Japanese plum at their summer cottage: planting and care. Japanese plum: description of varieties and cultivation Description of varieties of Japanese plum

Buy seeds of Amur velvet in berries (50 berries). A dioecious tree, reaching 25-28 m in height and up to 90-120 cm in trunk diameter. The crown in the forest is raised high, in the open - hipped, low-planted. Leaves are compound, odd-pinnate, opposite, resembling ash leaves in shape, but with narrower blades and a characteristic odor. Leaves bloom later than other deciduous species - at the end of May and even in June. In autumn, green leaves gradually acquire a bright yellow color, sometimes with an orange-copper tint. The Amur velvet tree begins to bloom at the 18-20th year of life. Blooms in June - early July, about 10 days. The flowers are small (up to 0.8 cm in diameter), inconspicuous, yellowish-green, unisexual, collected in paniculate brushes, up to 12 cm long. Pollination is carried out by insects. The fruits ripen in September and are spherical black, slightly shiny drupes, usually with 5 seeds, inedible, with a pungent specific odor, up to 1 cm in diameter. Fruiting is annual. The tree bears up to 10 kg of fruit. Healing properties of Amur velvet (consult your doctor before use). A decoction of the bark and fruits of this tree is used for pleurisy, pulmonary tuberculosis, pneumonia and diabetes. Decoctions have astringent, deodorant, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties. For a variety of skin diseases, a decoction of the bark of Amur velvet is used. For the treatment of dysentery, diseases of the oral cavity and stomach, a tincture of the fruits of this tree is used. For jade and leprosy, a decoction of the bark of young Amur velvet is effective. Scientists conducted a lot of experiments and came to the conclusion that all medicinal preparations made from Amur velvet lower blood pressure and have fungicidal properties. Also, Amur velvet increases resistance to tumors, sarcomas and hematomas. Medicinal properties and application of Amur velvet fruits. The use of Amur velvet fruit helps to lower blood sugar levels. The fruits of this tree contain approximately 8% essential oils. They normalize the metabolism, help to normalize the work of the pancreas. The medicinal properties of Amur velvet fruits allow them to be used in the treatment of colds and flu. Also, the fruits of this tree are used for diabetes. They are taken 3-4 times daily, in the morning on an empty stomach. While taking the fruits, in no case should you drink them with water or other liquid. They need to be bitten and chewed. When treating diabetes mellitus, the daily intake of fruits is required, otherwise the expected therapeutic effect will not be. If you take the fruits of Amur velvet daily for six months, then the blood sugar level will drop to normal. In the treatment of colds and flu, the fruits of Amur velvet are used as follows: in the evening before going to bed, you need to take 1-2 pieces of fruits. They must be chewed or simply held in the mouth for a few minutes. Such a single intake of fruits will be sufficient if the disease has just begun, and if the disease has lasted for a long time, this technique should be repeated several more times. The medicinal properties of velvet fruit are also effective for high blood pressure. Half an hour before meals, you need to take 1-2 pieces of fruits daily. However, despite such numerous medicinal properties of Amur velvet fruits, there are some contraindications to their use: - the fruits of this tree contain some substances that can harm human health in large quantities, and therefore more than 5 pieces of fruits cannot be taken throughout the day ; - small children should not take the fruits of Amur velvet at all; - the development of allergies is possible from the use of the fruits of this tree; - when using the fruits of Amur velvet, you can not drink coffee, strong tea, alcohol, smoking is also contraindicated. Medicinal properties and application of the Amur Velvet bark. Amur velvet bark is used as an anti-inflammatory and antipyretic agent for various diseases. The medicinal properties of the bark of this tree are effective for dysentery and inflammation of the colon. For diseases of the lungs, pleura, exhaustion and infectious hepatitis, an infusion of the bark of Amur velvet with leaves of the same tree is used. A decoction of the bark is used in Tibet by folk healers who recommend it to people with lymphadenopathy, kidney disease, polyarthritis, and allergic dermatitis. For ascites, a tincture of velvet bark is used. Also velvet bark is used for surgical wounds.

200 rbl

Ume plum is a traditional Japanese plant with a thousand-year history. The height of the tree is mainly 5-6 m, its crown is dense and spherical, and the leaves are oblong, slightly pubescent.

Translated from "ume" means Japanese plum. It is also known as an apricot with a similar name "mume". These definitions were given to plants by foreigners who have been interested in unusual trees for many centuries.

The plant is known for its rare beauty, flowering and savory fruits. Tourists of the Land of the Rising Sun often confuse these trees with sakura, because ume buds bloom at the beginning of spring. The flowers of this plant have a pale pink or white hue and an amazing aroma. The period of active flowering lasts from 2 to 2.5 months, and already in July the first fruits appear.

Japanese plum fruit

Mume plums are very sour and tart to the taste, so they are not consumed raw. The high concentration of fruit acids makes it possible to pickle plums without additional enzymes. After harvesting, the umeboshi are soaked in a sea salt solution for 7 days, and then dried in the bright sun. The procedure lasts until the fruits are well saturated. The next step is fermentation: the plums are placed in tanks, adding seaweed, shiso leaves (a seasoning that tastes like mint) and special sourdoughs.

Products with a long aging period are especially appreciated. After fermentation, the fermentation process does not end, and over time, the plums acquire new flavors.

The fruits of the Japanese dried plum are rich in useful vitamins and microelements that remove toxins from the body, increase immunity, normalize the acidity of the gastrointestinal tract, and contribute to the recovery of the body after physical and emotional overload. In addition, fruits are used as a panacea for the manifestations of seasickness.

Description of varieties of Japanese plum

The plum is native to China, but it is also common in Japan and Vietnam.

In the middle lane, there are modified varieties of Japanese wild plum, here is a description of some of them:

Variety Alyonushka. A frost-resistant plant with a high yield and large fruits (up to 45 g). A significant drawback of this type is the close location of the plums on the branch, which leads to decay.

Kahinta variety. Medium sized tree with good winter hardiness. Begins to bear fruit in the third year after planting, plums ripen at the beginning of autumn. They are dark red with a slight gray dusting, and have tough skin.

"Early" Japanese plum, created by crossing the varieties Klaimex and Ussuriiskaya krasnaya, which made it possible to achieve in this type a combination of all the advantages of the original plants. The "early" plum of the ume type is not afraid of frost, the first fruits appear after 2-3 years of growth. The fruit has a bright red color with grayish tints and a pleasant aroma.

Sino-American-Ussuri view. This is a tree with a spreading crown and large fruits that vaguely resemble peaches. They have a deep burgundy color and juicy orange flesh.

Unlike the fruits of traditional plants, varietal fruits are consumed fresh. Also excellent jams, preserves, compotes and homemade marmalade are prepared from them.

Care when growing Japanese plums

For the cultivation of the original Japanese apricot, budding (grafting with a single bud) or copulation (splicing pagon through a cut) is used. Due to the low frost resistance of plums, they are grafted onto mature trees. Such branches are pruned annually so as not to overload them with fruits. The splice should be covered in autumn with water-based paint or lime.

It is very easy to grow one of the varieties adapted to the climatic conditions of the middle lane. This can be done by planting a bone tree or by purchasing young seedlings.

The first option is more time consuming. In early August, the seeds are planted in open ground or specially prepared containers to a depth of 5-7 cm. The first shoots will appear in a year. They are transplanted in the spring or autumn, preparing the pit a few weeks before disembarkation. If the seedlings are purchased, its size depends on the volume of the rhizome, but the base measurements are 0.5x0.5 m. Humus or compost, phosphorus and nitrogen-potassium dressings are added to the pit.

For a good harvest of Japanese apricots, several types of trees are planted with different ripening periods.

The Japanese plum is not susceptible to the main diseases of fruit trees - sharke, moth and sawfly. Caring for it differs little from standard procedures: feeding, pruning and watering.

But when an ovary appears on a Japanese plum, experienced gardeners control the amount of future fruit. If too many are left, the branches will become overloaded, which can lead to the destruction of the bark. An excessively dense arrangement of fruits contributes to the transmission of infection, rotting of plums in places of their contact.

Only the lazy does not write about sakura. But the first flowers of spring in Japan are not the famous sakura, but a plum. ume(Japanese apricot). Plum blossoms begin in February, long before the cherry blossoms bloom. Unlike cherries, plums have a delicate, pleasantly sweet aroma.

In the Nara era, when this tree was brought from China, the plum blossom was revered more than sakura, the word flower was associated with the ume flower among the Japanese, and admiring the flowering of the Japanese apricot was even more popular than admiring the cherry blossom.


Plum grows wild in China, from where it was brought to the Japanese archipelago and has played an important role in the country's culture for many centuries. In English-speaking countries, this tree of the Rosaceae family is called the Japanese apricot, in other countries - the Japanese plum, the Chinese plum. In Latin it is called Prunus Mume, and in Japanese it is ume (梅).


Plum trees come in many different types, many of which have been cultivated by the Japanese for centuries. In the country, ume grows in every garden, according to tradition, it is planted in the northeastern corner of the garden to protect against evil that supposedly comes from the other side.

In English, ume is not translated as plum, but as Japanese apricot. Plum, apricot - varieties of one tree, the name does not matter, because both ultimately end up on the Japanese table in a form that we would never think of comparing either with our sweet plum or with an apricot.


The difference in taste between the fruits of the Japanese plum and ours is very large. The Japanese do not eat ume fruits just like that, but pickle, salt, put in rice. Eating a salted plum for breakfast also brings good luck. Pickled ume are calledumeboshi (梅干).

Seasoned with salt and purple Siso leaves, they are red in color and very salty and sour. Plum fruits for making umeboshi are harvested in late May or early June, when they are still green. They are moved with salt and placed under a stone press until the end of August. They are then sun-dried on bamboo mats. Umeboshi is commonly eaten with rice as part of a bento, and is also used as a filling for popular onigiri.

The Japanese make moonshine from plums umeshu, a cheap drink for the Japanese, but with the proud name plum wine in Russian literature. Quite popular in Japan and liqueur from ume with a strength of 10-15%, various brands of this liqueur are ordered in restaurants, served with ice and tonic, cocktails are made from it. Its mixture with green tea is popular. Ume leaves are used as the family coat of arms - mona. Japanese apricot is a symbol of resilience, as together with bamboo and pine it symbolizes overcoming the difficulties of winter.

The leaves of the tree appear soon after the petals fall, they are oval in shape, with a pointed tip. Their mona design, together with hieroglyphs that literally mean "apricot leaves", appear to have originated in Southeast Asia and eventually came to Japan via Tang China. This motif is reminiscent of saddles and bridles. Very often, ume leaves are confused with the design of ginger leaves. If not a real image is used, but a stylization, then this is an umebachi - the plant Parnassia palustris.

Ume blooms with fragrant white or pink flowers.


Plum blossom is one of the favorite themes in Japanese poetry, as a symbol of the beginning of spring.

I cannot find the blossoming plum blossom
What I wanted to show a friend:
It snowed here -
And I can't find out
Where are the plums here, where is the white snow?
Yamabe no Akahito

Must have friends
They are afraid that the snow has not melted
They are not in a hurry to enter,
And the plum near the mountain hut
It turns white not with snow - with flowers.
Kagawa Kageki

Competing with the whiteness of the snow
Fallen from a heavenly height
At my house
On a branch of a winter plum
White flowers are blooming today!
Otomo Yakamochi

The flowers of fragrant plums that fall
Many in the spring in my garden, -
It's like the heavens take off first
And fall to the ground like white snow ...
Otomo Yakamochi

Where are you, cuckoo?
Remember the plums have begun to bloom
Only spring has died.
Basho
Green plum
The beauty took a bite-
She furrowed her brows.
Buson

Flower ... And another flower ...
This is how the plum blossom
So the warmth comes.
Ransetsu
Spring plum blossom
Gives its scent to a person ...
The one who broke the branch.
Chiyo
Everything, everything is white! Eyes do not distinguish
How did the color of the plum mix with the snow ...
Where is the snow? Where is the color?
And only the scent
Show people: plum or not?
Ono Takamura
I dreamed of a fragrant plum flower
And he said to me trustingly in a dream:
I am considered a flower
Metropolitan and beautiful,
So let me float in wine!
Yamanoue no Okura

Ume Matsuri is held for a month from the end of February to the end of March. The most famous place of this festival in Tokyo is considered: Yushima Tenjin Temple.

In an atmosphere infused with the delicate scent of plum blossoms, many events and programs take place.

Japanese apricot (Latin Prunus mume)- fruit crop; a representative of the genus Plum of the Pink family. Other names are Mume or Japanese plum. In nature, it grows on mountain slopes and rocky areas in North and Central China. Today it is widely cultivated in Japan and Korea.

Characteristics of culture

Japanese apricot is a medium-sized deciduous shrub or tree up to 7 m high with a smooth gray-green bark and densely arranged bouquet branches. The leaves are green, hard, ovate, with a lanceolate apex, dentate along the edge, pubescent on the underside. The flowers are numerous, white or pink, simple or double, sessile, have a pleasant aroma.

Fruits are medium-sized, greenish or yellow, with a brown pit that cannot be separated from the pulp. Japanese apricot is ranked among fast-growing crops, the first harvest of fruits can be obtained as early as 2-3 years after planting. To date, several varieties have been bred, differing in large fruits with a dessert taste. Japanese apricot is a thermophilic plant and is resistant to damage by sawfly, shark and even moth.

Varieties

In Russia, mainly varietal varieties of Japanese apricot are grown. These include:
* Early- is a hybrid of Russian origin. It is represented by vigorous trees with a rounded spreading crown. The variety is winter-hardy and high yielding. The fruits are round, fragrant, have a sweet and sour taste.

* Souvenir of the East- is a hybrid of Sino-American origin. It is represented by medium-sized trees with a spreading crown. The variety has a high yield, winter hardiness and resistance to rot of various types. The fruits are rather large, weighing up to 40 g, have a yellow-orange juicy pulp with a sweet-spicy taste.

* Kahinta- the variety is represented by medium-sized trees that begin to bear fruit in the third year after planting. The fruits are ovoid, with a tough skin. The variety is moderately yielding, frost-hardy, needs annual pruning.

* Alyonushka- the variety is represented by vigorous trees. The fruits are large, equipped with short stalks. The variety boasts a high yield, but is not resistant to rot. Fruits are ovoid, with dessert flavor pulp.

Care

Japanese apricot is a rather demanding culture. Productivity largely depends on the correct care of the trees, starting from an early age. One of the most important procedures is formative pruning. The first pruning is carried out immediately after planting the seedling; the procedure involves shortening not only the skeletal branches, but also the trunk.

The most optimal type of crown for Japanese apricot is sparse-tiered. For this, six strong skeletal branches are selected on young trees, and they are laid at a large angle to the trunk. In the future, pruning consists in shortening the fruiting branches and is carried out annually in the spring.

To provide the Japanese apricot with the necessary nutrients, fertilizing with mineral and organic fertilizers is required. Timely feeding is the key to the active growth of trees and the formation of a good harvest of fruits. The soil in the near-stem zone must be kept free of weeds. It is highly undesirable to use herbicides containing glyphosate for these purposes, especially in the first 2-3 years after planting.

Watering should be regular, water volumes and frequency are increased during drought. Some varieties of Japanese apricot are affected by pests and diseases, and they need frequent preventive treatments. If insects are found on trees, they are sprayed with insecticides or organic infusions.

Application

Japanese apricots are widely used in cooking and alcoholic beverages. They are used to prepare jams, preserves, mashed potatoes, marmalade, compotes, pickles, marinades, as well as liqueurs and moonshine. Cultural trees are often used as a rootstock. In Japan, Japanese apricot is a symbol of resilience; a festival is timed to coincide with its flowering in this country.

It so happened that Japanese apricot (photo on the left) in fact, it is a plum, as it belongs to the Pink family, the Plum genus. Once the Chinese plum was brought to Japan from China (natural area of ​​growth), so they began to call it the Japanese apricot. Now this species has many alternative names, such as Chinese plum, Japanese plum, apricot mume (Prunus mume), ume plum (ume - this is how the name sounds in Japanese). In fact, this is the designation of the same wild-growing species. Chinese plum is a tree, less often a shrub, which grows naturally on the high slopes of the mountains of Central and Northern China. Japanese apricot also has various selectively bred varieties in the form of shrubs or trees. For example: a shrub of the "Omoi-nomama" variety has white flowers that bloom for only a few days and exude a honey scent.

Appearance of Japanese apricot (Japanese plum). It is a fairly sprawling deciduous deciduous tree or shrub that grows up to 6 meters in height. The leaves of the ume plum are rounded-oval from the inner edge, and elongated and pointed to the outer edge. The color of the bark is greenish gray.

Japanese plum blossom (Chinese plum). In fact, the Japanese apricot blooms even earlier than the famous sakura, in February - the month. Flowering lasts about 10 days. The beautiful flowering Chinese plum has long attracted and bewitched the Japanese, who have always admired this plant, dedicated poems to it, considered it a symbol of spring, and used it in images of family coats of arms and ornaments.

Plum blossom ume are pink or white. The flowers have many petals, often double flowers, rather fluffy, voluminous with long numerous stamens, the number of which reaches 35 - 40 pcs. A delicate pleasant aroma emanates from the flowers.

Ume plum fruit (Chinese plum) of yellow, sometimes greenish color - they have a harsh pulp, which practically does not separate from the stone. The fruits are sour.

Uses of Japanese apricot ... The fruits are consumed only in the form of pickles, pickles, to obtain the umeshu liqueur, which is popular in Asia, or to obtain valuable apricot oil. The shrub or tree itself has long been cultivated in Japan as an ornamental or fruit plant.

The valuable properties of Japanese apricot oil(ume plums). The oil helps with acute and chronic gastritis, and is also used for the prevention of stomach cancer, cardiovascular diseases, treats diseases of the nervous system, replenishes the lack of vitamins, is used for cosmetic purposes for massages, heals minor burns, skin damage, maintains its water balance, preventing loss of moisture, smoothes the skin, nourishes it and fights wrinkles. In addition, it has a very beneficial effect on the hair. The main properties of Chinese plum or ume plum oil are anti-inflammatory, rejuvenating, tonic. For cosmetic purposes, it is used in pure form or in the form of mixtures with other oils, or added to lotions, creams, shampoos and other care products.