Increasingly, gardeners buy coniferous plants for their plots, which become a real decoration of the garden or recreation area. The undeniable advantage of spruce is that it maintains blue needles and bright colors all year round. In this article, you can read how to care for prickly spruce Bonfire, given its agrotechnical features.

Botanical tree description

Picea Pungens Koster belongs to the Pine family and is an evergreen.

Her crown has a wide pyramidal regular shape with dense shoots hanging down. In the first few years, the growth rate of the lower branches is much higher than that of the upper ones, therefore the structure of the crown seems somewhat asymmetrical. After 3-5 years the situation is evened out.

At the age of ten, the height of the tree is 3 m, but over time it grows to 10-15 m. Moreover, the maximum crown diameter does not exceed 3–5 m.

The plant has a hard and long symmetrical needles (up to 3 cm) of blue or silver-gray color. This color does not change throughout the year. The plant has high frost and drought resistance. It tolerates dust, wind and smoke, which allows it to be planted in large cities.

Did you know? Substances in the needles can fight scurvy. That is why on board most crews in the Middle Ages there was wine from spruce branches.

Origin of name

According to historical information, the name spruce was first registered in the Netherlands in 1901. The plant was considered the newly developed form of the Pine family in the Boscop nursery. At that time, its owner was Ari Bonfire, in whose honor a beautiful spiny tree was named.

Landing

When choosing seedlings, it is very important to carefully examine its root system. It should be covered with an earthen ball, which will help the young plant adapt more quickly to new environmental conditions and soil.

Video: How to plant a coniferous plant

You should not plant this variety of spruce next to tall trees, since in the conditions of shade Bonfire develops much more slowly. It is best to create composite drawings from plant species of the same height.

Planting spruce implies compliance with the following rules:

1. Planting is necessary in mid-April or early September.
2. When choosing a landing site, you should pay attention to the type of soil (it is better if the soil is loamy or loamy).
3. A landing pit for prickly spruce is dug up about 80x80 cm (its size should be 20 cm larger than the diameter of the globe on the roots of the plant). When planting several trees at once in close proximity to each other, it is necessary to observe a distance of 2-3 m between them.
4. The bottom of the landing pit should be lined with drainage (the layer thickness should be approximately 20–25 cm). To do this, use pebbles, crushed stone, broken brick.
5. After installing the seedling, it is necessary to fill the pit with a substrate: a mixture of turf land, sand and peat in a ratio of 2: 1: 1.
6. The root neck should be 2 cm above the soil level.
7. After planting, it is necessary to water the plant with 10 liters of water and loosen the trunk area.

Spruce care

Variety Coster is unpretentious and resistant to changes in climatic conditions. This spruce is considered very frost-resistant, as it tolerates frosts down to -40 ° С. In addition, the tree can develop at constant high temperatures with the lack of regular watering. But some features of agricultural technology are still worth paying attention to.

Important! It is not recommended to plant spruce on soils with a close location of groundwater. This can lead to inhibition of tree growth and rotting of the roots.

Watering and feeding

Only seedlings up to 1 year old need regular watering. The soil under them needs to be slightly moistened every 2 weeks. (10 liters of water are poured under the tree). You can also spray the needles of a young plant once a month. Adult spruce do not need additional watering. The exception is the period of drought, when up to 15 liters of water can be applied under the tree every 2-3 weeks.

Bonfire does not need to be fed. Moreover, the use of organic fertilizers can inhibit the growth and development of the plant, as well as lead to its drying out.

Loosening and mulching

Mulching the barreled spruce near-trunk zone eliminates the problem of a large number of weeds. This is especially true if several trees of this variety are planted at once on the site. It is best to mulch the spruce with straw, sawdust or needles.

Many gardeners use for this purpose needles that showered from the spruce itself. In this case, you need to be extremely careful: if they are infected with an infection or pests, then using them as mulch will only expand the lesion focus.

Soil loosening is not used as a regular spruce care procedure if the trunk circle is mulled. If not, then weeding this zone to a depth of 20 cm should be carried out after each irrigation and with the formation of a crust on the soil.

Pruning

Prickly spruce Bonfire does not need forming pruning. Its branches independently develop in the right direction, creating a pyramidal crown. Every year, it is worth carrying out only sanitary pruning, while removing all shrunken or damaged branches. It is best to trim them in the near-trunk zone. So the place of cut heals faster, leaving behind only a small roughness on the trunk. Sanitary pruning is best done in late March or early April, until the tree has entered the active growth phase after winter.

Important! It is not recommended to buy spruce with bare roots for planting. In most cases, such seedlings dry out in the first months of development.

Possible diseases and pests

If the spruce is healthy and not weakened, then pests or pathogenic bacteria infect it quite rarely. But it so happens that the plant does not fit the soil, climatic conditions or the frequency of irrigation.

In this case, it becomes a target for many pests, among which the most common are:

1. Spruce aphid - a small insect of green color, which reaches 2 mm in size. Visually detecting it is quite difficult, since it almost merges with the needles. This can be done by putting a sheet of white paper to the branches and tapping the shoots (some aphids will crumble). Due to the activity of these insects, the needles become covered with yellow spots and gradually crumble. To get rid of aphids, you can use the insecticide "Jaguar", diluting it in a ratio of 3 g to 5 liters of water. Shoots that were very affected by aphids must be cut and burned.
2. Fir shield - a pest that most often affects trees located in the shade or on over-dried soil. The needles on young plants begin to crumble and dry sharply. At the same time, the growth and development of the tree slows down, and numerous brilliant traces of insect activity appear on the shoots. To destroy the scale, it is necessary to treat the tree with the “Aktara” insecticide, having prepared a solution in the ratio of 5 g of the drug per 10 l of water.
3. Spider mite - an insect that most often damages young seedlings. It does the most harm to plants during drought, when the spruce is weakened. The tick spreads very quickly (in a few months the female can give 4 generations). The presence of these insects on a tree can be determined by the yellowish spots on the needles and the numerous cobwebs on the shoots. You can destroy the pest using a solution of the "Antichrush" drug in the ratio of 10 g of active substance to 10 liters of water.

In addition to pests, various pathogenic bacteria can interfere with the normal development of spruce, for example:

1. Schütte Fungus - provokes a premature discharge of needles and a slowdown in spruce growth, without leading to the complete death of the plant. The presence of fungal spores can be determined by brown needles and development on the shoots of white mycelium. You can overcome this disease using the drug "Fundazole" (10 g per 2 liters of water).
2. Root rot - occurs if water stagnates in the root system or a spruce tree is planted next to large bodies of water. At the same time, the upper part of the needles dries out, becoming more rare. If the lesion is too strong, mushroom caps sprout on the trunk. To combat this disease, you need to use "Trichodermin" (50 ml per 10 l of water) under the root.

The use of wood in landscape design

For many years, Europe has a tradition of planting Spruce Bonfire near various memorials, monuments or office buildings. The plant served as a guard of honor. A few decades ago, traditions have changed. Now the tree has been actively planted in garden and summer cottages. The plant looks great in compositions with other deciduous or coniferous varieties, and as the main single accent.

Did you know? On the territory of Sweden spruce grows, whose age is more than 9,500 years.

Prickly spruce is an excellent solution for decorating a summer cottage. High frost resistance, unusual colors and low climatic conditions contribute to the widespread distribution of wood in Europe, Asia and North America.