The honeysuckle family includes approximately two hundred species of various climbing and erect plants. In wildlife, honeysuckle can be found in the Northern Hemisphere, but most of its species are found in Asia and the Himalayas. In modern gardens, you can find the usual climbing honeysuckle, which is used as an ornamental plant, as well as a garden one, which is needed not only to decorate the garden, but also to collect very tasty and he althy berries. For food, it is customary to grow two types of honeysuckle: edible and blue.
When to plant
Before you start breeding this plant, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of honeysuckle, planting and caring for it. Landing can be carried out from spring to autumn, but it is better not to choose such months as May and June for this. Since it is during this period that the growth of shoots is activated in her. If you chose the spring period for planting seedlings, then this procedure must be carried out long beforebud break, and keep in mind that this plant buds quite early. But it is better if you set aside time for disembarkation in late September or early October. This is the most suitable period for planting many plants, including honeysuckle.
But before you take out seedlings, you need to prepare a place for planting and soil in advance. And also, holes for seedlings must first be dug. The most comfortable honeysuckle will be in a bright place, which would be protected from the wind and something like a swampy area. This may be a site near a fence or surrounded by other shrubs. The most suitable fertile sandy or loamy soil. If the soil on your site is not too fertile, then it needs to be fertilized with organic matter, and it is better to dilute acidic soil using chalk or dolomite flour. It is necessary to pay attention to the seedling itself. Before planting, you need to inspect it well, remove all damaged roots and shoots, and if the root system is too long, then it needs to be shortened to thirty centimeters.
How to plant honeysuckle
Planting and care involves preparing holes for seedlings. The hole should be dug at the rate of 40 by 40 and 40 centimeters. The distance from one bush to another is at least a meter, it can be more. It all depends on the variety chosen and its ability to grow. A number of fertilizers need to be applied to the pit:
- 10 kg manure, well rotted (can be replaced with humus);
- double superphosphate - 100gram;
- wood ash - 300 grams;
- potassium sulfate - 30 grams.
All of the above components are well mixed with the ground, and then laid on the bottom of the hole, forming a small mound. Subsequently, a seedling must be placed on this mound. After that, sprinkle the roots of the plant with loose earth so that the root collar goes three or even five centimeters underground. The soil around the honeysuckle seedling should be well compacted and a small rim should be made at a distance of about thirty centimeters. You should have a small area where you should pour a bucket of water. After the water is completely absorbed, this area should be mulched. To do this, you can use dry land, peat or humus.
Honeysuckle: cultivation features
The plant is not much different in terms of requirements from other plants. Needs pruning, watering, weeding honeysuckle, planting and caring for which are not difficult. It is necessary to periodically fertilize and provide protection from pests and diseases. The gardener must take into account the fact that the better care he provides to this plant, the more beautiful the bush will be and the richer the harvest. The first three years, caring for this shrub is extremely simple. It will be enough only to periodically water, hill up in the spring, loosen the soil in the root zone and remove weeds. The young shrub does not need pruning.
As for watering, it should not be too plentiful, but not too rare. However, in dry weather, the honeysuckle bush needs a lot ofthe amount of moisture. Otherwise, the entire crop is jeopardized. And honeysuckle berries will be bitter. With moderate air temperatures and occasional rains, three or four waterings per season will suffice. At one time, the bush requires at least ten liters of water. After each rain or artificial irrigation, it is necessary to loosen the soil in the root zone, and at the same time remove weeds. Do not go too deep as the honeysuckle root system is not very deep planted.
Feeding
The first fertilizer is applied only two after planting the plants in the ground. Honeysuckle needs top dressing only once a year, and preference is given to organic matter. In the autumn, in order to fertilize the shrub well, you will need:
- compost - 5 kg;
- ash - 100 grams;
- double superphosphate - 40 grams per square meter.
And in the period when the honeysuckle begins to bud, add ammonium nitrate to the soil. For one square meter, you will need fifteen grams of the substance, and one bucket of water is poured under each bush, after dissolving a tablespoon of urea in it. After harvesting, you will also need to fertilize the plant. This time you will need 30 grams of nitrophoska, which should be diluted in ten liters of water. Can be replaced with a solution with the addition of slurry in a ratio of 1 to 4.
Berries
Honeysuckle can be safely called an early plant, sinceflowering, and berry picking starts very early. From the end of June, keep an eye on the honeysuckle berries, as they quickly begin to crumble. As soon as you notice that they have acquired a dark blue color, you can safely begin harvesting. There are varieties of honeysuckle that do not crumble immediately, if you have one of these, then you can hold the berries on the bush for another week, and if not, then lay an oilcloth or cloth under the bush, shake the bush slightly, and all ripe berries will immediately crumble.
The fruits of this plant are very delicate, so you need to fold them in a very thin layer. In addition, they deteriorate rather quickly, in order to keep them as long as possible, the berries are stored in the freezer. You can cook jam from honeysuckle or grind it with sugar in a 1: 1 ratio. To enhance its medicinal properties, add raspberries or strawberries to the jar. Honeysuckle is very effective during a cold. And also very tasty liqueurs and tinctures are obtained from these berries.
Cutting
In the first three years after planting, honeysuckle pruning is not required. As the crown develops in the first years, the shoots begin to grow. Autumn is considered the most suitable period for this procedure.
If you start to notice the thickening of the bush, then first of all get rid of the zero branches that are in the root zone. And also you need to remove all dry, broken and short branches that will not bear fruit. They only thicken the crown and interfere with the development of he althy branches. It is necessary to thin out the bush from the inside so that through the shoots and leaves it is sunnythe light could penetrate to the very depths.
Usually one-year-old strong branches bear fruit well, which, when pruning, is better not to touch at all. It is better to do a little pruning of strong branches, which for some reason have poor growth. You need to get rid of old shoots that already bear little fruit. And of course, remove twigs that grow too low and interfere with weeding and loosening.
Experienced gardeners can even rejuvenate old bushes. They simply remove almost all branches, leaving only the young shoots that have formed around the stump. Sanitary pruning is carried out in the spring. Since after the winter there are frozen, dried and broken branches that need to be removed.
Seed propagation
Honeysuckle planting and care also provides for its reproduction. You can stock up on planting material for several years. To do this, you will need toilet paper and ripe honeysuckle fruits. The berries are placed on a strip of paper at a distance of one centimeter, allowed to dry and rolled into a roll on which to write the year. This stock can be stored for about two years.
If you want to plant the seeds this year, then immediately after harvesting, the planting material is deepened one millimeter into moist soil. The box with this planting material should be immediately covered with glass and ensure that the soil does not dry out. After three weeks, the first shoots will begin to appear. In late autumn, this box is taken out into the garden and left there for the whole winter. Seeds planted in autumn are immediately placedto the garden, and there they undergo a natural stratification, and in the spring they grow.
Seedlings need regular watering, weeding and loosening the soil. In a year they can be planted in the ground, and in a few years the first fruits will appear.
Propagation by cuttings
Cuttings are cut from annual lignified branches at least fifteen centimeters long. Immediately after the onset of the thaw, they are planted in a greenhouse or in open ground. Each cutting should be ten centimeters deep. But make sure that two buds remain above the surface of the earth. It is better to cover the cuttings with a film, so rooting will be a great success. The rooting process usually takes no more than one month.
Useful properties
The honeysuckle contains almost every vitamin and microelement imaginable. It is very useful for the stomach, improves the digestive properties of gastric juice. It is also an excellent diuretic and choleretic property, it is used as an astringent and laxative, it actively fights against various fungi, viruses and bacteria. This berry is part of many folk remedies aimed at treating diseases of the stomach, cardiovascular system. Well reduces heat and strengthens the walls of blood vessels. The juice of berries against lichen is widely used, as well as decoctions for instillation into the eyes, rinsing the mouth and throat. Honeysuckle is also used in dermatology. This is sometimes not just a medicinal, but a healing plant. Moreover, they are used in the field of medicine not onlyberries, but also bark, branches. Honeysuckle reviews in medicine are only positive. It is part of many medicines.
Contraindications
Edible varieties of honeysuckle have no contraindications. But in case of overeating, indigestion, skin rashes were observed. Any product carries a danger when consumed in excess.
Inedible species are also useful, but only specialists can prepare decoctions and infusions. If you do not know the exact technology for preparing a particular medicine, then it is better not to take on this matter. And remember that you can only eat blue and black berries, and red and orange are dangerous to human he alth.
