FRUIT GROWING

FRUIT GROWING, the cultivation of fruit crops and berry crops in order to produce fruits and berries; a branch of plant growing. Fields of F.g.: basic F.g. (breeding of cherries, pears, plums, apples and other pome and stone fruit crops), nursery (cultivation of planting material of fruit and berry crops), berry growing (cultivation of strawberry, raspberry, currants and other berry crops), growing of subtropical fruits (pomegranates, figs, etc), nut (walnut, almonds, etc) and citrus (lemon, citron, etc) crops.

The first demonstration gardens in Bashkortostan were organized at the beginning of the 20th century on premisis of schools and colleges of Birsky uyezd; Lyakhovskaya Beekeeping and Gardening School, Belebeyevskaya Agricultural School and others. The grafted wild apple seedlings imported from Moscow, Penza and Poltava guberniyas were planted there. Before the revolution of 1917 the area of gardens was about 150 (ha), in 1929 — 600, 1937 — 4,000, by the end of the 1990s — about 20 thous. (incl. more than 9 thous. in collective and state farms and more than 10 thous. in the homestead and collective gardens). There are more than 30 various fruit and berry crops bred in the republic, as well as Japanese quince, actinidia, vine, honey-suckle, snowball, magnolia-vine, sea buckthorn, rosehips. There are Bakalinsky, Birsky, Buzovyazovsky, Iglinsky, Kushnarenkovsky, Sterlitamaksky, Chishminsky fruit nurseries. The F.g. products get processed on Birsky Canning Factory, Buzdyaksky Canning Factory, etc.