Harvesting sea buckthorn: devices, video

Collecting sea buckthorn is an unpleasant occupation. Small berries are firmly attached to the branches of the tree, and it is quite difficult to separate them. However, difficulties usually arise in those people who do not know how to accurately determine the time of harvest, as well as in the absence of special devices.

When sea buckthorn ripens

To make it easier to harvest sea buckthorn, you need to know the ripening time of the berries. It is difficult to separate unripe fruits from the branches, and when they ripen, they will practically fall off the stem themselves. Harvest time is influenced by two important factors: weather conditions and whether the variety belongs to a certain ripening group.

If you focus on the ripening group, then the time for harvesting sea buckthorn falls on the following months:

• in the second decade of August, early varieties are harvested;
• as for late varieties, sea buckthorn is harvested in September from about the 20th.

Given the weather conditions, the cleaning time may be delayed or come earlier. The readiness of the berries is recognized by the rich orange color, as well as the rounded shape.

There is another important factor – the intended type of processing. Before harvesting the berries, you need to decide what to do with it. If you need whole berries for fresh consumption, storage, making jam, then you need to collect them at the initial stage of ripening. Sea buckthorn fruits can hang on branches for a long time, but over time they become soft. You won’t be able to pick them up later without damaging them.

Berries for making juice or oil are best picked when overripe. They can be crushed by hand directly on the branches, substituting a container for collection. Overripe sea buckthorn is highly saturated with juice, which allows you to get the maximum yield of the final product.

Some tips for harvesting and processing crops

To collect sea buckthorn quickly, you should use the wise advice of experienced gardeners:

1. It is more convenient to cut berries from a branch in the direction from the tree trunk.
2. During cleaning use overalls and gloves. Sea buckthorn juice is very difficult to wash off. Being in overalls, the gardener does not worry that he will get dirty and concentrates only on work. Gloves protect hands from injuries and manifestations of allergic reactions when juice enters.
3. The most convenient container is an ordinary rain umbrella. It is hung upside down under a branch with fruits. You can additionally spread the canvas under the whole tree.

As for processing, the easiest way is to simply store sea buckthorn with twigs in the cold, and brew tea in winter. Berries can simply be frozen or mixed with sugar in a 1:1 ratio. A more complex storage method involves drying or making jam.

On the video, how to quickly collect sea buckthorn and when it is better to do it:

How to pick sea buckthorn berries

Gardeners harvest sea buckthorn at home with their hands. A similar process is provided for the cultivation of berries on an industrial scale. To simplify the procedure, many methods and devices have been invented.

Is it possible to collect sea buckthorn branches

The easiest way is to collect sea buckthorn with branches, then put them in the freezer. During the day, the berries will freeze and easily separate if you run your hand over them. Cutting branches is not considered a barbaric method if the rules are followed. For work, use a pruner or garden shears. Branches cannot be broken. Only fruit-bearing shoots with berries are cut, which are subject to sanitary pruning in late autumn.

Difficulties in harvesting sea buckthorn by hand

You can manually collect sea buckthorn from a tree only in small quantities. Exhausting work is accompanied by skin irritation when sour juice gets in. Always wear rubber gloves when working. On large plantations, harvesting is also done manually, but special tools and devices are already being used to speed it up.

Home manual harvesting of fruits is carried out with scissors, tongs, home-made scrapers. Many gardeners wait for the first frost, spread a canvas under the tree and shake the branches. Most of the crop falls off. The berries can only be sorted from the foliage.

If it is already October, sea buckthorn is harvested by hand for oil or juice. The process takes place with the use of rubber gloves. The berries are crushed with hands directly on the branch, substituting a container where the juice will drain and the cake will fall. Before such cleaning, it is advisable to wash the sea buckthorn with a hose with a scattering nozzle.

Equipment for collecting sea buckthorn

On large plantations, you need a tool for harvesting sea buckthorn, which speeds up as well as simplifies the process. Most devices are the simplest mechanisms that can be made and used at home.

Tongs

The simplest device for collecting sea buckthorn is tongs. The tool can be bought at the store or made from improvised means. However, this method of picking berries is only suitable for patient people. The tree is not injured with tongs, the fruits are torn whole, but all the work takes a lot of time. The tool must be removed individually for each berry. The use of tongs is relevant if one small tree grows on the site.

The video shows how to work with tongs:

Slingshot

The tool helps to quickly collect sea buckthorn from branches by cutting. The slingshot is bent out of wire or a vegetable peeler is used. In the latter version, a knife is removed from the kitchen tool. A string is pulled on the slingshot. Berries are cut directly from the branches, substituting a collection container.

“Cobra”

The tool was invented by folk craftsmen. A wire loop is attached to the wooden handle, shaped like a cobra’s head. The capture of the berry occurs at the very stem. The risk of cutting fruit buds is completely eliminated. With the help of a simple device, it will be possible to reach any hard-to-reach areas.

Sea buckthorn scraper

A scraper will quickly help to clean sea buckthorn from branches. The design resembles a mixture of a slingshot with tongs. A spring is twisted from an elastic wire on the base of the tool. The protruding two ends in the upper part are bent at a right angle. The string does not need to be hooked. The scraper works like tongs. The bent ends clamp a branch with berries and pull it towards themselves. Cut fruits fall inside a substituted container or on a spread film.

Knapsack, or harvester for harvesting sea buckthorn

The store tool helps to properly collect sea buckthorn without injuring the tree. Combines are produced from plastic, metal or wood. There are different configurations, but the principle of operation is the same. The harvester is a manual nozzle with a container for picking berries. Fruit cutting occurs with a working surface resembling a comb.

Other tools for quick sea buckthorn harvesting

Each gardener looks for convenient ways to collect sea buckthorn, comes up with tricky devices. Without any difficulties, a small number of fruits from the branches are cut with nail scissors. Accuracy for the tree is guaranteed, but such work takes a lot of time.

The video demonstrates the method using scissors:

Another invention is the cone. It is rolled up from a 10×15 cm tin. A neck with a diameter of 1 cm is made at the top of the cone. A bag is pressed from the second wide side with a rubber ring. During harvesting, the cone is pressed with a neck to the branch and the fruits are cut off. The entire crop is collected inside the bag.

Stores sell special gloves for harvesting sea buckthorn, which can be used instead of a scraper. The essence of the device is in special caps – claws. The tip is put on each finger, all the elements are interconnected by a string forming a scraper. It is enough for a person to grab a branch with his hand, pull it towards himself and all the berries will be cut.

How to make a device for collecting sea buckthorn with your own hands

To make a tool for collecting sea buckthorn with your own hands, you need to find an elastic steel wire with a diameter of 4-5 mm, about 500 mm long. The spring can be made in the form of a half ring or ring. In the second case, the center of the wire is leaned against the neck of the bottle and one turn is twisted.

A string is fixed at the ends of the resulting workpiece. It turned out to be a slingshot-type scraper. If you need a tool without a string like tongs, then the upper parts of the ends are bent to one side at a right angle.

The video tells in detail about the manufacture of the scraper:

How to quickly collect sea buckthorn by cutting branches

Fast harvesting on large plantations is carried out along with branches. This method is allowed and is considered painless for the tree, if everything is done correctly.

How to cut branches with berries

To prevent damage to the tree, the branches are cut with sharp secateurs. Choose only thin old shoots that are subject to autumn pruning. Young and thick branches do not touch. You can’t break escapes. The cut is carried out so that a stump 5 cm long remains at the base. The next year, new shoots will come from it.

Cut branches with fruits are sent for further processing. It is not advisable to wash them, as the berries will crack. This procedure is best done before cutting. The bush is doused with water from a hose.

Methods for processing cut branches

When the branches are already delivered home, they begin to separate the fruits from them. Sitting on a comfortable chair, you can slowly pick off the berries with your hands, cut them off with a knife, nail scissors or a scraper with a string.

You can save the crop until spring directly on the branches. You will need a refrigerator or a cool room where the temperature is constantly maintained no higher than 0^оC.

When to collect sea buckthorn leaves

In addition to berries, it is customary to collect sea buckthorn leaves for medicinal purposes and brew tea from them. Drying is carried out in a natural way on trays, only they need to be placed in the shade. In order for the medicinal collection to be healing, they begin to collect and dry sea buckthorn leaves from mid-June. The dried product is stored in a dry room with an air temperature of +18^оC.

How sea buckthorn is harvested on an industrial scale

Harvesting on an industrial scale usually begins with the onset of cold weather, when the berry is already frozen. A film is spread under the bushes and, tapping each branch, they knock down the fruits. To prevent the berries from wrinkling when they fall, slides are made of plywood or plastic. The fruits just roll over them onto the film.

In addition to upholstery, the method of cutting branches is practiced. In this state, the crop is taken out of the plantation, sent for further processing.

Conclusion

Collecting sea buckthorn is tedious and time consuming. However, the berry is very useful, in winter it will help cure a cold, get rid of beriberi.