Honeysuckle edible
General information
In the wild, honeysuckle grows on Kamchatka, in the forests of Primorsky Krai, on the Kuriles. Among the numerous species of wild honeysuckle is a group of blue honeysuckle, whose berries are edible. Having a pleasant sweet and sour taste, they have long attracted the attention of local residents who used them for food. Famous travelers, explorers of Kamchatka and Primorye, V. Atlasov, S. Krasheninnikov, P. Kuzmishchev described honeysuckle edible in their reports back in the XV1-X1 X centuries. But the beginning of cultivation of wild honeysuckle was put by TD Maurits in Nerchinsk only in the late X1 X century. Honeysuckle from Kamchatka, as a rule, does not contain bitterness, but its ripening berries easily fall down. Kamchatka honeysuckle grows slowly and does not have high shrubs. Honeysuckle from the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, on the contrary, grows rapidly, has high bushes up to 1.8 m. As a rule, berries have a small bitterness.
The second center of wild honeysuckle is located in the Altai and Sayan Mountains. Among them there are also blue edible honeysuckle. Their berries do not crumble when ripe, but contain bitter taste.
The beginning of breeding work on honeysuckle laid another 1/1.V. Michurin in the beginning of XX century. Gradually there were three centers where they began to seriously engage in selection work on the removal of garden forms of edible honeysuckle: in Barnaul, in the Tomsk region and in Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg. In Pavlovsk worked famous scientist F. K.Teterev, and we owe him the first good varieties that appeared on our garden sites almost immediately after the war. Until recently, honeysuckle was spread by amateur gardeners, as it was not included in the State Register of berry crops recommended for breeding in Russia, although breeding was carried out continuously. And only in the most recent years of the second millennium did honeysuckle begin to grow in nurseries for distribution in orchards. A very large contribution to selection work on this promising culture was made by Maria Nikolaevna Plekhanova, a well-known St. Petersburg scientist, doctor of agricultural sciences. For 20 years, robots in VIR have created magnificent varieties of honeysuckle, which are rightfully included in the range of garden plants, not only in our country, but also abroad. I must say that MN Plekhanova made a lot of efforts for the wide dissemination of this magnificent and very promising culture, especially among gardeners who love the Northwest. Unfortunately, this wonderful woman is no longer with us.
Shrubs in honeysuckle garden erect, densely branched, fairly high( at 7-8 years old they can reach 1.5-1.8 m), spreading( up to 2 meters in diameter).In each bush there are from 12 to 18 skeletal branches. From buds on the growths of the last year, new shoots annually grow, in the sinuses of the lower leaves of which flowers are formed, and then fruits. During the summer in the axils of the upper leaves, flower buds are gradually laid with the next year's crop. The root system extends beyond the perimeter of the crown of the bush by 50-60 cm. I must say that in honeysuckle the root system is root, that is, the roots can penetrate deep enough into the ground. The bulk of sucking roots is found in the soil at a depth of 50-80 cm.
Honeysuckle can grow up to 20 years in one place, but at the same time it transplants at almost any age. Beginning with 3-4 years, the crust "peels" off of it, peeling off long strips and exposing the reddish-colored wood. To be frightened it is not necessary, as it simply such feature of a honeysuckle. The wood is very strong, and if you want to share the bush, it will have to be sawn.
Honeysuckle is very characteristic location of the kidneys and leaves: they are distributed on the branch by rounded pairs opposite each other, they usually have stipules. Therefore, the seedlings of honeysuckle are difficult to confuse with any other plant when buying them.
The fruit of honeysuckle is an ornate that is formed from overgrown bracts, but usually gardeners call it fruit, so they will be called in this book.
Selection of grade
Varieties originating from Kamchatka honeysuckle and hybrids obtained with her participation( Pavlovskaya, Amphora, Morena, Violet, Blue spindle, Nymph, Sinichka) are most suitable for growing in cold summer conditions. For other different regions of the country, Tomichka, Bochkarskaya, Vasyuganskaya, Bluebird, Blue spindle, Cinderella, Borel, Gerd, Kamchadalka, Sinoglazka, Chernichku can be recommended. There are other varieties that have undergone strain testing and are recommended for breeding nurseries. For the North-West and Non-Black Earth region, the varieties developed by MN Plekhanova and her students are of the greatest interest.
From the early varieties it is Mirena. The bush is of average height, not thickening, with a rounded crown. The fruits are large, slightly more than 1 g. Harvest to 2 kg from the bush. The berries are sweet and sour, without bitterness, with a pleasant, fragrant aroma, they do not crumble a little.
Average maturity period grade Nymph. The bush is of medium height with a round dense crown. Large spindle-shaped berries weighing about 1.2 g have a strong aroma and sweet taste, without bitterness, little crumbling. Yield up to 2 kg from the bush.
Variety of Viola is also an average maturation period. It has a strong shrub with a dense oval crown. The fruits are large, about 1 g in weight, oval in shape, slightly thickened to the apex, have a slight piquant bitterness, do not crumble. The variety is fast-growing. Productivity is high - 3-4 kg.
Variety Amphora of the average maturation period. It has a medium-sized shrub with a round, sparse crown. Weight of fruit is 1 g, berries do not crumble. The harvest ranges from 1.6 to 2.7 kg.
Variety Violet refers to medium-late varieties. The bush is of medium height, dense, slaboskidisty. The mass of fruits is 1.14 g. The friability of the fruit is weak. The taste of the berries is sweet and sour, without bitterness. The harvest ranges from 1.3 to 1.8 kg.
Features of growing
Honeysuckle is very winter hardy: its wood and growth buds tolerate frosts up to -50 degrees, flower buds and roots - up to -40 degrees, and buds, flowers, young ovaries-up to -8 degrees. Flowering occurs at a time when the average daily temperature passes through zero degrees( in the Northwest, this usually occurs in mid-April, so honeysuckle has time to bloom before the late spring frosts and is almost never damaged by them).
What does honeysuckle? A well-filled organic loamy soil, the acid reaction of which should be close to neutral( pH 6-7), as well as the sun. Although in the shade, it grows rather well, but it does not bear fruit well. In addition, she needs a good company, since honeysuckle is a plant that is cross-pollinated. To ensure a good harvest, it should be planted by a group of 3-4 shrubs of different kinds. Honeysuckle is hygrophilous, that is, it should be watered in dry and hot weather, especially in spring and early summer. She loves moist air( that's why she feels well in regions with high air humidity).For the gardens of the Northwest, honeysuckle is simply irreplaceable.
What does not like honeysuckle? She does not like stagnant waters and close standing ground, because in this situation, her root system is rotting. Honeysuckle reacts negatively to acid soil( foliage starts to fade, and yield decreases), although it does reconcile with it, especially if it is planted on greasy clays or loam. She does not approve of mineral fertilizing, preferring it organic.
Planting of
As this plant finishes early vegetation early and at the end of July passes into a state of rest, the growth processes in honeysuckle at this point stop. All further changes in external conditions do not cause her to spread the sleeping buds until the very spring, and therefore honeysuckle can be planted during August, September, October and even before mid-November. Spring planting and honeysuckle transplantation are allowed only by transshipment with a large clod of earth from one place to another, without transportation, or by planting a seedling from a container. But the plants still get sick and take root badly. This is explained by the fact that honeysuckle wakes up very early in the spring. Already at the end of March and the beginning of April, her kidneys are blooming, and from that moment it is undesirable to disturb her.
The site for planting honeysuckle should be chosen so that the plants are illuminated all day by the sun, while they can be planted from the northern side of the site and do not care about the cover from the cold winds. Honeysuckle can be planted even under the trees on the southern side so that the sun gets on them. The distance between the bushes should be kept at least 1.5 m, because in time the bushes will stretch quite widely and the passages between them will become too narrow. At a honeysuckle very fragile branches which easily break off if them inaccurately to touch at gathering of berries. Bushes can be planted by a group in a corner or distributed along a line along the fence or the border of the site. A good neighbor for honeysuckle is black currant, so that they can grow in the same row.
It should be said that honeysuckle is an unpretentious plant, it is adapted to different types of soils and a harsh climate, and therefore does not require special care. In addition, it can grow in a wide range of soil acidity - from pH 4.5 to pH 7.5.However, if you plant honeysuckle directly on virgin soil, on an undeveloped site, then the quality and quantity of berries fall so low that there is no need to buy it. Preliminary, you should dig out the landing pits with a size of 40 x 40 x 40 cm. The pit is filled with well-rotted compost at the rate of two buckets under the bush. Add to the pit a jar of ash and 3 tbsp.spoons of double granulated superphosphate. Instead of ash, you can take chalk, dolomite or half a liter of lime and to 3 tbsp.spoons of superphosphate add 2 tablespoons.spoons of potassium fertilizer. If the landing is done on sandy soils, then the dose of organic is increased to three buckets.
Then you should mix everything that you put into the planting pit, water it, so that the soil becomes wet throughout the depth of the pit. Make a small hill in the center of the pit. Straighten the roots. If there are broken, then, naturally, they should be cut to the whole part. Fall asleep on top of any loose soil, including you can use the one that was taken from the pit from the pit. Be sure to pour water again, so that the soil is well attached to the roots, and pour it additionally from above. Since honeysuckle does not produce radical offspring, it can not be buried when planted in the soil, but, according to my observations, it is better to slip the root collar when planting 5-6 cm, because with age on the lower, buried part of the trunk,subordinate roots. The soil under the plantings should immediately be covered with any mulching material( including several layers of newspapers) to prevent evaporation of moisture from the surface.
Pay attention to one important point. Bushes of honeysuckle, when planted, unlike most berry bushes, are not pruned or shortened, because this slows the growth and development of the plant, and consequently, its entry into fruiting. The value of the plant is precisely that it quickly enters into fruiting.
Fertilizing
Further care for honeysuckle is to prune the broken, dried branches, as well as thickening, growing inside the crown. Do it better in early autumn. The first three years the plants need only weeding weeds, timely watering. Beginning in the third year, organic buckets should be added to the bush in spring and a half-liter ash bank in early August. At the very beginning of vegetation, that is, literally in melting snow, it is necessary to give nitrogen top dressing( 1 tbsp urea per 10 liters of water under the bush).But even if you do not do this, honeysuckle will still give you, even a small, harvest of berries. The yield of bushes with good care is high, up to 4-6 kg per bush. However, it increases gradually and reaches its maximum value only by the seventh year. After 18-20 years, fruiting is reduced by the death of large skeletal branches. The bush can be rejuvenated with a strong pruning, carving out gradually, year after year, part of the unfruitful branches to the trunk itself.
Reproduction of
Honeysuckle is easily propagated by seeds. But since honeysuckle cross-pollinated plant, then in its offspring, parental properties are practically not preserved, and some new varieties appear, often much worse than parental ones. However, plants with berries of excellent taste may appear. Therefore, the seed method of propagation is used mainly in breeding work, and also in those cases when honeysuckle is grown for gardening. But this does not mean that amateur gardeners can not use seed reproduction. Once the berries are ripe, they can simply be smeared on toilet paper, pushing the seeds apart 1 cm apart. Allow them to dry out. Then it is necessary to inscribe the year and roll the paper into a roll. At room temperature, the seeds retain their high germination capacity for two years, and quite satisfactory for about four years. Stratification requires only seeds that have been stored for more than two years.
The easiest way is to immediately sow the seeds harvested in June in moist soil, dipping them only by 0.5 mm.because they are very small. It is best to sow them in a box, which should be put in a greenhouse, and cover the planting with glass or film, but so that it does not lie on the soil. The main thing is that the top layer of the soil does not dry up. Seedlings appear about 20 days after sowing. Later in the autumn, boxes are taken out to the streets for wintering under snow. Seedlings are winter-hardy and easily tolerate frosts.
You can sow the seeds of this summer in late October and even in November. A box with sown seeds is simply left on the street, where it also hibernates under snow. In this case, the seeds undergo a natural stratification and ripen in the early spring. If in April they are transferred to a greenhouse, then very friendly shoots appear quickly. Picks are produced when the seedlings grow to 2-3 cm and they form 2 to 3 pairs of real leaflets. Picking can be done directly in the open ground according to the scheme 5 x 5 cm on the prepared, weed-free bed. Requires permanent watering, loosening and removal of weeds, if they appear. The next year they are placed according to the scheme of 20 x 20 cm.
Usually the seedlings begin to fructify already on the 3-4th year after sowing. At this point, and should be selected among them those who have the largest and tasty berries, without the slightest sign of bitterness, and the rest to throw out or use to create a green fence, especially since honeysuckle is well cut. In the same autumn, the plants selected for taste are transplanted into place. Shrubs that have not only good taste qualities, but also high yield, unfortunately, you can only determine after 7-8 years.
If you want to preserve parental properties, you should propagate honeysuckle vegetatively, by dividing the bush or rooting the cuttings. You can divide the bushes at the age of 8-15 years. Because honeysuckle has unusually strong wood, you can only divide the bush with a saw and an ax. Each separated part must have at least 2 stems and 2-3 skeletal branches and roots of about 20 cm each. It is recommended to cut the branches with a pruner at a height of 30-40 cm. De-lenks are immediately planted on a prepared place.
But it is much more effective to propagate honeysuckle by cuttings. From one adult bush it is possible to scratch and plant up to 200 plants. For harvesting lignified cuttings use the strongest annual branches, with a diameter of at least 7-8 mm. They are cut from the bushes in early spring, at the end of March, until the buds bloom. Cut into pieces in length of 15-18 cm and planted as soon as the soil is thawed, directly into the greenhouse or to the bed, slamming into the soil by 10 cm so that only two upper buds remain above the surface. Shelter lutrasilom or film increases the survival rate of cuttings. The roots of the cuttings appear about 30 days after rooting. It is possible to cut honeysuckle in May, immediately after flowering. For this, a one-year( last year's) escape is cut from the bush along with the growing shoots of this year. Cut into pieces so that at the base of each young shoot was a piece of last year's branch on which he grew up. Cuttings are planted on a bed, deepening into the soil for 3-5 cm. It is better to place a film shelter over the cuttings and moderately water them 2-3 times a day. After about 12-15 days, the tips of the shoots begin to grow in the cuttings, and roots form at the base. Transplant them into place next fall. Such cuttings are called combined.
You can propagate honeysuckle and green cuttings. It is known that the best cuttings are obtained from the green growing shoots of the current year at the time of their growth decay. At the time of honeysuckle, berries begin to color. That is the most suitable time for cuttings in the North-West - early June. Cut cuttings of the size and thickness with a pencil from green young shoots and root into the soil in the same way as lignified. The main thing is that the soil and air in the barrel are constantly wet. If you hold the cuttings in the solution of "Kornevin" or "Heteroauxin" before rooting, then the survival rate will pass faster and better. The next autumn, grown up seedlings can be transplanted into place. For better rooting of the cuttings it is convenient to use "Aquadon" or "Hydrogel", which keep the soil constantly moist in the root formation zone.
When planting honeysuckle in place it is useful to use fertilizer AVA, which is enough to make 1 tbsp. Spoon directly under the roots( instead of the suffusion of phosphate, ash or potassium).The next fertilizing with this fertilizer can be done after three years, loosening it in the upper layer of the soil in the zone of sucking roots( I recall that they are about 50 cm behind the perimeter of the crown of the bush).More plants will not need any mineral fertilizers. The only thing that needs to be done is to bring organic materials under the bush after fruiting over the bucket. And of course, watering in a dry summer.
Pests and diseases
Firstly, leaf rollers that appear at the time of berries;their caterpillars are eaten by leaves and tops of young shoots. Secondly, aphids, which sucks the juice from the leaves, as a result of which they become yellow. Thirdly, sometimes there is a willow scab, which drains the juice from the bark and is clearly visible on it in the form of convex, dense "commas".It's simpler and safer to fight with everyone, sprinkling the bush in the evening with "Fitoverm".You can use Agravertin or Iskra-Bio.
No disease, honeysuckle is almost not sick, only in rare years it may appear powdery dew. In this case, use the solution of the drug "Phytosporin".Why are these drugs recommended? Because they are biological, that is, poisons are not, and therefore can not harm the ecology of your garden and yourself.
Useful properties
Honeysuckle is valuable for its unpretentiousness, frost resistance, resistance to diseases and pests. Honeysuckle berries ripen before all other berries( in the North-West around mid-June).They often have an elongated, fusiform shape, a blue-gray color with a wax coating. They are used in raw form, they make jam, make compotes and juices. They can be frozen. Since ancient times, honeysuckle has been valued for its healing properties. Biochemical studies that have been conducted in the last 20 years have confirmed its great value and even indispensability for dietary and therapeutic nutrition, since its berries are a storehouse of vitamins and biologically active substances. They have a special value because of the early maturation period, because they fill the vitamin deficiency in the early summer. Berries contain easily digestible sugars, glucose, sucrose, fructose, as well as organic acids necessary for the human body and almost all vitamins. In addition, there are a lot of potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, silicon, copper, zinc, iodine and other microelements. Honeysuckle berries are recommended for the strengthening of blood vessels in cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, bleeding caused by the fragility of blood vessels, with anemia, the decline of forces caused by avitaminosis.