Honeysuckle Care

Honeysuckle in our gardens, unfortunately, is not as widespread as it could be. And in vain. After all, its berries are a whole pantry of essential vitamins. Honeysuckle berries contain ascorbic acid, P - active substances, iron, phosphorus, sodium, manganese and other useful elements. And yet, and this is important, in the blue berry there is a trace element selenium, which is rarely found in wildlife - a drug of youth. In addition to honeysuckle, it is found only in blueberries and blueberries. Due to the complex of biologically active substances, honeysuckle is a healing dietary product, an elixir of life. Therefore, its berries are healing and have long been used in folk medicine for hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, malaria, and gastrointestinal disorders. Fresh honeysuckle berries are recommended to eat with a decrease in appetite, vitamin deficiency, general weakness, anemia and atherosclerosis. According to the same indications, you can use an infusion of dried berries. The leaves, branches, and bark of honeysuckle have medicinal properties. Berries used fresh, also for making juice, jam and compote. They keep well frozen. And the aesthetic value of these bushes on your site is quite significant. And the actual cultivation of this culture in our middle lane is not difficult.

The honeysuckle bush is a branchy bush with hard branched branches up to 2.5 meters high. Over time, the bark on the branches peels off and they acquire a light, almost whitish color. Quite sprawling.

Honeysuckle is very cold hardy. Thus, in the winter of 1986-1987, at a January temperature of 42-46 0 C, many fruit and berry crops perished in the Leningrad Region. Only honeysuckle survived and gave a normal harvest. Honeysuckle bushes are not demanding on heat even during the growing season, and spring frosts up to -8 0 C can withstand not only green ovaries, but also buds and even flowers. Honeysuckle buds open very early, a few days after how the average daily temperature will pass through zero degrees. Already in the second - third year, the honeysuckle bush begins to bear fruit, annually increasing the yield. The bush reaches maturity by six to seven years, after which the fecundity of the bush decreases if measures are not taken to rejuvenate it. Otherwise, after ten years, the bush gives only a meager harvest of berries on the periphery of the crown. However, if timely measures of correct shaping and then rejuvenating pruning of honeysuckle are taken, the bush can bear fruit and delight its owners for up to two decades or more.

In my twenty-year practice of growing honeysuckle, I did not notice that honeysuckle bushes suffered from recurrent spring frosts or diseases of berry crops common in the middle lane. And if you remember that honeysuckle berries ripen 1.5 - 2 weeks earlier than garden strawberries, then the value of this berry at the very beginning of summer becomes obvious, when even after the long Russian winter, the first greenery only appears. But we have to remember that honeysuckle berries, after ripening, begin to fall off after a week. Therefore, the collection of berries should not be late. Currently, a wide variety of honeysuckle varieties are cultivated in the gardens of the middle zone, differing in shape, taste and size of berries. From spicy-sweet to sweet-sour and even bitter berries. The most common varieties of honeysuckle in our gardens are Cinderella, Shakhinya, Icicle, Nakhodka, Salute, Blue Bird, Lakomka, Titmouse, Skoroplodnaya and Gzhelka.

For planting honeysuckle, well-lit places are chosen in garden plots. As a rule, 3-4 bushes of different varieties are planted on our "standard" plots, trying to take large-fruited bushes with berries that are different in taste and shape. Honeysuckle is very unpretentious to the neighborhood with other types of berry bushes.

The range of soil acidity suitable for planting honeysuckle is quite large: pH from 4.5 to 7.5. For new plantings, it is better to purchase ready-made biennial honeysuckle seedlings with well-developed roots, because the survival rate of honeysuckle cuttings is very low. Of great importance here is the quality preparation of landing pits. Therefore, planting pits must be sufficiently voluminous and well filled with a full complex composition of fertilizers. A sufficient size of the pit can be 70x70 cm, up to 60 cm deep. On peat bogs with close standing groundwater, the depth should be increased to 70 cm. Lay crushed stone of the middle fraction on the bottom with a layer of 10 - 15 cm, then the metal bottom from a two-hundred-liter barrel, and only then - nutritional composition of the prepared mixture of organic and mineral fertilizers. The best planting time for honeysuckle is early spring. Although when planting "in the mud" the survival rate of the bushes is quite good even from June to September. If all these conditions are met, the honeysuckle bush always takes root well and by autumn gives an increase in young twigs up to 30 - 40 centimeters. And the very next year, you can collect the first handful of blue berries from the bush.

The formation of a honeysuckle bush should also be taken quite seriously. Already in the third year of the life of the bush, it is necessary to give your future pet a uniformly sparse shape. Cut only those branches that in a year or two will create an overly thickened base of the crown. After all, honeysuckle refers to berry bushes that are excessively prone to thickening. When the bush reaches the age of 7 - 8 years, it is necessary to start rejuvenating pruning of honeysuckle. Or rather, clippings. It is necessary to cut 1-2 old branches under the root, which eventually began to bear fruit only on the periphery of the crown. In no case do not cut off a part of young 1-, 2-, 3-year-old growths from the crown. This will only lead to further thickening of the bush.

Honeysuckle care is standard for berry bushes, not complicated, but should be fairly regular.

In the spring - the introduction of organic matter in combination with mineral complex fertilizers. Honeysuckle responds very gratefully to full feeding and abundant watering. Since honeysuckle grows in nature along the banks of rivers, lakes and streams, it means that this is a very moisture-loving plant. In normally moist soil, berries become larger and the harvest richer. Therefore, we must remember: additional watering of honeysuckle during the period of pouring berries in late May - early June gives a significant increase in yield and increases the weight of the berry by an average of 15 - 20%. Therefore, abundant watering of honeysuckle is required at the rate of up to 3 buckets per adult bush at the end of spring, if April - May are dry. Immediately after picking berries in early June, it is necessary to feed the bushes with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, combining top dressing with watering. And in October, make a planned pre-winter moisture-charging watering of honeysuckle. If the summer is dry, then in July - August, honeysuckle is additionally watered. If twisting of the tips of the leaves is detected against the background of the presence of aphid colonies, spray the bushes two or three times with Inta-Virom. Honeysuckle is not afraid of spring frosts and winter frosts, so the bushes do not need any shelters. But regular weeding from the weeds of the bite space gives very good results.

As mentioned above, the rejuvenation of honeysuckle bushes should be started at the age of 7-8, and it consists only in cutting out "obsolete" branches. A honeysuckle bush grows and bears fruit in one place with a high level of agricultural technology up to 20 years or more. And the yield from an adult bush of most varieties is up to 1 - 1.5 kg.

Among the advantages of honeysuckle is the ease of seed and vegetative propagation. Honeysuckle propagates vegetatively by green and lignified cuttings, air layering. Green cuttings should be taken long, at least 3 - 4 internodes 8 - 12 cm long. Green cuttings are planted in a mixture of peat and sand (1: 2). The optimum temperature for rooting cuttings is 25 - 28 degrees. Cuttings are cut at the end of flowering (end of June). Before planting, all lower leaves are removed, except for the top two. Cuttings are planted vertically in moist soil, deepening them by half. You need to water regularly. And on the 12th - 15th day, roots form in the cuttings. During the entire vegetative period, it is good to water young honeysuckle seedlings with mullein infusion. To propagate honeysuckle with lignified cuttings after leaf fall, they are cut from strong shoots of 20–30 cm each and planted in a school or placed in snow until spring. It is even better to propagate with a "ring", like red currants. But the most reliable method of propagation here is by air layering, like gooseberry propagation. The survival rate here is almost 100%.

The most common are three types of honeysuckle: Kamchatka, edible, Turchaninov. Now many new varieties have been bred. You can call them one species - edible honeysuckle. Although honeysuckle as a food plant has been known for a long time, but only relatively recently (the last 10-15 years) amateur gardeners have become interested in it. But this is a wonderful berry vitamin culture with a lot of useful properties! Edible honeysuckle, planting and care, its cultivation have some features, but even a novice gardener will master them.

Honeysuckle is an exceptionally fast-growing plant. Its berries ripen much earlier than strawberries. In addition, it is winter-hardy - it grows even in the North. Therefore, the question of the correct planting of honeysuckle worries many.

Honeysuckle - useful properties and contraindications

And what a complex of vitamins! Fruits contain up to 11% sugar. 100 g of fruits contain up to 50 mg of vitamin C, up to 3.8 mg - B 2, up to 9.2 mg - B 9, up to 1000 mg - P, not counting the rich complex of organic acids, pectin substances. Berries contain a lot of iodine, manganese, iron, copper.

Honeysuckle berries contain inositol, betaine - these are biologically active substances, stimulants of fat metabolism. The fruits contain triterpene acids, a considerable amount of potassium, magnesium, sodium. It is known that triterpene acids are part of triterpene glycosides - and these are the main components of ginseng. By the way, honeysuckle berries contain more potassium than cranberries.

In addition, the optimal combination of P-active substances, vitamin C helps to restore the elasticity of blood vessels, their permeability, normalize lymph flow, and reduce swelling. P-active substances (and edible honeysuckle contains a lot of them) have anti-inflammatory, wound healing, antipyretic, antitumor, rejuvenating effects.

Traditional medicine has long used honeysuckle for gastrointestinal diseases, malaria, blood diseases, kidney disease - a diuretic. The fruits are used fresh, they are used to prepare jam, jam, juices.

Reproduction of edible honeysuckle - methods

Edible honeysuckle is propagated by seeds, dividing the bush, layering, it takes root especially well when planted with cuttings.

The easiest way is to divide the bush, but for this you need to have an already grown overgrown shrub, which, with slight hilling, gives a lot of adventitious roots. In spring or autumn, when digging up a plant, you need to cut the bush into several smaller parts, each of which will take root during transplantation.

Honeysuckle seeds are very small, give variegated offspring during germination. The aerial part after germination grows slowly, but the root system develops well. Full fruiting of the plant occurs in 3-4 years.

Honeysuckle is very well propagated by cuttings. Annual (green) shoots are suitable for rooting. As soon as the berries begin to ripen (and these are, in fact, the first berries that ripen), you should cut the branches from the bush you like. Rooting cuttings should not be long - it is enough to have 2-3 buds on them. Remove the leaves from the handle - the top 2 leaves can be left. You can root them in a greenhouse or an ordinary flower pot. But with any method of rooting, certain conditions must be created for them.

If you decide to root honeysuckle cuttings in a greenhouse, then they are stuck into loose soil (the ratio of soddy soil, humus, sand is 1: 1: 1), additionally covering them with film or plastic bottles to create a humid microclimate. Do the same if you decide to root the cuttings in a flower pot. If the weather is hot, then they should be regularly sprayed with water. After two or three weeks, start airing them by opening the film for a while or removing the plastic cover. After 1.5-2 months, the coating can be removed completely. Usually, by the beginning of autumn, honeysuckle cuttings will give an increase in shoots of at least 20-25 cm. The cuttings that you rooted in the greenhouse can be left there until spring. And cuttings rooted in pots can be planted in a permanent place - for the winter they can be spudded with higher ground or covered with dry grass.

Growing edible honeysuckle, care features

Worst of all, in the Kuban, it takes root after planting, Kamchatka honeysuckle grows. Probably, its adaptability to the soil of volcanic origin affects.

In the wild, this plant grows in Altai, Eastern Siberia, the Far East, Kamchatka. It is a shrub 1-2 m tall with a spherical crown. Shoots pubescent, leaves entire, oblong up to 5.5 cm on fruitful shoots, up to 8 cm on vegetative shoots, opposite. The flowers are bisexual, greenish-yellow, rather large, collected in two-flowered inflorescences. It is a cross-pollinated plant, pollinated by insects.

For a good yield, it is advisable to plant at least 2-3 bushes of edible honeysuckle, different varieties can be. It blooms in the Kuban in early spring (March-April) for 2-3 weeks, which is not dangerous during spring frosts, the flowers can withstand frosts down to minus 7 degrees.

Honeysuckle fruits are of various shapes - round, pear-shaped, oblong 8-30 mm long, 6-15 mm wide, weighing about 1.5 g, dark blue with a bluish bloom, sweet and sour. To taste, they resemble blueberries - fragrant, tender, juicy. Productivity - up to 3 kg per bush.

Honeysuckle does not tolerate acidic soils, does not tolerate complete shading, but tolerates partial shade perfectly. The feeding area of ​​one seedling is approximately 1 × 1.5 m.

When to plant honeysuckle? It is better to plant honeysuckle in the fall, before frost it will have time to take root. In the spring, planting is best done as early as possible, because the plant wakes up very early, buds open.

Honeysuckle how to plant? The pits for planting honeysuckle should be 60 × 60 cm in size, 50 cm deep. When planting, it is good to put stones on the bottom, mix the earth with humus or compost, and water it.

How to care for edible honeysuckle? Planting care is simple: weed removal, mulching.

Honeysuckle does not need annual pruning due to the longevity of its skeletal branches. It is practically resistant to diseases and pests.

One teaspoon of honeysuckle berry jam daily - many diseases will bypass you until old age. And if we take into account that this culture is hardy, does not require care, is durable, annually productive, beautiful, and the whole plant is healing - berries, leaves, branches, then it would be an unforgivable mistake not to have several bushes of beautiful edible honeysuckle on your site.

Edible honeysuckle - varieties

Each variety of honeysuckle has a different shape of berries. There are berries that have the shape of a jug, a ball. There are elongated or spindle-shaped berries.

Variety Blue bird

Early, with an average yield (1.5-2 kg per bush). Berries - from small to medium (0.7 g). Their shape is oval-cylindrical. Color - blue with a strong bluish bloom. Taste - sweet and sour, pleasant. Disadvantages: after ripening, the berries quickly crumble.

Variety Blue spindle

Early, fast-growing, with an average yield of 1.5-2 kg per bush. The shape of the berries is spindle-shaped. The average fruit weight is 0.8 g. The color is bluish-blue. The taste is sweet with a slight spicy bitterness. Disadvantages - fruits quickly crumble after ripening.

Variety Azure

Medium-early, fast-growing, with an average yield of 1.5-2 kg per bush. The average weight of a berry is 0.7 g. The shape of the fruit is oval-cylindrical. Color - bluish-blue. The taste is very good. Advantages - do not crumble after maturation.

Variety Berel

Late, with high productivity - 2-4 kg per bush. The mass of berries is 0.9 g. The color is blue with a bluish bloom. Taste - sweet and sour with a pleasant spicy aftertaste. Advantages - large fruits, high yield, berries do not crumble after ripening.

Variety Long-fruited

The average ripening period, high yield - 1.5-1.8 kg per bush. Breeding variety of the Chelyabinsk Fruit and Vegetable Breeding Station. I.V. Michurin. The average weight of a berry is 0.7 g. The shape of the fruit is oval-elongated. Color - blue. The taste is good, sweet and sour. The crop crumbles slightly after ripening, most of it remains on the bush.

Variety Bakcharskaya

Medium-early. Selection of the Bakchar stronghold of northern horticulture (Tomsk region). The mass of berries is 0.7 g. The shape of the fruit is pear-shaped. Color - violet-blue. The taste is very good, sweet and sour with a pleasant aroma. Harvest almost does not crumble after ripening. The yield is low, since this variety belongs to Turchaninov's honeysuckle. The bush is small, its diameter is half that of other varieties.

Honeysuckle Pride of Kuban, description

Bushes are medium. Frost resistance is high. The variety is the leader in yield - an average of 3 kg per adult bush. The berries are large, sweet and sour with a dense skin and a strong wax coating. Berries of medium-late ripening, subject to rapid shedding. The variety is disease resistant.

Honeysuckle Bullfinch, variety description

Vigorous plant. It is considered the most dietary among all varieties. The taste is slightly bitter, medicinal. Honeysuckle berries have such a property - the more bitter it is, the more healing, useful it is.

Variety Viola

Average term of maturing. Large berries. They have a bitter taste. Good for hypertensive patients - help to reduce pressure.

Variety Zyuminka

Highly resistant. The berries are similar in shape to large raisins, slightly elongated. It tastes with a very weak tart bitterness, medicinal. When ripe, they almost do not crumble.

Honeysuckle Penguin, variety description

Bush srednerosly, winter-hardy. The berries are round, medium in size with a thin skin, sweet and sour taste, with a strawberry flavor. The shedding of berries is average.

Variety Malvina

Early ripe. The shape of the fruit is similar to a pear. The berries are dense, pleasant sweet and sour taste. The bushes are very decorative. They can be used in garden design for decorative hedges. They are especially beautiful during flowering.

Variety Nightingale

Very early. The berries are not very large, spindle-shaped, tuberous. The taste is sweet and sour. Fruiting is plentiful.

It is prickly, unfriendly.

And on the lush bushes of honeysuckle, oblong ripe berries are already flaunting, fogged with a bluish haze.

That is why gardeners are increasingly planting honeysuckle on their plots. In addition, vitamins and biologically active substances are very successfully combined in each of its berries.

And it is not for nothing that its name, consisting of two abbreviated words: life and youth, speaks for itself.

In this plant, everything is for the benefit of man - even the bark, branches, leaves and flowers save from many ailments.

A beloved berry bush, the honeysuckle has its own family: the honeysuckle. Most wild berry species grow in Southeast Asia (about two hundred).

Given this fact, the scientists concluded: it is there that the birthplace of honeysuckle.

The main part of honeysuckle is found mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. This is probably the result of the biological preferences of the species.

In Russia, a dozen and a half species of honeysuckle in nature are wild populations. It is interesting that our, Russian, name of the berry is translated from Old Slavonic as “to milk a goat”.

Since ancient times, goats have fed man, and honeysuckle was already there, animals loved it.

Features of honeysuckle

Not all honeysuckle is edible. There are species whose berries are poisonous. There are ornamental shrubs, many are just good honey plants.

The East of Siberia and the Far Eastern Territories know the wild-growing edible honeysuckle.

The shrubs of the plant are different in shape: there are climbing vines, there are also ordinary ones. Creeping honeysuckle shrubs are found among species.

Honeysuckle berries come in a variety of colors. Red, blue.

Honeysuckle with red berries - wolfberry - is not only inedible, it has a toxic effect. Wolfberry is called not only poisonous honeysuckle. This is a generic title.

There are other shrubs with poisonous fruits (wolfberry), the color is often also red. Different areas have their own wolfberry.

Blue honeysuckle, its edible species, is found in Siberia.

Berries, and first - flowers, blue honeysuckle grow in pairs. This gives the flowers a win during the pollination period. They are reported to bloom for a long time.

But each individual flower opens in bloom for a single day. And when pollinating at least one flower from a pair, the second will also be pollinated and tie a berry.

The flowers are bisexual, but self-fertile. That is, they cannot pollinate without another plant.

Moreover, the second plant must be taken - a different variety. Or even a species (edible may well pollinate decorative, which will not infringe on its taste).

Two bushes of the same variety will bloom side by side. But they will remain without berries.

Benefit for health

Honeysuckle is good in taste, the beneficial properties of berries do not lag behind in a set.

• Vitamin complex;
• Rich set of trace elements;
• The main minerals important to the body;
• Polysaccharides;
• organic acids;
• pectins;
• Citrus fruits are twice inferior to honeysuckle berries in terms of the content of essential vitamin C, and they are usually considered leaders in this regard. There are other groups of vitamins;
• There is a lot of potassium in the berries, useful for the heart: raspberries and currants lag behind honeysuckle in potassium twice.

Due to the studied and unexplored properties, too, the blue berry has long been applicable in folk, and now in official medicine.

Doctors advise to use it:

• For the prevention of beriberi;
• Treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
• With hypertension.

The people have long been treating these ailments, but others also heal:

• Liver disease;
• stomach problems;
• Progressive atherosclerosis;
• poisoning;
• Tuberculosis;
• Arthritis;
• dropsy;
• Rheumatism;
• dysentery;
• Cardiovascular diseases;
• loss of appetite;
• fever;
• Restrain oncological processes.

The berry is also used as a cosmetic. Berries in compresses rejuvenate the skin, restore its elasticity. Infusions of berries refresh the skin.

The disinfectant properties of berry juice are used in the treatment of lichen. Even eczema lends itself to honeysuckle, ulcers heal.

Moreover, they do not use the berries themselves, their infusions. Infusions of plant buds work similarly.

cultivars

Honeysuckle has long been cultivated, dozens of garden varieties have been bred. The shrub is good for everyone: it is decorative, gives edible fruits, its berries are useful, tasty.

There is no shortage of varieties, you can choose the one you are interested in or your favorite. Each gardener has his own best varieties of honeysuckle: a matter of taste.

Altair. One and a half meter shrub with sweet blue berries. It is notable for fastening the berries: they will not crumble until the gardener himself removes the berries.

This is very convenient: the harvest will not be lost, with any employment, the summer resident will not miss the moment of removal.

The variety ripens early, in mid-June it is ready for consumption. The berries are small, only 1 gram, but two kilograms can be removed from the bush.

long-fruited. This honeysuckle is really with long blue fruits - berries are almost three centimeters (2.7).

The honeysuckle bush is low - a meter of everything, rounded. Harvest from it up to 3 kg. At the same time, the berries have a delicate taste, sweet and sour.

They do not bitter, as sometimes happens in uncultivated species. Ripening is also in June, but the fruits can crumble.

Bakchar giant. The title is eloquent. This bush is almost a tree. Two-meter height, one and a half meter crown projection.

Yes, and the berries correspond: they reach 5 cm. With such sizes, this honeysuckle is winter-hardy, stable: it does not give in to diseases, it is not afraid of pests.

Berry Blue. Siberian variety, healthy tasty long-fruited (2.7 cm) berry. Withstands easily 30 ° frost during wintering.

A one and a half meter bush, the oval shape of which allows you to plant honeysuckle with a distance of 60 cm, will give 2 kg of healthy vitamin berries.

Late variety, ripening: August - September. The berries are dark blue. Berry Blue is resistant to shedding.

honey berry. A very valuable variety in terms of mineral and vitamin composition. The berries are oblong, sweet with a slight sourness.

The bush is rounded, bears fruit all summer. The fruits reach 4 cm, the yield from the bush is 7 kg.

Decorative at any time, the flowers are large, diameter 6 cm. Tolerates Siberian frosts - 30 °.

Although honeysuckle is relatively new to our gardens, its varieties are numerous. Choose carefully, to your liking: you will have to side by side for a long time.

Choosing a landing site and its time

These two indicators: place and time are in many respects decisive for the whole life of the plant.

Everything that we cherish in the garden and in general on the site are living organisms. The world of flora, like the animal world, strongly depends on the starting conditions.

In order for the start to be successful, knowledge of cultural preferences is necessary.

Landing place. Honeysuckle tolerates partial shade, but it can develop better and bear fruit well in a sunny place.

You can find a place for a small beautiful and useful berry bush in a garden of any design. It is desirable to provide the plant with sufficient illumination, then fruiting will be higher.

Honeysuckle is not stable in the wind: fragile branches can break off. Especially - loaded with a crop. Therefore, it is not worth decorating raised areas with it; on flat areas, protection from winds is more reliable.

Decorative liana-like varieties of wind are not afraid, although they sometimes grow six meters. But they grow only on a support: arbors, trellis, fences - fence or on a grid.

They don't sway in the wind. Therefore, it is necessary to plant them where this support is or will be built.

From fruit-bearing varieties of low growth, you can make a green hedge. Tall ones do not plant like that: they will shade the adjacent area. And probably not only your own.

Along the walls, the bush will wither, it needs light and does not need overheating - coolness is better.

Honeysuckle does not tolerate drought well; in regions that are dry in climate, it is weak. But it can grow near water or with frequent watering, better by sprinkling.

An interesting option is planting alternating with undersized berries: currants of different varieties, gooseberries.

When the berries ripen, this row looks very elegant.

Until the honeysuckle has grown, about fifteen years old, it is comfortable for both her and the low berry plants planted nearby.

Then they grow old, dig out. There is a new place for the further growth of honeysuckle, the illumination improves.

She can grow there just as much. Consider when choosing a place: a shrub with vitamin tasty fruits lives for a long time.

Where honeysuckle settled, planting low, short-lived shrubs or flowers that tolerate partial shade is appropriate.

Disembarkation time. Honeysuckle is planted in spring, or from late summer to mid-autumn.

There is such a division: edible honeysuckle berries are planted in autumn, decorative honeysuckle - settles in gardens mainly in spring.

There are types of berries - real extreme sports, they are not afraid of frost under fifty (in winter, at rest, of course), and when flowering, return frosts will not harm the flowers. Even if it's minus eight.

But the main thing for a plant is to take root, after that it is already almost a hero. Therefore, they select the optimal landing time (season, month).

Practice has shown that edible honeysuckle is optimally planted in early autumn. But in warm regions - later, at the end of the second third of autumn.

The autumn choice is explained simply: a cold-resistant plant wakes up so early and starts growing in the spring season that spring planting is risky.

And the berry vegetation finishes in August, at the same time the shrub is ready for wintering. The shoots are already lignified.

Therefore, September for disembarkation or transplantation is optimal. October is good too. The exact dates will tell the weather and the region.

Soil preparation

The culture is perennial, so what we give it with the soil when planting is its dining room for life.

Fertilizers are needed even if the soil is good. They will be distributed along the landing pit and below. will be used gradually.

We figured out the timing: it’s better early in the fall. This means that the soil must be prepared in the fall, only the previous one. A new inhabitant of the garden must be met hospitably.

Dig up the entire surface of the site where the bush is planned to be planted. At the same time, pre-scattered organic matter is also introduced - compost, rotted manure (what is).

Minerals include potassium and phosphorus. Nitrogen is already in organic matter.

Planting holes can be dug next fall, but preferably a week or two before planting. Size on top 50 x 50 cm, deep enough 40 cm.

Fill the pits with good soil - we also add fertilizers to it, last year's "gone" deeper. We form the earth with a mound, fill two-thirds in height.

The average distance between adjacent pits is one and a half meters. More specifically, it depends on the variety, spreading of the crown, and the characteristics of the plant.

This completes the soil preparation.

Selection of seedlings

In order for the acquisition to turn out to be pleasing, successful, it is necessary to approach the choice prepared.

To a gardener who sees honeysuckle seedlings for the first time, they will seem doubtful. The reason is the peeling of the bark over the entire surface of the stem.

This is not a marriage, this is a sign characteristic of honeysuckle - exfoliating flaky bark.

When a seedling is leafless, it really does look "tortured". Such a plant - beauty will come later.

Checking the quality of a seedling is easy:

• Pick up the bark with your fingernail, gently scrape the stem or twig - there you will see a green, completely alive, tissue. If you do not see: the seedling is not viable.
• It is important when choosing meticulously inspect the roots. Take a three-year-old plant, not older: these take root easier. The root of a three-year-old should already be quite powerful and developed. It is important that it does not dry out, not even dried up. If the root system has dried up, the chances of honeysuckle survival and good growth drop sharply.
• A good seller with a quality product can be distinguished. The seller is obliged to have information about the intricacies of cultures. Therefore, he will have a honeysuckle seedling either in a container with a soil substrate, or with a clod of earth in a film package. Planting material with open roots, even if they are wet, do not take. Perhaps they dried up, and in general honeysuckle is not transported like that, it destroys it.

It is ideal to buy in such a way that “from ground to ground” - there is a minimum period between digging and planting.

Large seedlings, older than three years old, take root poorly. Pruning is required, not everyone tolerates it stoically.

Small seedlings (a year or two) can be taken, but the survival rate is also worse. And they will begin to bear fruit - later.

Landing

When planting, we correct the mound in the pit for honeysuckle, if it had time to settle. We check the integrity of the roots, remove damaged or dried ones.

We plant, like most shrubs, and trees:

• We place the seedling in the center at the top of the earthen hill, straighten the roots along the previously watered soil cone below it.
• We fill the hole with fertile soil on all sides. The root neck remains in the ground, it can be deepened up to 5 cm. Some varieties do not bury, only the root is sprinkled.
• Water the planted honeysuckle.
• We mulch on top - we retain moisture and prevent the appearance of a crust on the soil.

Landing usually does not cause difficulties.

Berry Care

The former forest dweller, having become domesticated, freely, in a forest way, will not want to live.

You will have to take care of her, albeit not intensively. But it is winter-hardy and will take the championship in the return of the crop even from strawberries.

Main types of work:

• In the spring, honeysuckle should be spudded - once, after the first overwintering.
• Loosen the soil around the bushes shallowly and mulch again.
• If the soil layer is poor, then fertilizers are added at intervals of several years when loosening.
• They are introduced into poor soil and organic matter, but - when digging row spacing. Row-spacing land is filled with compost not every year. Application interval is three years. You can use rotted manure for honeysuckle.
• The first three years, the spring application of minerals is justified - for loosening or with irrigation. Bring them in advance, before the awakening of the kidneys. Then the fertilizers will have time to distribute, get closer to the roots, to the beginning of the growing season.
• You need to remember about watering, especially while the plants are young, have not formed powerful roots. Drought honeysuckle does not tolerate at all, if planted in a dry area - it may die or will not bear fruit. And growth will slow down. Therefore, those who dared to acquire a moisture-loving berry, residents of arid regions will have to organize regular watering.

A separate operation is cropping. The first five years there is no need for it, the plant is still compact. Only damaged, broken branches are removed.

Later pruning is given more attention.

During the dormant period - in the fall after the foliage is shed or in the spring before it is awakened - dried branches are cut out. Remove the sick, weak, damaged.

When cutting honeysuckle, you should keep the tops of the shoots to the maximum. They have the bulk of the flower buds, that is, the future harvest.

If the honeysuckle bush is old, you can rejuvenate it with pruning. Then the old branches are cut out, leaving a half-meter trunk with a minimum of branches.

Such a hard pruning of honeysuckle will stimulate intensive forcing by the plant of shoots and shoots from the stem.

The root system remains powerful, the bush will grow in three years and restore fruiting. Now - on young shoots.

Pests and diseases

Honeysuckle does not apply to those lucky ones who are avoided by all sorts of misfortunes.

She is also susceptible to diseases, and is not immune from pest attacks.

You can help her, the main thing is not to miss the symptoms.

Honeysuckle diseases

The fungus affects wild-growing honeysuckle and garden - too. Moreover, it is moisture-loving, like fungal diseases of plants.

Ramulariasis. The bizarre-sounding name of beauty does not attach to the plant. Ramulariasis "dries" the leaf.

An attentive gardener recognizes something is wrong precisely by the leaves. The onset of the disease, noticed immediately, is a chance to save honeysuckle.

Ramulariasis appears first as spots on the leaf. The spots are dry, round or their outlines are wavy. The edges of the spots are bordered, the border is brown. It is darker than the most brown or brown spot.

If this stage is not noticed, the entire leaf will dry out. Mushrooms will give spores, neighboring leaves and plants will become infected.

A weakened plant loses its decorative effect, productivity also falls. Honeysuckle may die.

What can be done:

• Having identified the disease, remove the diseased shoots entirely. Do not touch the neighboring ones while doing this (if possible).
• Burn contaminated material.
• Remove fallen leaves (mulch or new), destroy them.
• It is also not necessary to leave foliage for the winter: fungi can overwinter in such a shelter.
• Preventively treat honeysuckle and the soil below it by spraying with fungicides. Preparations with copper are good: fungal ones die from them.

powdery mildew. The scourge of most plants, especially those that love moisture. Rainy years favor disease outbreaks.

A characteristic powdery coating is formed initially on young branches and leaves. Later spreads throughout the bush.

Leaves dry, young shoots are deformed. A diseased plant does not bear fruit or greatly reduces the yield. The fruits are also affected.

The list of control measures includes the same as with ramulariasis, the same prevention.

Additionally, sulfur preparations work well, you can pollinate bushes with them.

Sifted wood ash is also an enemy of powdery mildew. Apply by dusting.

tuberculosis. The fungus causes the branches to dry out. In the spring, tubercles appear on young shoots infected with tuberculosis.

Color - red-brown. This is a wintering place for spores that fall on healthy branches in the fall.

Summer begins, and the leaves dry out, diseased shoots too.

Copper-containing preparations help. Spray honeysuckle before bud break, then - after flowering.

It is good to do this with Bordeaux liquid for the prevention of all fungal diseases of honeysuckle.

Sick shoots are cut out, burned.

European cancer. Again, a mushroom. Likes warmth and moisture. Therefore, it is widely distributed in areas of sufficient humidity and heat that is comfortable for its development.

If honeysuckle does not stretch much to heat, then moisture is its element. European cancer on honeysuckle is not rare: both are moisture-loving.

Symptoms:

• The trunk, branches are affected. On wounds, frost holes, marginal influxes are formed.
• The influxes grow rapidly, approaching the edges - grow together, leaving a gap.
• Ulcers form in the depth of the gap.
• The disease chooses bark, wood. Mainly trunks and branches close to them are affected.
• The bark in the deep stage of the lesion falls off in large fragments.
• The remaining bark and wood turn black and rot.
• Honeysuckle cannot develop: metabolic processes are distorted.
• The weakened shrub dies.

By the name "cancer" it is clear that fighting is difficult. Preventive measures are preferred.

They are:

• Inspection of the trunk and branches in winter for the presence of frost holes. If they appear, immediately cover them up.
• The same - with cracks, wounds, damage to the cortex. This is where the fungus can take root.
• Found heavily infected shoots - cut to the ground. Paint over wounds immediately. Can be oil paint. Garden var is also suitable for healing wounds, disinfecting them.

To prevent European cancer from spreading by spores from other garden inhabitants - apple trees, pears - whiten fruit trees. But not the bottom of the stems for the spring holidays.

The trunk should be whitewashed in autumn - high. Thick branches of trees are also good to whiten.

This will protect them themselves from frost and cancer, and at the same time the honeysuckle neighbor. Early spring whitewashing also helps.

But - as an addition to the autumn.

There are about two dozen fungal diseases that affect honeysuckle.

The fight against them is approximately the same: the biology of fungi is similar:

• Agrotechnics: destruction of fallen leaves, ensuring ventilation - pruning, planting taking into account lighting.
• Treatment with fungicides - preventive and therapeutic.

Pests

Honeysuckle gets even more from pests. There are almost four dozen of them. It is imperative to protect, she is unlikely to be able to cope on her own.

There are many common pests with other fruit, berry, even vegetable.

There are also specific ones that choose exactly honeysuckle. This is reflected in the names: honeysuckle aphid, honeysuckle fingerwing.

More often, the plant is attacked by common polyphagous pests with fruit trees growing nearby.

fruit midge. Particularly harmful to the honeysuckle of Primorsky Krai. This is a mosquito that strikes berries (family mosquitoes).

The insect is small - up to half a centimeter. It is not the mosquito that harms, but the offspring, its larvae.

They hatch in buds from the eggs laid by the mosquito there, and eat out the contents of the bud. Berries, of course, the bud will no longer give, it just falls off.

The gall midge is destroyed by spraying with insecticides. The first spraying (Actellik, preparations of a similar action) - before flowering, in order to reduce the number of mosquitoes - an adult insect.

After cleaning, you also need to carry out chemical treatment. Spray the crown and - carefully - the surface of the earth under the honeysuckle.

The soil in case of damage to gall midge is dug up twice - in the fall, then in the spring. The larvae overwinter there, digging destroys a significant number of them.

In the spring, this agricultural method cannot be delayed; mosquitoes are dug up until the summer.

Mulch (in the spring) after digging will make it difficult for the rest to fly out. You can mulch with well-rotted manure.

honeysuckle aphid. Like all aphids, the pest feeds on plant sap. Damages the leaf and non-lignified shoots.

It prefers honeysuckle. The leaves turn yellow, dry, die. Actellik can also be used against aphids - it "takes" insects that drink juices.

Karbofos is also effective, but more toxic, it is desirable to be careful with it.

All folk "anti-extinguish" methods are suitable:

• Ash-soap solution;
• Solutions, infusions of bitter plants (yarrow, hot pepper, wormwood);
• Repelling ants: they resettle and protect aphids.

honeysuckle mite. He has similar habitat conditions: he loves moisture. If the plantings are thickened, the humidity may rise, this is to the liking of the tick.

The edges of the affected leaves are deformed (become corrugated). The sheet itself curls, changes color to dark. Heavily damaged - fall off.

The shrub is sprayed with acaricidal insecticides, the branches are thinned out. Reduce humidity, allow air to enter. This will help to defeat the tick.

honeysuckle fingerwing. If the berries darken early, check the bush for the presence of fingerwings.

Usually this is how her presence is manifested.

Her food is the contents of the berry. Shriveled honeysuckle fruits, eaten by fingerwings, fall.

Something will remain for the owner of the site, if the defeat is insignificant.

Only after collecting the surviving berries are treated with insecticides or infusions of bitter or toxic plants.

Harvesting

Unfriendly, uneven ripening of honeysuckle berries lengthens the period when it can be enjoyed.

But you will have to pick berries more than once. Overexposure of the first ripened on the bush is a mistake. The berries hang, but when the collection begins, when the branch is touched, they fall. Therefore, collect selectively.

You can spread an oilcloth, a film under a bush and then collect the fallen berries. But they immediately need to be recycled, they will not be stored at all.

Taken on time - may lie down for a while before consumption or processing.

Reproduction methods

According to the types of reproduction, everything is simple:

• Vegetative;
• Seed.

It is used, as in most garden - vegetative. Seed serves science more: selection.

In the practice of gardeners habitually - vegetative.

Honeysuckle is vegetatively propagated by cuttings, layering. It is possible and - by dividing the bush.

cuttings. Honeysuckle works better - green cuttings:

• Therefore, they are not harvested, but rooted immediately after the cut. In honeysuckle, not only seedlings do not tolerate drying out. Cuttings also cannot be dried, cut off, they are immediately placed in a bag.
• It is important to take cuttings not from young, but from fruit-bearing specimens of honeysuckle. A properly cut stalk contains two internodes, should not be shorter than 10 cm. Only the upper leaves are left, they are shortened to reduce evaporation. You can process the lower part with a root. Other stimulants for root growth are also suitable.
• Having landed in loose soil, necessarily fertile, they press the earth around, water it.
• Then you need shelter - either a film frame, or trimming plastic bottles. This keeps moisture and warmth in. But watering is still frequent: the place of root formation should not dry out.
• The cuttings take root for three weeks. Only then it is noticeable that the growth buds have awakened.
• Gradually, small plants are accustomed to the garden humidity of the air, slightly opening the shelter. A week - and the film is removed.
• About half of the summer remains for growth. In autumn - transfer to a dedicated place - a residence permit in the garden.

The division of the bush. Only small, but already overgrown, young plants are used:

• Dig up a bush;
• Divide neatly into parts - each with a growth shoot and part of the root;
• They sit down - first in a school (nursery);
• Carefully looked after, watered, fed;
• It is customary to plant in a permanent place in the third year - in nurseries. On its site, often the delenka settles in place immediately after the division.

Layering. Reproduction by layering is planned in advance. To do this, the bushes are planted separately or increase the distance.

Then shoots will be bent here for rooting.

Bend them down in early spring, while the plant is still sleeping.

You can lay the shoot in the groove, pinning through several buds, and then fill them up.

Or a short shoot is also laid, but the upper part is not covered, lifted and fixed with a support (peg).

So they leave until autumn, after which they are already rooted and planted.

Preparing for winter

Honeysuckle is a hardy plant that withstands harsh climates with great frosts.

But some operations before winter need to be done.

• pruning;
• Top dressing (if necessary);
• Landing and transplant;
• Sometimes - shelter (depending on the variety).

Pruning is done after the leaves have fallen. Landing and transfer - too.

They usually cover decorative lianas of honeysuckle. Edible winters without problems.

How to grow honeysuckle, you now know. You don't have to face the difficulties listed above.

Growing honeysuckle does not take much time from the gardener. By thoughtfully inscribing simple care for her in the seasonal calendar of garden work, you can do the necessary manipulations in time.

Then honeysuckle will be quite easy. And the return from it will turn out to be double: the beauty of the design of the site and delicious juicy healthy berries.

See you soon, dear readers!