Planting and caring for sea buckthorn: the basics of growing in a summer cottage

Description

Even in the field of traditional medicine of ancient Greece, this amazing berry was widely used as an effective remedy for the treatment of diseases of people and horses. Over time, its healing properties were long and undeservedly forgotten. But in recent years, sea buckthorn has again become one of the most popular crops in domestic gardens. The scientific name of the plant can be translated from Greek as “shine for horses.” This is due to the fact that in animals that used the leaves of the culture, the skin became with a beautiful satin sheen. Planting sea buckthorn and its cultivation in our country has been practiced for a long time. But we can talk about the appearance of high-quality varietal plants only from the 30s.

Outwardly, sea buckthorn is a small tree or a plant in the form of a shrub, the height of which varies between 10 cm – 6 meters. Experts define the type of its root system as superficial. Most often, the roots are located at a depth of 40 cm. It has characteristic long and rather narrow leaves, which are colored green at the top of the plate and silver-whitish, as well as reddish-golden. Starting from stellate scales from below.

Almost simultaneously with the leaves, inconspicuous-looking same-sex flowers open. Sea buckthorn is a dioecious culture. This concept means that she has both male and female flowers. If the male specimens are always painted in a silvery-brown color, then the female ones can be distinguished by their yellow color. Fruits traditionally have the form of false drupes in the form of a ball or elongated. They consist of a nutlet and a receptacle, painted in red or orange. The ripening period of berries is up to 100 days.

The main value is considered to be oil extracted from berries, which helps in the treatment of many ailments. Sea buckthorn is processed, it is customary to make delicious juice and jam from the fruits. Culture received from nature the ability to withstand severe frosts (up to -50 degrees). The roots are able to respond normally to indicators up to -20.

Since female and male flowers are often located on different shrubs, sea buckthorn does not like to grow apart from other crops. The sex of a young bush is difficult to determine. You should wait for the formation of flower buds. When does sea buckthorn ripen? This question is often asked by gardeners with little practical experience. When 4 – 6 years have passed since planting, the gardener will be able to enjoy tasty and healthy berries for the first time.

Video “Useful properties”

From the video you will learn about the beneficial properties of sea buckthorn.

Landing

How to plant sea buckthorn? This question worries not only beginner gardeners. Usually planting is planned for autumn or spring. As practice shows, any bush planted in the spring takes root better. Usually a plant has several roots. Under the ground, they are always placed in different directions and are located at a depth of about 50 cm.

The root system of the culture does not like digging and possible mechanical damage. When choosing a landing site, you should give preference to neutral soil, located in an open area with sufficient lighting.

Experienced gardeners know how to properly plant sea buckthorn. They add humus to each hole as an organic fertilizer and double superphosphate as an excellent mineral fertilizer. You can prepare such a soil mixture immediately before planting. It is also recommended to add wood ash there.

How to plant correctly? The procedure for planting a given plant in a selected location is not much different from planting most fruit crops. It is necessary to dig a hole, the depth and diameter of which will be 50 cm. Make sure that the root collar is located at ground level. It is ideal to land at a distance of at least 1 meter from the border of the site. The rows between the bushes should be 2 by 2 meters. At the bottom of the pit, it is advised to place shell rock, crushed stone, broken brick, the layer of which usually does not exceed 10 cm. This is followed by a layer of fertile soil and fertilizer. A young seedling should not be younger than 2 years old. When planting it, do not forget to place a stake in the hole so that the trunk does not bend over time. After creating a hole in a chosen place and planting a bush, you should sprinkle it with earth. Next, watering is carried out at the very base.

Care

Now you know how to plant sea buckthorn. Some knowledge and skills are required for sea buckthorn, which you will plant and care for yourself, to please with a bountiful harvest. Sanitary treatment of the tree is carried out in the spring. With the advent of heat, it is required to cut off all diseased, dry, broken and non-viable branches. In April, it is recommended to loosen the ground in tree trunks and between rows.

Watering is usually carried out in May. You can wait with it if there was a lot of snow in winter and heavy rains in spring. If there is calm weather at the time of flowering of the plant. Additional pollination should be carried out. To do this, cut a branch from the male tree and shake it over the crown of the female.

Activities aimed at stimulating the growth of fruits and shoots as much as possible can be combined into summer care for sea buckthorn. An optimal balance of water in the soil structure should be maintained. A day after watering, it is necessary to loosen the soil in the trunk circles and row-spacing. Fruit ripening occurs in August – September. Harvesting is carried out when the berries acquire a characteristic size and color.

Autumn care implies mandatory pruning of bushes, which is called sanitary. Mature plants are recommended to be rejuvenated annually gradually, that is, in turn. If the days are too dry in the autumn, it is recommended to water the plants abundantly. It also requires the application of fertilizers with a high content of phosphorus and organic matter.

Preventive treatment for diseases and pests involves collecting fallen leaves, collecting the remains of flowers and fruits from trees, cleaning wounds found on the surface of trunks and branches. They need to be treated with a solution of copper sulphate, then whitewash the bole and skeletal branches. It helps to prevent the invasion of pests and the appearance of fungi by treating the tree with a solution of urea or Bordeaux mixture 2 times per season. It is advised to do this in early spring and late autumn. If pests still appear, treat once a week with a solution of wood ash.

Growing and caring is primarily watering. Practice shows that 3-4 buckets of water will be enough for a young plant, from 6 to 8 buckets for a mature plant. The consumption for each tree increases one and a half times with the onset of autumn. Winter watering is also very important. Do not forget about loosening the earth. In order not to damage the roots in the process, it is better to create mulch from compost – from potato tops, birch or apple leaves, humus. They should be covered in tree trunks.

Starting from the 3rd year of growth, the plant needs potash, phosphorus supplements, as well as ammonium nitrate. A mature tree after flowering, and then another 1 time after 3 weeks, should be treated with a solution of 1 tablespoon of liquid potassium humate or Effekton in 10 liters of water. At a time when the ovaries are growing intensively, a solution of double superphosphate is added in the amount of 2 tablespoons and the same amount of the Universal-Micro mixture, 1 tablespoon of potassium sulfate. All components must be mixed in 10 liters of water. In the process of digging in the fall, it is necessary to distribute 30 grams of superphosphate, 25 grams of potassium salt and 100 grams of wood ash per square meter over the area.

Trimming

Sea buckthorn pruning can be done in spring, summer or autumn. In the autumn days, sanitary pruning of the tree is carried out. In the spring, diseased, dry, broken shoots and branches are subject to removal. Young plants need formative pruning. If you want to form a plant as a bush, you need to cut the seedling at a height of 10 – 20 cm. If you want to get a tree, form it with a trunk, the height of which will be 30 cm, leaving 2 – 4 skeletal branches. Further formation of both the bush and the tree involves pruning certain shoots and shoots.

When pruning is already 6 years old, you need to carry out a rejuvenating pruning in the spring of branches that have stopped bearing fruit. It is necessary to replace 1 – 3 branches every year. If suddenly the tree did not survive the frost, you should cut it down and begin to form a new plant. In late autumn, it is advised to get rid of diseased and improperly growing branches, as well as shoots.

Reproduction

Reproduction can be carried out in various ways. This is done by seeds, and cuttings, and grafting, and dividing the bush, and shoots, and layering.

With the help of seeds, it is customary to develop new varieties of plants. Seedlings are also used as rootstock. Seed material does not lose its germination capacity for several years. Seeds should be sown at the end of April shallow. Germination is carried out in a warm place with a set under glass. Seedlings should be expected in a couple of weeks. At first they are shaded from the sun. You can transplant to a permanent place in mid-June.

Cuttings involve the use of cuttings. Harvesting is carried out in late November – early December. Cutting is best done from two-year growths, having a thickness of about 6 cm. Segments usually have a length of up to 20 cm. They are wrapped in cloth, a bag, buried in a hole and sprinkled with snow. Green cuttings are more difficult to root. They require the selection of a sterile and sufficiently loose soil mixture with a layer of sand, root stimulants, spraying moisture, and so on.

Reproduction by layering is suitable if the site has a young tree or a bush with branches that bend normally. In the spring they should be bent into a groove, fixed and sprinkled with soil. Do not forget about watering, fertilizing, loosening and removing weeds. The next spring, the shoot is separated from the mother culture along with the roots and placed in a permanent site.

For propagation by shoots, shoots located further than one and a half meters from the mother culture are used. During the season, the shoot should be spudded, watered, fertilized. And plant out in the spring.

When dividing a bush, they dig it out, cut off old branches. For division use secateurs. Each part must have a developed root system and shoots. After processing the sections with crushed coal, they are planted in holes.

Vaccination is the most time-consuming method. Usually in April – May, the male process is grafted onto the female. The trunk of a two-year-old seedling is cut off above the root neck for a couple of centimeters to grow back. The rootstock should have a developed shoot about 10 cm in size. Over the summer, it is grown and pinched. On the third spring, cuttings are copulated at a height of up to 10 cm.

Diseases and pests

Among the common diseases of sea buckthorn can be called endomycosis. Usually, signs of such a fungal infection are found on the fruits in early August. They become filled with gray mucus. The reasons for the appearance are considered rain and dew. Treatment consists in treatment with copper chloride or Bordeaux mixture.

Black cancer is characterized by the presence of round spots on the branches. The causative agent of the infection enters the plant through wounds received during the pruning process or during frostbite. Treatment is carried out by treatment with copper sulphate, then clay with mullein is used.

The black leg affects the stems of young seedlings. In order to prevent them, they are watered with a solution of potassium permanganate every couple of days. Treatment is carried out with a solution of potassium permanganate daily.

Scab, she is stegmina, a fungal infection, the result of which is the drying of the shoots and the entire tree. For prevention, it is advised to carry out sanitary pruning and treatment with Bordeaux liquid 20 days before the planned harvest.

A plant in July may be in danger in the form of gray, as well as brown rot. Rainy weather is believed to be the cause of this unpleasant phenomenon. In the treatment of diseased cultures are subject to cutting and burning. Prevention consists in timely watering, loosening and fertilizing.

Among the pests of the crop, sea buckthorn moth is found. This caterpillar eats out the kidneys at the time of swelling. A solution of “Karbofos” helps against it. Sea buckthorn fly in general can deprive you of the harvest. She appears in June. Fly larvae prefer to eat the juicy pulp inside the berries. Chlorophos works effectively against the pest. Aphids love to suck juice from foliage and shoots. Helps processing “Karbofos” during the blooming of the leaves.

The gall mite, which often spoils the appearance and harms the health of the culture, also prefers to eat juice. They fight against it in the same way as against aphids.

Species and varieties

How to grow a high-quality and healthy favorite crop? To do this, choose a good variety. There are two types of sea buckthorn – buckthorn, found in Europe, and willow, which grows in the south of Xinjiang in China, in the mountains of India, Nepal, and Bhutan.

Ivolistaya is a tree about 15 cm high with sharp leaves up to 8 cm long and about 1 cm wide, painted red-brown. The fruit is a yellow and round drupe about 5 mm in size. Buckthorn is also Siberian, European, small-fruited, large-fruited, thornless, thorny in terms of variety, with early, medium or late fruit ripening.

Naran, Moscow Beauty, Solnechnaya, Giant – this is not a complete list of the best varieties of sea buckthorn.

Naran ripens quite early. It has large orange berries. The degree of productivity is normally able to reach up to 10 kg per bush. The variety grows well in the middle lane of our country.

Moscow beauty matures in medium terms. The fruits are orange-red in color, medium in size, with a slight odor and slight acidity. The yield is up to 12 kg per bush. The plant has few thorns. Has good transportability. Also well suited for growing in the middle lane.

Sunny has an average ripening period, large light orange fruits that are sour. The plant is covered with thorns to an average degree, has a yield of up to 15 kg per bush, adapted to the middle lane.

The giant belongs to late-ripening varieties. It has large fruits in the shape of a cylinder, painted in orange. Thorns on the plant are not observed. The variety is suitable for growing in the Urals and the Far East.

Video “Growing and care”

From the video you will learn how to effectively grow and care for sea buckthorn.