Improving the Quality of Apple Tree Seedlings and the Efficiency of Their Cultivation with Foliar Feeding with Special Fertilizers

These studies investigate the effect of foliar feeding with Shans Universal soluble complex organomineral fertilizer on the quality and yield of planting material of apple tree seedlings. The work was carried out in 2022–2023 in Tambov oblast. The sizes and commercial qualities of 1-year-old seedlings on the clonal rootstock 54-118 in the second field of the nursery, planted according to the 1.0 m × 0.2 m scheme (50 000 specimens/ha), were determined. The experimental design provided the study of the following options: variety (factor A)—Antonovka Oblastnaya, Berkutovskoye, Vympel, Ligol, and Honeycrisp; frequency of treatment (factor B)—without fertilizers (0), one-, two-, three-, four-, and fivefold, with an interval of two weeks in the phase of intensive shoot growth. In options without fertilizers, spraying with water was carried out. The soil of the experimental plot is leached heavy loamy chernozem, medium-deep, slightly acidic, and moderately supplied with the main elements of mineral nutrition. Spraying with Shans Universal helps increase the biometric parameters of plants. In dwarf varieties, the height of 1-year-old seedlings increased by 7.7–14.9% and the trunk diameter increased by 18.8–33.3%; in vigorous varieties it increased by 8.8–10.8% and 22.2–29.4%, respectively. At the same time, the yield of standard 1-year-old seedlings compared to the control increased by 11.8–17.3% in dwarf varieties and by 8.7–13.9% in vigorous varieties. Spraying apple tree seedlings with a 0.5% solution of the Shans Universal preparation increased the profitability of planting material production of dwarf varieties more than that of vigorous varieties (by 24 and 11%, respectively, compared to the control).