Fruit Nursery

Fruit Nursery 

a plot of land on which planting material for fruit and berry crops is grown. In the USSR, fruit nurseries may be state-run (sovkhoz, agricultural agencies, experimental and educational institutions) or kolkhoz-run. They are classified according to the geographical extent of their service as republic, zonal, oblast, interraion, or intrafarm. Fruit nurseries supply planting material to fruit-growing regions having similar soil and climatic conditions.

A fruit nursery has four departments. The department of reproduction is involved with sowing and with seedling transplantation. It is here that the seed stocks and planting material for berry crops are raised. Stocks are propagated by cutting. There is also a department for raising self-rooted and grafted planting material, as well as nurslings of fruit and berry crops. Another department provides seed for growing stocks, raises vegetatively propagative low-growing stocks, maintains a garden of different varieties of woody plants (cuttings are used for grafting), and raises self-rooted planting material for berry crops. A fourth department, which is not found in all fruit nurseries, grows ornamental and forest species, which are used in landscaping and to protect fields and orchards.

A fruit nursery is located in the center of the region it serves. The best soils are medium and light loams and sandy loams of soddy-podzol, forest-steppe, gray, brown, chestnut, and chernozem. The soil must be deep, fertile, structured, and sufficiently moist. If there is no natural protection from wind, artificial protection must be provided. Fruit nurseries are divided into squares of from 3 to 6 hectares (ha) for seedlings and from 5 to 12 ha for other plantings. Crop rotation is employed, as is an appropriate system of soil tillage and fertilization.

Viable seeds are used for sowing in fruit nurseries. The seeds of most fruit crops are stratified before sowing. Stocks grown from seed are dug up in the fall, sorted according to variety, and set out in the first field of the fruit nursery or buried for winter storage until spring planting. Low-growing stocks (quince, the apple varieties Paradizka and Dusen) are propagated by layers and cuttings. Seedlings of pip fruits are usually grown for three years. Stocks in the second field of the fruit nursery are grafted at the end of summer. Trunks are formed on the second field and the crown develops on the third field. Nurslings of drupe crops are grown for two years or, in nonchernozem and northern fruit-growing zones, for three years. Planting material (nurslings) from fruit nurseries are dug up in the fall and spring. Records are kept to ensure the proper care and cultivation of planting material in the nursery.

M. D. KUZNETSOV