Article about a tropical plant – azimine trekhlopostny. The plant nature, an origin, an introduction and an agrotechnology of cultivation of culture is described.
Azimina, asimina (Asimina) – the unique sort of plants of tropical family of the annonovy (Annonaceae), capable grow in a temperate climate
Azimina, asimina (Asimina) – the unique sort of plants of the tropical family (Annonaceae), capable grow in a temperate climate. The scientific name of a sort occurs from “assimin” – a name of this plant. Other names aziminy a banana tree and the American papaw (from. papaya) are given for some similarity of its fruits with and.
In a wild look azimina usually grows on deep fertile, friable and damp soils in woody districts, on coast of the rivers, as underbrush trees, forming dense thickets. It was delivered in, and some other the countries. To the Nikitsky botanical garden azimina got last century.
This fruit and at the same time ornamental plant with wide conic krone and a smooth bark of branches and a trunk grows slowly. Leaves large, 20-30 cm at length and 10-15 cm at width, dark green, ovate-oblong, povisly. In the middle of the autumn before subsidence they become golden and brown, and new leaves appear late spring when plants already fade.
Flower kidneys aziminy which appear at the beginning of April, thanks to a thin protective cover absolutely freely transfer late spring frosts.
Flower, usually single, appear on last year’s escapes at the end of April – the beginning of May before expansion of leaves. They brown-red, large, to 6 cm in diameter; the cup consists of three chashelistikov, a nimbus – from six petals.
Oblong, reminding banana, fruits aziminy are collected in a soplodiya from 2-8 pieces. Their size makes 5-20 cm at length and 3-10 cm at width. The mass of fruits fluctuates from 20 to 500 g. Large fruits usually contain 10-15 dark brown seeds located two ranks. The thin and smooth thin skin of fruits in process of their maturing changes the color with green on bright yellow, and at the become overripe – becomes brown or black.
Fruits are suitable for the use when they become soft. The pulp of a ripe fruit aziminy whitish and yellow or orange-yellow on a consistence reminds a custard, sweet on taste, with pleasant difficult fruit aroma. It is rich and, and also microcells. To taste reminds a little, mango, pineapple, a sweet persimmon, the most gentle peaches and pears.
At all representatives of Annonaceae family fruits have rather short period of storage. Fruits aziminy – not an exception, they quickly become overripe and gain unpleasant smack.
The main lack of this culture is its low productivity: only 25-45 kg from a tree.
Make multiple copies aziminu seeds and an inoculation. In the first case it is necessary to avoid that seeds dried up or froze through, as it can cause death of an underdeveloped germ. If the seeds taken from fruits aziminy to leave for three days at room temperature, them vsxozhest there will be less than 20 %.
Cold and damp stratification is necessary for seeds at temperature from 0 to + 4ºS within 70-100 days. At crops of seeds in soil in the autumn after collecting, they will sprout at the end of July – the beginning of August of the next year.
Other way – the cleared seeds mix up with a small amount of damp peat, a moss or river sand, are located in a polyethylene bag and are put in the refrigerator.
After completion of stratification seeds are sowed in deep (35-45 cm) pots or the containers filled with an easy soil mix (pH 5,5-7,0) which establish in a room with optimum temperature 24-29zs. Seeds sprout in 2-3 weeks, shoots will appear in two months. Within the first two years the gain of an elevated part of a plant will be small (15-25 cm).
Azimina easily breeds by application of traditional methods of an inoculation and a kopulirovka. The only way of reproduction which is not giving good results – an inoculation in T-shaped……. Attempts to multiply aziminu by office of root offsprings also didn’t give desirable results.
Change of plants is interfaced to a number of difficulties which are defined first of all by features of a structure of their root system. Roots at aziminy fleshy and fragile with a small amount of thin acquiring hairs.
Experience showed that successful change of plants is possible only in the spring, during this period, when activization of rostovy processes only begins.
The plants grown up from seeds usually start to blossom and fructify in 5-8 years imparted – in 2-3 years.
Azimina is very steady against diseases and wreckers. Under natural conditions her most malicious wrecker is Talponia plummeriana – a moth (a small larva in length about 5 mm) which damages fleshy fabrics of a flower that in separate years leads to their mass subsidence. Other wrecker – Eurytides marcellus (Makhaon’s butterfly of a zebra), whose caterpillars eat young foliage of pawpaw. An adult butterfly of such exclusive beauty that it is possible to consider it as blessing, instead of a nature damnation. In Japan emergence on fruits aziminy flies of ZygophialajamaicensisMason is noted.
Pawpaw – a plant of moderately humid climate, grows in regions with warm summer and soft, but in the cold winter, where the minimum quantity of an atmospheric precipitation not less than 810 mm which are quite evenly distributed during the whole year. It is best of all, if the most part of a precipitation falls on spring and summer.
Azimina is very cold-resistant and capable to transfer without essential damages severe winters with air temperatures to – 29ºS. This ability of the unique representative of tropical family was confirmed by data of the phenological supervision which are carried out to the winter period of 2005-2006.
Though plants of pawpaw are capable to fructify in a shadow, optimum crops can be received only on open sites with necessary protection against a wind. Nevertheless, landing saplings on a constant place, it is necessary to consider hypersensibility to complete solar lighting which can destroy them. Therefore during the first, and sometimes and the second year the zateneniye is necessary for plants. Saplings in containers can grow in a hothouse without a zateneniye.
The soil should be poorly sour (pH 5,5-7,0), fertile and well trained. A good drainage – the key to success at cultivation aziminy. Plants on the heavy and rehumidified soils will be in a depression.
When landing in a garden it is necessary to place plants not closer than 2,5 m from each other among and to 5 m – in a row-spacing. It is necessary to water as required during the whole vegetative period, especially in the first two years after landing, avoiding stagnation of water. To stimulate rostovy processes it is possible introduction every two weeks in the first half of vegetation of the balanced fertilizer (N20-P20-K20).
The main type scraps of plants – sanitary. In case of excessive lengthening of branches – a scrap on replacement.
S.Hokhlov, the candidate of agricultural sciences Department of the southern fruit growing, the Nikitsky botanical garden – national scientific center.