Northerner by its origin, sea buckthorn has long taken root in the gardens of various climatic zones. It is grown most of all for the healing sea buckthorn oil, but a decoction of berries is also useful, fresh berries themselves are tasty. Often a sea buckthorn bush is planted like a hedge. By the way, many find it difficult to answer the question, sea buckthorn is a tree or shrub.
After all, even in the reference material, sometimes it is called differently. In fact, sea buckthorn is a shrub, although certain types of plants can reach heights of up to 6 meters, like real trees. The main distinguishing feature in this case is the fact that it has multifariousness; new twigs come to replace one twig. While trees are always single-stemmed. So to the question, sea buckthorn is a tree or shrub, it’s more correct to answer all that a shrub.
The plant received the name "sea buckthorn" in its appearance - the berries simply cling to thin spiny branches of the bush
This article tells about the most popular garden varieties of this plant and the features of cultivation.
Origin
The healing properties of this plant have been known since ancient times. There is information about the use of sea buckthorn juice by the ancient healers of Tibet and Mongolia. Excavations of the settlements on the site of present-day Scandinavia also indicate that this plant was known in these places. There is evidence that in ancient Greece, wounded were treated with sea buckthorn drugs, and wild-buckthorn shoots were used to feed sick horses.
Interesting. The name "sea buckthorn" in Greek sounds exactly like a "shiny horse", which meant, apparently, the excellent condition of the horses after treatment with this plant and the similarity of sunny, smooth and shiny berries with rounded and glossy sides of Greek animals.
It is also known that in the life of sea buckthorn there were many periods of oblivion, as, for example, after the Middle Ages, when many folk recipes were abandoned and forgotten. Only in the 19th century they remembered the plant, began to relate to it not as a useless wild-growing shrub, but as an ornamental plant. It was with this aim that buckthorn was planted in Russia, until once, at the beginning of the 20th century, varietal buckthorn was bred in Altai.
Frost-resistant plant is popular in Siberian gardens, thanks to the work of I.V. Michurin, it became widely known in the USSR. Around the 70s, a real boom of folk love and passion for this berry began.
We learned how to make sea buckthorn oil, many different varieties appeared in the gardens, not only doctors but also schoolchildren wrote reports on the healing properties of the plant. Today, sea buckthorn has again become a less frequent visitor in the gardens, and in vain.
Today you can buy sea buckthorn oil in a pharmacy, but many people prefer to cook it with their own hands.
This plant is useful, extremely rich in essential elements for man.
Appearance
Outwardly, it is a thorny shrub that can reach a height of several meters. Dioecious sea-buckthorn simply cannot grow with one bush on the plot, because one plant has female flowers, and the other has male flowers, from which pollen reaches female inflorescences. So without pollination by wind or bees can not do.
Covered with not only fruits, but also with small thorns. The leaves of the shrub are long, slightly brownish or silver. This is one of the few plants that blooms before the appearance of leaves. Its flowers are small, unprepossessing, collected in panicles, inflorescences.
Ripe sea buckthorn looks very elegant
The fruits are oval, with a thin delicate skin, inside of which a single bone is dark in color. This is the seed. Juicy bright fruits have an orange color and a peculiar aroma, which some consider pineapple, others - grassy. Ripening occurs in August and September, you can collect up to 12 kilograms of berries from one bush.
Species and varieties
Through the efforts of breeders, many species and varieties of this plant have been bred. Today it can be grown both in the north and in the south, there are frost-resistant, high-yielding, most delicious and most vitamin species and varieties. The main of the most popular among Russian gardeners:
- Chuiskaya - one of the highest yield classes, is characterized by low growth and a sprawling and rare crown. Pleasant fruits have a weight of 0.9 g; the color of berries is orange;
- Abundant - a variety with high winter hardiness, average fruit size and a spreading crown. The taste is pleasant, sweet-sour, are not damaged during collection. It has a high content of vitamin C;
- Orange - a variety of Siberian selection, is frost-resistant. Good for workpieces, as it has a sour taste;
- Oilseed - a variety of Altai breeding, has medium winter hardiness and ripens late. The fruits are reddish, sour on the palate. They come off well; the separation from the peduncle is dry;
- Giant - this variety is good in that it is safe to harvest, since the branches of the plant do not have thorns, even a child can pick berries. The crown is cone-shaped, its height can reach more than 3.5 meters. The fruits are large, sweet-sour, regular cylindrical shape;
- The gift of Katun is one of the most frost-resistant varieties, which is also little susceptible to disease. The plant of this variety has a medium thickened crown, the fruits are medium sized, orange. The spikes may be small or completely absent.
- Golden cob is another frost-resistant variety, bears fruit a year earlier than other varieties. It has few thorns, the berries are small, and the weight is about 0.5 g each. Dense brushes full. Increased frost resistance - the main difference and the advantage of the variety;
- News of Altai - is resistant to diseases, quite fruitful. Crohn medium thickened, grows up to 4 m. Berries of medium size, but poorly transported due to wet separation, vitamin.
Landing sea buckthorn in the ground
Growing sea buckthorn at home is not so troublesome. But you can get good quality berries only on a healthy and varietal bush. Otherwise, you can wait at least 3 years and get small, rare fruits, in general, be deceived with planting. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to get acquainted with at least the basics of growing sea buckthorn in open ground.
Sea buckthorn planting
What do you need for landing? First of all, good planting material. You need to plant a couple of plants: male and female "individuals". It is difficult to independently distinguish between an inexperienced gardener, as a rule, they give advice in the nursery and there they pick up planting material.
In spring, they differ in the color of the leaves: women’s more green, men’s grayish-silver. At rest, it can be distinguished by the kidneys: in female plants, they are smaller and hidden by a pair of scales. The male ones are larger and are closed with several scales.
Optimal place
Sea buckthorn is a fairly photophilous shrub. The plant needs to create conditions as close as possible to its natural:
- The place should be bright, well-lit.
- So that the roots do not get wet, there should not be groundwater nearby, that is, at a depth of 60 cm.
- Ideally, if the sea buckthorn is protected from the wind by the building. For example, it is convenient to plant it on the south side of the garden house.
- Around sea buckthorn, it is undesirable to grow flowers and other plants that will surround and oppress it, because the roots of sea buckthorn lie shallow and are spread wide enough.
The roots are located immediately at the surface of the earth.
- In order for the wind to pollinate flowers better, male bushes should be planted on the windward side, female bushes - on the contrary.
Step-by-step landing process
Propagation of sea buckthorn is done by cuttings. Landing step by step looks like this:
- Dig a pit under the landing pit, for this, determine the size of the pit in the form of a cube 40 cm side. In the soil removed from the pit, add humus, season with potassium and phosphorus and again fill it in the pit.
- Now make a hole for landing. To do this, set the peg for the garter in advance, then lay out the roots carefully and fill the soil, tamping the ground.
- Sprinkle the cuttings and surround the trunk circle with mulch.
Important! You can not bury the root neck, it is necessary that it rises above the ground by at least 5 cm.
Sea buckthorn care
It is simple, this usually includes pruning, timely watering and top dressing.
Watering
Watering the plant does not need very often. Usually, in the first year after planting, a sea buckthorn bush requires regular watering; drying of the soil should not be allowed. In the future, sea buckthorn does not need special watering, only during a drought.
Breeding also involves top dressing. In principle, the plant grows without fertilizing, however, mineralization helps to improve the crop.
Top dressing
Complete mineral fertilizer with phosphate, potassium and nitrogen can be given in finished forms. Can be replaced with organic. So, in humus there is nitrogen, it can also be taken from mature compost. You can use oven ash to feed the bushes, as well as use bone meal. All this goes to the tab in the landing pit, after planting for three years you can leave the plant untouched. After 4 years of life, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are introduced in the spring in the fall.
Pruning bushes
Cropping is also very important. In the first year after planting, the branches are cut to form a bush.
Correct pruning not only shapes the appearance of the bush, but also improves crop yields.
This is where the decision arises, what kind of sea buckthorn will be in shape: in the form of a bush or in the form of a tree, a stem. If you want to form a single trunk, then you need to select the strongest branch in the center, remove the others, in the second year of life, shorten another 2-3 branches, cut the others. So repeat for 4 years.
If you need to grow a shrub, then leave more branches, for the entire period of life about 7 branches are required, new ones grow, old ones are removed. Twice a year they are advised to do sanitary pruning.
Sea buckthorn is an unpretentious plant, it can be grown in different regions of Russia, however, zoned varieties give the maximum return. Today their choice is huge, so it's time to return the demand for useful and necessary sea buckthorn again.
