Plant characteristics. Horse chestnut is winter-hardy, but young individuals can freeze slightly in severe winter conditions. Sensitive to dry winds. Likes rich, moist soils.
How to buy horse chestnut seedlings
in the nursery "Siberian garden"
In our nursery, you can buy horse chestnut seedlings on open trading floors and in nursery stores. Addresses, work schedule, phone numbers of outlets, see section "Contacts"(in the top menu).
Nursery "Siberian Garden" delivers seedlings in Russia. You can order plants in our online store at: order.site or follow the link in the top menu. Information about the conditions for placing orders, their payment and delivery of seedlings in Russia can also be found in the online store in the relevant sections.
Nursery Siberian Garden sells seedlings in bulk and invites for cooperation organizations involved in the sale of seedlings, landscape design, as well as organizers of joint purchases. The terms of cooperation can be found in the section "Wholesalers"(in the top menu).
Chestnut - widespread decorative tree, the real salvation on garden plot and city streets on a hot summer day. However, chestnut is not only a shadow from a wide deciduous crown, but also a light, pleasant aroma of delicate flowers and fresh, fresh air. In addition, some varieties of this tree have tasty, edible fruits. Most chestnut is distributed in the south and in the middle zone of the European part of the CIS, as well as in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The popularity of growing chestnut grows every year, it is chosen by many homeowners for decorating the landscape.
Did you know? Chestnut blossoms in May, but its pale pink color can also appear in winter, in conditions of an abnormal temperature drop. Chestnut fruits ripen in early or mid-autumn, some peoples eat them, they taste like sweet potatoes. Use chestnut and traditional medicine: various medicinal products are prepared from its fruits.
Planting and propagation of chestnut
A chestnut can grow into a powerful, sprawling handsome man 30 meters in height, subject to simple measures related to its planting and care.
Location selection
There are three main factors to consider when choosing a chestnut planting site: space, lighting, and wind protection. A site with a large area should be preferred, since the chestnut tree has a powerful crown and root system, which require space for normal development. The distance from the chestnut to other plants or buildings should be at least 5 meters. Chestnut is a fairly shade-tolerant tree, but blooms better in good sunlight. And the last condition: in order to avoid deformation of the chestnut trunk during its cultivation, choose a quiet place, not subject to strong gusts of wind.
Timing
Any chestnut variety should be planted in the spring, in well-warmed soil by the sun. It is not recommended to plant chestnuts in autumn, as rodents in the ground often damage the seeds, which leads to the death of the planting.
Soil preparation
Chestnuts prefer loose, nutritious, slightly acidic or neutral soils, well-drained, with moderate moisture. The tree grows well on chernozems or loamy soils with the addition of lime. If the site has clay soil, sand should be added to the planting hole. If the soil, on the contrary, is sandy, it is recommended to add a little clay to it, which will prevent excessive drying. Also, as a substrate for chestnut, a mixture of turf and leaf soil with sand in equal quantities.
Important! Dense soil is not suitable for chestnut, in which he will not be able to develop a strong root system.
Features of planting seedlings
Usually, seedlings are chosen at the age of three years, sometimes even older, since chestnut transplantation can be done up to the age of ten, but only in spring. To plant a chestnut seedling, you need to dig a planting hole in the shape of a cube 50-60 cm deep and about 50 cm wide. A drainage layer of sand and gravel about 30 cm thick is laid out in the pit. Then a substrate layer: soil mixed in equal amounts with humus and a pound of dolomite flour. The seedling is placed in a hole, while not deepening the root neck. The landing hole must be raised by about 10 cm, since the trunk will be exposed due to subsidence of the soil. Then the planted plant should be well watered (3-4 buckets of water) and wooden supports should be installed to protect it from the wind. The supports are taken out when the root system of the new plant is strong enough. 
reproduction
Chestnut is propagated by cuttings (seedlings) and seed method (fruits). For cuttings planting material prepared in the fall, when the bark and wood of the mother plant have already matured enough, and the buds have formed. For rooting, you need to cut off a cutting 20-30 cm from a branch with 5-7 buds and place it in boxes with sand or sawdust for rooting.
Features of seed reproduction
Well-ripened nuts that have fallen to the ground are suitable for propagation of chestnut fruits, the main thing is that they are whole and intact. Chestnut seeds germinate only after stratification, which naturally occurs in a pile of fallen leaves, where fallen chestnuts overwinter and then successfully sprout in the spring. However stratification can be carried out artificially. It is necessary to collect ripened fruits at the end of autumn, soak them in warm water for 5 days, periodically changing the water. This will soften the hard skin of the nut for better germination. Chestnuts prepared in this way are planted in open ground to a depth of 10 cm and insulated with dry leaves. Many of these fruits will sprout in the spring. Also, for artificial stratification, you can place a chestnut nut in a tightly closed vessel filled with wet sand and hide it in a cold place for six months.
Important! The seed method of reproduction has an important drawback: the fruits are damaged by rodents that eat them directly in the soil, completely destroying the seed.
Chestnut tree care
For young chestnuts, care and cultivation consist in constant weeding, combined with shallow loosening of the topsoil, as well as top dressing. Loosening the soil allows you to saturate the root system of the tree with oxygen and get rid of weeds. In the first year of growth of a young plant, in summer, when the outer side shoots grow 25-30 cm long, they need to be cut in half. When planting and in the next four to five days, it is necessary to properly water the young chestnut, especially during dry and hot periods.
Top dressing and fertilizer
Fertilize the chestnut tree once a year, in early spring. To do this, dilute 20 g of ammonium nitrate in 15 liters of water and add 1 kg of fresh manure, 15-20 g of urea, about 25 g of phosphorus-potassium-nitrogen fertilizer. It will also help to improve the soil in which the chestnut grows and saturate it with nutrients. organic fertilizers: rotted manure, compost, herbal infusions, humus, in combination with any complex mineral fertilizers.
Before you feed the chestnut tree in the spring, you need to mulch the soil around the trunk with a 10 cm layer of peat, peat compost, sawdust or wood chips. This will give not only the moisture necessary for the root system, but also serve as a fertilizer for the chestnut tree.
How to prune a chestnut
To provide the chestnut tree with a spreading, lush, deciduous crown, it is necessary to cut the upper branches of the trees by a quarter of the length with the onset of spring. Lateral outer shoots that have grown by the end of summer can be left uncut. This chestnut procedure should be repeated every year, this is the basis of caring for a tree until it reaches the desired height. When pruning, you need to leave up to 5 side branches in order to form first-order branches. After the formation of the trunk (crown), pruning is not necessary. In case of excessive thickening of the crown in summer, you can cut the thinnest branches. All sections must be covered with garden pitch. It is also periodically necessary to trim shrunken and damaged branches, to clean the trunk of shoots.
Winter care, preparation for winter
Now let's look at how to store chestnut trees in winter so that they continue to delight with their lush green crown during the next season. Chestnut is a very frost-resistant tree, and only young plantings in the first 2-3 years need additional care in winter. Winter protection consists in mulching the trunk circles with compost with a layer of 20 cm thick, and the trunk itself is covered with burlap. If cracks appear on the bark due to severe frosts, the damaged areas are treated with antiseptic agents and covered with garden pitch.
Pest and disease control
Chestnut care also includes measures to combat diseases that the plant is occasionally exposed to. At times, spots appear on the leaves of the tree, which indicates a disease. fungus, powdery mildew or anthracnose. Of the pests, the tree is most often attacked by bagworms, Japanese crackers, and drillers. Previously, these diseases and pests did not pose a serious threat to plantings, since it was quite simple to care for chestnuts in such cases. Enough treatment to eliminate diseases "Fundazol" or Bordeaux liquid, and it was possible to destroy harmful insects using "Karbofos".
However, recently chestnut is increasingly attacked by a new little-studied pest - chestnut or Balkan moth. Its origin is unknown, the mole was first discovered in Macedonia in 1985, after which it spread throughout Europe. Control measures for this pest are still poorly understood, despite the fact that it causes serious harm to chestnuts. Leaves affected by the Balkan moth turn yellow, dry and fall off at the beginning of summer, as a result of which new ones appear in autumn. This leads to the fact that the plant goes into wintering weakened and freezes. To combat the main chestnut pest, special chemicals are used that must be injected directly into the trunk. A good prevention is the timely cleaning and burning of the affected leaves, where the pupae of the Balkan moth hibernate.
It is worth remembering that yellow chestnut leaves can appear not only because of pests. Drought and strong wind in summer, they also lead to drying, burning and twisting of healthy leaves, which subsequently fall off. Very often, chestnuts suffer from a dry, hot climate in southern latitudes, therefore, when organizing planting in such places, you need to carefully consider the issue of moistening the soil and protecting the plant from dry winds.
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It so happened that in my native Western Siberia, the bulk of the forests are small-leaved, consisting of birch and aspen. On the one hand, I like birch forests. They are light and spacious, they are inhabited by a huge number of birds. There are many mushrooms and berries in birch forests, which provide food for both people and animals.
But the birch itself does not give any berries, nuts, or acorns. Moreover, the maximum life span of a birch is only about a hundred years. In such a short time, the birch does not have time to turn into a huge, thick-set, hollow tree and ingloriously dies from wind and decay. Therefore, centuries-old birch forests do not exist. And since there are no old forests, there are no fairy tales and myths associated with them. In England there is Sherwood, in Germany there is the Black Forest, but there is nothing in the Irtysh region (forgive me, the singer of the Artyn forest kamrad sibariana
).
The reason is simple - both Sherwood and Black Forest forests are broad-leaved. Such forests do not grow in Western Siberia. Scientists believe that the harsh continental climate, which is incompatible with delicate oaks, beeches and ash trees, is to blame. The most populated forest-steppe strip of the West Siberian Plain is covered almost exclusively with birch with small patches of aspen. True, willows grow along the banks of reservoirs, and pine forests are very rare on the hills, but in percentage terms with birch their number is negligible.
Millions of years ago, during the Holocene, almost the entire territory of Northern Eurasia was covered with dense mixed forests with a predominance of broad-leaved species. The sudden cooling of the climate radically changed the botanical map of the Old World - oaks, beeches, hornbeams, maples and other ash trees remained only in Europe, and Western Siberia after the departure of the glacier became the territory of small-leaved forests - birch and aspen.
The current West Siberian Plain, compared with prehistoric times, is extremely poor in biological terms. The heat-loving broad-leaved forests that once grew here disappeared, and with them the animals that inhabited them. There are no more bison, no argali, no musk oxen in Siberia anymore. I'm not talking about tours and tarpans, completely destroyed over the past centuries.
At present, only one more or less large fragment of the primeval relict forest remains in Eurasia, which once covered the plains from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This is the famous Belovezhskaya Pushcha, located on the Polish-Belarusian border. In terms of biological diversity, Pushcha is comparable to modern equatorial forests - on its very small territory, 958 (!) Species of vascular spore and seed plants grow, 260 (!) Species of mosses and bryophytes, more than 290 (!) Species of lichens and 570 (!) Species mushrooms (I quote Wikipedia). And this is just, as they say, a remnant of former luxury. Can you imagine how many types of plants grew in ancient forests before the glacier and the woodcutter's ax got to them? How many species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, insects and arachnids found shelter under the shade of thousand-year-old trees?
In Western Siberia, only microscopic islands remained of the primeval lowland forests - these are small groves of heart-shaped linden, the only species of broad-leaved trees that grows in Siberia and miraculously survived the Ice Age. AT Omsk region century-old lindens can be seen in the Ust-Ishimsky district, in the floodplain of the Bicha River (the so-called Baksheevsky lime forests), in the Novosibirsk region, several dozen relict lindens grow on an island-mane in the middle of a large Senchensky swamp (not far from the village of Verkhnee-Rovno, Kargatsky district). Scientists discovered these linden groves only in the 18th century and long time they sincerely believed that these were feral plantings of abandoned apiaries (linden is a wonderful honey plant). But, as further study showed, no one planted these lindens, and they have been growing in these places for millions of years. What is the reason for such fantastic survival is still unknown.
Why did I write all this? And it seems to me that what is happening in last years climate change makes it possible to start work on the resuscitation of the West Siberian nature. I have absolutely no knowledge of forestry, but I have seen successfully growing oaks with my own eyes. At Omsk Agrarian University there is a large park in which trees grow normally, which have always been considered heat-loving (you can see a photo of an oak grove). There is a century-old Komissarov Garden with plantings of oak, ash, maple, linden, Turkestan elm and even almonds with wild grapes. Right in the center of Omsk there is a dendrological park with no less exotic plants. The example of wild Baksheevsky linden forests also clearly demonstrates the possibility of a prosperous existence in Siberia of a natural population of broad-leaved trees.
There are mentions on the Internet that in the Stalin years there was a program (almost by the authorship of the famous Trofim Lysenko) of mass planting of oaks in Western Siberia. Unfortunately, I do not know the details of this program and I also do not know anything about its implementation. Although I had to read that there are oaks in significant quantities on the northern shore of Lake Chany.
It seems that planting southern species in the Siberian climate is pointless - they will die from winter frosts. However, there are a considerable number of broad-leaved trees that are quite suitable for the West Siberian latitudes. The same pedunculate oak tolerates our winters well, and the following is written about the Mongolian oak in crop encyclopedias: “Grows slowly, medium photophilous, quite hardy, sometimes suffers from late spring frosts. Suitable for the south and southeast of Siberia, middle and southern parts of the Far East, including Sakhalin, in the form of single and group plantings, small arrays and alleys".
And here is the Amur linden: "It has considerable shade tolerance and high frost resistance. Thanks to a powerful and well-developed root system, it is wind-resistant, requires moderately moist, rich soils. It grows slowly, propagated by seeds and layering, gives abundant shoots from the stump, tolerates transplanting, shearing and shaping, urban conditions. Lives up to 200-300 years» .
Or scalloped chestnut: “Distributed in the coniferous-deciduous forests of North America. Refers to light-loving, fast-growing breeds. It usually grows along the edges of plantations, in clearings, occupying dry locations, avoids calcareous soils. In the northern regions of its range, it endures frosts down to -27 degrees, being, thus, the most cold-resistant representative of the genus ". Minus 27 is, of course, not enough, but you can try.
What are the benefits of oaks and chestnuts? They produce extremely nutritious fruits that serve as food for a huge number of animals - from mice to bears. All these acorns and nuts are a rich source vegetable protein, which the inhabitants of small-leaved forests are deprived of. Therefore, it is necessary to try to introduce as many of these trees and shrubs as possible into the Siberian flora - hazel, for example. And you can also have a wonderful tree called Siebold's walnut. The following is written about him: "Distributed to Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, In The Mountain Forests Of Japan. Tree up to 20 m tall ... Fruits are round or ovoid, up to 5 cm long, with a hairy, sticky surface, in hanging brushes, up to 20 pieces. Nut (up to 4 cm) with a sharp top and a rounded base, the kernel of the seed is of good taste. A highly ornamental plant capable of purifying the air from gasoline and acetylene vapors, surpassing other species of the genus in this indicator. Growing fast winter-hardy. Propagated by seed, cuttings and grafting. It is used in single and group planting, along the roads in the European part of Russia, mainly up to the latitude of Moscow. durable» .
What about gray walnut? Never saw him, but: Tree up to 30 m tall. It is less demanding on the soil than walnut and black walnut, less moisture-loving than Manchurian walnut. Durable, lives up to 200 years. There are hybrids with walnut (J, x quadrangulata Rehd.), as well as with Manchurian walnut and Siebold's walnut. All of them are characterized by high frost resistance.. Very decorative with large odd-pinnate foliage and openwork crown, can be used in gardens and parks to create alleys, small groups and single plantings. Due to its high frost resistance, it is suitable for cultivation in the forest-steppe and central zones of the European part of Russia, as well as in the southern zone of the taiga and forest-steppe of Western Siberia..
Of course, now no one will plant broad-leaved forests in Siberia. This is not necessary for either the state or private business. Such a project requires a lot of money, labor and time. And if under Stalin such tasks were at least discussed, now no one is interested.
Eh, if I had a few extra million dollars, a few extra thousand hectares of my own land and a lot of free time, I would probably try to create a mini-analogue of Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the Irtysh region. I would find a suitable place, enclose it with a fence with barbed wire, in order to protect myself from hunters and other lovers of booze in nature. At first I would plant empty lands with broad-leaved and coniferous trees, I would bring a few bison with marals, I would launch beavers into the reservoirs. I would name scientists - foresters and soil scientists, zoologists and botanists, who would be tasked with re-acclimatization in the harsh Siberian conditions of animals and plants that once inhabited the vast Trans-Ural plains. Let them test their knowledge in practice, there is nothing for them to sit in the chairs and torture students.
Who knows, maybe one of the botanists will be able to grow a real primeval forest on the Siberian black soil, which will have its own Tsar Oak, no worse than the Belovezhskaya one:
And later I would transform the resulting oasis into the Siberian Pleistocene Park - a scientific and entertainment complex with flora and fauna of prehistoric times. However, I will not get ahead of myself - I will write about the Siberian Pleistocene Park some other time, since this idea is still very raw and requires careful consideration. But I am sure that it will be a unique ecological experiment. And with the right business at this park, you can also make good money.
Manilov is a good one, isn't he?
Today, on my way to work, I saw that horse chestnuts were blooming in Yekaterinburg. For residents of Ukraine and Moscow, the flowering of this tree is a common occurrence, but for us, residents of the Middle Urals, it is a miracle.
Who wants to enjoy the flowering of the Central Ural chestnuts, then a photograph of them is given below.
Many people confuse horse chestnut with common chestnut, although these trees are only namesakes and are not relatives to each other.
The common chestnut belongs to the beech family, grows and bears fruit in the Iberian Peninsula, in the south of France, in Italy, in Greece, in the Caucasus. There is a lot of it in Turkey, where its fruits are fried in oil in large pans at every step.
Horse chestnut belongs to the horse chestnut genus of the Sapindaceae family. The vast majority of species belonging to this family are predominantly found in tropical countries of the world. These include tropical fruit crops such as rambutan and lychee grown in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Only a few species of the Sapindaceae family grow naturally in temperate climates, and even then they prefer the southern regions. It is to them that horse chestnut belongs.
Once upon a time, even before the Great Glaciation, horse chestnut grew not only in Europe, but also on Ural, in Siberia, on the Far East. But with the onset of the glacier, the horse chestnut is forced to retreat far to the south.
The homeland of the horse chestnut is a small mountainous region in the Balkans in northern Greece, where it naturally occurs in small groves at a level of 1000-1500 km above sea level. His constant companion is the common lilac. Apparently, 1500 years ago, the range of horse chestnut was much larger, occupying the whole of Central Europe, as it was listed in the horoscope of the ancient Celtic Druids, but due to deforestation and population growth, it disappeared everywhere and was preserved only in the mountains of the Balkans.
In total, the horse chestnut genus includes 25 species found in the Iranian Highlands, the Himalayas, China, Japan, and especially North America. But the common horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) of all related species is the most common in culture due to its natural plasticity.
For the first time, horse chestnut was introduced into cultivation in the Ottoman Empire, along with ordinary lilac, after the conquest of the Balkan Peninsula by the Turks under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1557. Its unusual appearance of leaves, and especially luxurious flowering, so impressed the diplomats of the Habsburgs that they secretly imported its seeds to Vienna in 1588, along with lilac seedlings, calamus rhizomes, tulip and hyacinth bulbs, and then from Vienna it spread throughout Europe.
In Russia, horse chestnut first appeared in the middle of the 17th century under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, where its trees grew in the gardens of the villages of Izmailovsky and Kolomenskoye.
With the accession to Russia of Little Russia, the Crimea, the Black Sea coast, horse chestnut began to be grown in those places. He was especially fond of in Kyiv and Odessa. In Kyiv, horse chestnut at the end of the 18th century was first planted by the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, who apparently received its seedlings from Moscow gardens or parks. Western Europe. The version found in the literature that horse chestnut first appeared in Kyiv in the 40s under Nicholas the First is unreliable, since it is from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra that seedlings of this beautiful tree gradually spread throughout Kyiv.
The horse chestnut was so fond of the people of Kiev that it is still one of the symbols of Kyiv.
Currently, horse chestnut is widely found on the streets of cities and villages in Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic states, and Belarus. In Russia, horse chestnut is mainly found in the Central Black Earth region, the Caucasus, the Kaliningrad region, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Saratov and Samara.
On the streets of Moscow, horse chestnut trees have been planted frequently since the 70s of the last century, and then later they appeared even in such northern cities as Vologda and Arkhangelsk! In Vologda, they not only bloom, but also bear fruit, which once again proves that the horse chestnut has successfully acclimatized there.
For the first time I saw horse chestnut trees in Kharkov on September 09, 1986. I still remember the alley of planted young trees near one of the factories. I was struck by large spreading green leaves with large thick branches. I have never seen such majestic beautiful leaves anywhere!
And under some of them, I found small boxes covered with green thorns, in which were flattened woody fruits. After that, I had a hunch that it was a chestnut. A survey of passers-by showed that I was not mistaken.
Two years later, for the first time, I saw how the chestnut blossoms - the spectacle of large candles in combination with carved leaves simply amazed me! I just fell in love with this tree!
Then for the first time I had the idea that I could try to grow this wonderful tree in Sverdlovsk, but the fear that the seedlings of the tree would not be able to endure our harsh Ural climate drowned out my desire. And as I understand now - in vain.
From the Internet, I now know that horse chestnut trees successfully grow, bloom and bear fruit in such Ural cities as in Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Ufa. In Chelyabinsk, horse chestnut appeared for the first time in 1965 - since that time, one tree has been preserved, obtained by sowing a nut brought from Ukraine. In the early 80s of the last century, one enthusiast brought several fruits from Kyiv and planted them near the enterprise where he worked. Since that time the chestnuts have grown, bloom and bear fruit. From the fruits of these chestnuts, the second generation has already been obtained, the trees of which are already preparing to enter the reproductive age. The Creator who performed this miracle is no longer there, but the memory of him remains.
They are trying to grow horse chestnut trees in such Siberian cities as Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk. In Krasnoyarsk, young seedlings of this tree were planted on one of the central streets of the city, where they are covered with glass caps for the winter. Successfully passed the acclimatization of horse chestnut in Vladivostok.
As for Yekaterinburg, I saw one bushy horse chestnut tree in the Botanical Garden of the UV Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation on the South. It was abandoned, growing right next to the wall of one of the stock greenhouses on a pile of garbage and overgrown with weeds. Judging by its appearance, none of the researchers of the UV is engaged in horse chestnut.
A month ago, I accidentally found out in LiveJournal that horse chestnuts are blooming and
In Ekaterinburg. A few days later I checked and made sure that yes, indeed, there are horse chestnuts. Two trees about 8 meters high grow on a semi-shady street in the very center of the city. They are planted from each other at a distance of three meters. There were leaves on the branches, candles were already appearing, but there were no flowers on them. Judging by their condition, the trees are 25-30 years old. The City Improvement Department knows about these trees and is not surprised that they not only grow, but also bloom. A heating main was laid next to the trees, which, together with their location in the city center, explains the fact that they withstand the Ural frosts. But the created artificial microclimate favorable for them is still not easy for them - on one of the trees the skeletal branch dried up completely, and on the second - only the top of the branch.
But one way or another, horse chestnut in Yekaterinburg not only grows, but also blooms. As for their fruiting, I can only be sure in the fall.
In passing, I note that eighteen one-year-old horse chestnut seedlings grow in my garden. I received fruits (nuts) by mail from Vologda at the end of 2009. They were laid down for stratification.
I washed them cold water from the faucet, placed it, along with the sand, in the same box they arrived in, and placed it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Once every two weeks I pulled out the box and examined it. At the next inspection in mid-February 2010, I noticed that most of the fruits began to lather and sprout. I had to urgently plant them in large flower pots. A week later, shoots appeared, which began to quickly stretch upwards. Therefore, I put the pots on the brightest places on the windowsills, where they were before landing in the garden. Most of the seedlings spread two leaves, some (the smallest ones) four, and laid buds at the top. Out of twenty-five, eighteen sprouted, which indicates a good germination of the fruits obtained.
By the end of their stay in the apartment, the leaves began to turn yellow. Therefore, in mid-May, I planted seedlings in a semi-shady place in the garden. The summer of 2010, as everyone knows, was distinguished by unprecedented heat and drought. By July, the vast majority of seedlings had fallen leaves - small stems with resinous buds at the top were sticking out of the soil. They were 15-25 cm high. In this form, they left before winter.
In the second half of April, when I first came to the garden, on examination I found that the stems were elastic, the buds were intact - which means that the young chestnut trees successfully wintered the first winter.
In early May, I noticed that the buds began to bloom. And this at a time when the buds of birch, bird cherry, pear, apple trees only swelled, and the oak did not even think to swell!
By May 9, the first leaves of the seedlings appeared. They were pubescent, rusty in color. Now chestnuts have five to eight leaves, they have grown by about five cm during this time.
My goal is to acclimatize horse chestnut in the Middle Urals, as I consider it a very valuable decorative breed that is resistant to the life of a modern city.
It is known that horse chestnut differs not only in its beautiful view and wonderful flowering, but also because it purifies the air from car exhaust gases and industrial atmospheric emissions better than other species, is a valuable volatile tree, and also medicinal plant included in the pharmacopoeia of many countries.
Considering that the Urals is still the largest industrial region in the world, horse chestnut can not only become a valuable ornamental breed of this region, but also improve the environment.
I would be grateful to those who share my thoughts and, like me, are a fan of the most beautiful tree.