Care for honeysuckle in the fall: what to do after fruiting, do I need to cover for the winter

By the end of July, the fruiting of even the latest varieties of edible honeysuckle ends. Despite the fact that this shrub is unpretentious, certain work with it must be continued even after harvesting the fruits. Caring for honeysuckle in August and September is not difficult and does not take much time, but it should not be neglected, since it directly depends on how the shrub survives the winter and whether it will yield next year.

How to Care for Honeysuckle After Harvest

Edible honeysuckle is increasingly found in gardens and home gardens. This culture owes its popularity, first of all, to its unpretentiousness and undemanding care. Honeysuckle has excellent frost resistance, it can be grown without shelter even in cold regions. At the same time, the berries of this plant are not only tasty, but also nutritious, they contain much more useful substances than many others.

Honeysuckle is a healthy and tasty berry

Fruiting always weakens berry bushes quite a bit, and honeysuckle is no exception. In August, immediately after picking berries, she needs care, rest and restoration, so no radical measures (pruning, transplanting) are carried out with her at first. To help honeysuckle recover faster and strengthen it in the pre-winter period, in late August or early September, the bushes are fed with potash and phosphorus fertilizers. They are applied by the root method in the form of an aqueous solution, so they are quickly absorbed by the plant. The standard rate for each bush of edible honeysuckle is 25-30 g of superphosphate and 15-20 g of potassium sulfate, this amount is diluted in 10 liters of water.

Wood ash will reduce the acidity of the soil and enrich it with potassium.

In addition, after harvesting, in August and September, the following care activities are carried out:

1. Watering. Produced throughout the season with a lack of precipitation. If the weather is dry in August-September, then once a week the bushes are watered at the rate of 1 liters per each.
2. Root zone care. In August-September, loosening and mulching, weed removal, and mowing are carried out if the soil around the shrub is sodden.
   Important! The root system of honeysuckle is located quite close to the surface, so care should be taken when excavating in the root zone.
3. Autumn pruning. In the northern regions, it is done at the end of September; in regions with a warm climate, it can be done later. Shrubs are cleaned of dry, broken, damaged branches. In adult fruit-bearing bushes, thinning is carried out, thickening and rubbing shoots are removed, as well as side branches, if they lay on the ground. In old specimens, a part of perennial wood is cut out, which gives a weak annual increase. A bush older than 20 years old can be radically rejuvenated by cutting off all the old shoots completely, except for a few annual ones.
4. Pre-winter spraying with urea. Do such a care event with the onset of frost.
5. Care of young seedlings and shelter for the winter.

In autumn, you can plant honeysuckle in open ground

Autumn is the best time to plant and transplant honeysuckle. In most regions, such care work is performed during this period. Edible honeysuckle, as a rule, finishes the growing season very early, already at the end of September there are practically no leaves left on it. Meanwhile, the earth at this time is still quite warm, and it is still far before the onset of cold weather. A plant transplanted at this time or a planted seedling is guaranteed to have time to take root and adapt in a new place. In the spring, such shrubs will confidently start growing. If the planting or transplanting is postponed to the spring, then there is a great risk of not being able to complete the work on time, since the honeysuckle enters the growing season very early.

Some aspects of honeysuckle care in August-September are covered in the video at the link:

How to process honeysuckle after harvest

Edible honeysuckle is quite rarely affected by diseases and pests, even in the absence of care, therefore, with rare exceptions, it is not processed during the growing season. A complete ban on the use of any chemicals exists in the summer, during the period when the fruits ripen. However, some care activities, such as crown treatment with special tools, still need to be carried out both at the beginning and at the end of the season.

Spraying shrubs in early spring will prevent the development of fungal diseases.

In early spring, the shrub is sprayed with 1% Bordeaux liquid to prevent fungal diseases. But after the end of fruiting, honeysuckle is usually processed only once, and this is done after the first frost. For spraying the bushes during this period, a solution of urea (urea) is used, for the preparation of which it will be necessary to dilute 35 g of the substance in 10 liters of water. Treatment of honeysuckle with urea in late autumn will strengthen its immunity well, and also kill pests wintering in the folds and cracks of the bark. Work is carried out during the day, in dry weather, at a temperature of about 0 ° C.

Processing honeysuckle bushes after harvesting in August may be necessary in case of emergency – in the event of a disease or pest invasion, which is extremely rare. When a powdery coating, dark spots and other signs of damage to the shrub by fungi appear on the leaves, you need to cut off the diseased shoots, and spray the bushes themselves with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture. If in August-September caterpillars, aphid colonies or other insects appeared on the leaves and shoots, then the plantations are treated with insecticides of various effects (Aktellik, Fufanon, Iskra, Inta-Vir, etc.).

You can spray honeysuckle from pests only after harvesting the fruit.

How to prepare honeysuckle for winter

All care activities that are carried out after picking berries in August and autumn, one way or another, are aimed at strengthening the immunity of honeysuckle bushes and preparing for winter. Top dressing with superphosphate and potash fertilizers increases winter hardiness, pruning reduces the number of shoots that consume nutrients. In addition, during the summer, honeysuckle lays the flower buds of the next year, they will become the basis of the next season’s crop.

Do I need to cover honeysuckle for the winter

Mature honeysuckle bushes have good winter hardiness. Most varieties of this shrub can easily withstand temperatures as low as -40 ° C, so they do not need to be covered. Shelter is needed only for young seedlings obtained from cuttings or layering of the current year and wintering for the first time. They have a poorly developed horse system and are quite vulnerable.

For the winter, very young honeysuckle bushes need to be covered with spruce branches

Young honeysuckle bushes are covered for the winter with spruce branches, straw, and fallen leaves. In adult plants, it is possible to insulate the root zone with a layer of humus, but such a measure is not mandatory.

Conclusion

Care for honeysuckle in August and September performs quite a few functions. All activities carried out at this time are aimed at strengthening the shrub after fruiting, as well as strengthening it before the upcoming wintering. Many gardeners consider taking care of honeysuckle during this period unnecessary, but it is in August and September that the bushes form flower buds, from which the next year’s crop is laid. Therefore, do not neglect these works, because the autumn care for honeysuckle is the basis of the future harvest. Moreover, it will not take a lot of time in August and September.