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Modern varieties of honeysuckle make it possible to grow tasty and healthy berries not only in household plots. More and more farmers are paying attention to this crop. Previously, it was unattractive for cultivation on large areas – the fruits crumbled, and their taste and size left much to be desired.
Most varieties of honeysuckle, bred in the XNUMXst century, have sweet large berries firmly attached to the branches, which makes them suitable for manual and mechanized harvesting.
Variety description
The Sibiryachka variety is not considered the newest, although it was registered only in 2000. This hybrid was obtained from Turchaninov and Kamchatskaya honeysuckles by the Bakchar Federal State Unitary Enterprise, located in the Tomsk region.
TECH SPECS
A bush with an oval crown, of medium height, moderately spreading – it reaches a height of 1,6 m with a width of 1,4 m. The shoots of Siberian honeysuckle are arched, the top hangs down. Mature branches are brown, with peeling bark.
The berries are teardrop-shaped, dark purple, with a whitish wax coating. The weight of each ranges from 1,0-1 g. The fruits of the Sibiryachka variety are among the most delicious and sweet among edible honeysuckles, their tasting score reaches 4 points.
The berries ripen early and amicably – only one cleaning is needed. The average yield of honeysuckle variety Sibiryachka from an adult bush is 3,1 kg, under favorable conditions – up to 3,7 kg. The fruits are well attached to the branches, do not crumble when ripe, but can come off with damage, therefore they are not suitable for freezing.
Pollinators
Edible honeysuckle is self-fertile, Siberian is no exception. To obtain a decent harvest, cross-pollination by bees or bumblebees with pollen from other varieties is necessary. Otherwise, the bushes will bloom, but will give only a few small berries.
You can plant several other varieties next to Sibiryachka, but Tomichka, Pamiati Gidzyuk or Narymskaya are best suited as pollinators. You don’t need to specially attract bees and bumblebees to planting honeysuckle – it is a good honey plant, it itself attracts beneficial insects to the garden.
Advantages and disadvantages
Siberian is an excellent variety for processing and fresh consumption. Among its advantages:
- early maturation.
- Variety fertility. It is fashionable to try the first berries already 1-2 years after planting honeysuckle.
- Good taste – tasting score 5 points.
- Stable fruiting.
- Large berries.
- High yield variety.
- Honeysuckle is extremely winter-hardy, it withstands frosts of more than 50 degrees, the ovaries do not fall off at minus 7.
- The Siberian variety does not crumble after ripening.
- Harvest only once.
- Durability and undemanding – with proper planting, honeysuckle bears fruit for 30 years.
Siberian has a significant drawback – its berries are so tender that it is not always possible to get a dry separation when harvesting. This reduces transportability and makes the variety unsuitable for freezing.
Accommodation on the site
Honeysuckle is not capricious, the secret of its successful cultivation is to buy healthy planting material and place it correctly on the site.
Selection of planting material
Seedlings at the age of 2-3 years take root best of all. You need to buy them in large garden centers or directly from manufacturers. Planting time is the end of summer or the beginning of autumn. In the spring, there is no guarantee that all honeysuckle seedlings will take root, and fruiting will come a year later.
Make sure that the root is healthy and the branches are elastic. Siberian is distinguished by curved shoots – this feature will help determine varietal compliance.
Selecting a suitable seat and landing
Only a sunny area is suitable for planting honeysuckle – it is impossible to get a crop in the shade. You can not place the berry in lowlands or ravines – the accumulation of cold air and stagnant water will reduce productivity, and can lead to decay of the root system.
Honeysuckle can grow on any soil, but prefers slightly acidic, loose, fertile. Only sandstones are not suitable, there you need to bring in 2 buckets of organic matter per planting pit. Lime or dolomite flour is added to excessively acidic soil.
Pits are prepared with a size of 40x40x40 cm, a bucket of organic matter is added to the upper fertile soil layer, 50 g of phosphate and potash fertilizers each. For poor soils, the amount of starting feeding should be large.
The standard planting of honeysuckle is 1,5 m in a row, 2 m between the beds. Different sources may offer other schemes, you need to stick to the one that suits you.
Landing pits are filled with water, allow moisture to be absorbed. A mound of fertile soil is poured in the middle, the roots are carefully spread around it, covered with soil, lightly tamped. The neck should be deepened by about 5 cm. After planting, the bush is watered abundantly, the near-stem circle is mulched with humus or peat, in their absence, dry soil is suitable.
Cultivation of honeysuckle
Growing honeysuckle is easy – it does not belong to capricious crops. To get a good harvest, it is enough to plant several varieties nearby.
young plant care
First of all, seedlings require sufficient watering. With a lack of moisture, a young plant may die, but even if this does not happen, the honeysuckle will hurt, and in the future will not give a good harvest. A day after rain or watering, you need to loosen the soil to a depth of 5-8 cm to improve the supply of oxygen to the roots.
The first 2 years after fruiting, honeysuckle is not fed – it will have enough of those fertilizers that were added to the planting pit. In the spring (it is possible right in the snow), a bucket of water with a solution of ammonium nitrate or urea is brought under each bush.
Care for an adult plant
Honeysuckle care consists of weeding, watering in dry weather and loosening the soil. Every spring, it is fed with nitrogen fertilizers, in the summer – with a complete mineral complex, in the fall – with phosphorus and potassium to lay the next year’s crop, a successful winter.
Pruning and wintering
Honeysuckle is a plant of the North, varieties are created specifically for a cold climate, it does not need shelter for the winter. Up to 15 years, the bush is not pruned, only dried or broken shoots are removed. Then the oldest skeletal branches are cut at ground level. After 20, but only in the event of a significant decrease in yield, honeysuckle is cut off, leaving stumps of 15-20 cm. During the season, it grows well and can bear fruit for another 5-10 years.
Methods of reproduction
Honeysuckle can be propagated in a variety of ways. Some are available to amateur gardeners, others are of interest only to breeders:
- Seeds. Germination is good, but berries are obtained only by cross-pollination. Because of this, the seedling does not retain maternal characteristics. This method of reproduction is used to create new varieties; amateur gardeners are not interested in it.
- Cuttings. Honeysuckle can be obtained from green or woody stem pieces. Rooting requires a greenhouse or greenhouse and the use of rooting hormones. For lovers, it is difficult to meet all the necessary conditions, only 20% of the cuttings survive.
- Vertical and horizontal layers. The method is suitable for self-cultivation of honeysuckle.
- By dividing the bush. Amateur gardeners will easily get a few new plants from young, well-grown honeysuckle.
Growing problems
Honeysuckle gets sick so rarely that it is worth mentioning only powdery mildew – it can appear in damp, cool summers. You can fight the fungus with the help of fungicides or Fitosporin biological product. Honeysuckle pests and protection measures are presented in the table.
Insect pests | Signs of defeat | Ways to protect |
Screwdrivers | During the ripening period, the caterpillars damage the leaves, green shoots | Twice, with an interval of 10-14 days, the bush is treated with an appropriate insecticide or biological preparation. |
Tli | Young leaves and shoots are affected by sucking out cell sap | |
willow scale insects | Dense elongated growths are attached to the bark and draw juice from it. |
Among the possible problems, repeated flowering stands out, from which the Sibiryachka variety is not immune. Most often this happens if the weather persists for a long time. Honeysuckle retires early and may spontaneously enter the second wave of vegetation in late summer or early autumn. Harvest from late flowers will not work, but the next season will not please with berries. It is recommended to pick off the buds immediately after they are found.
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