In the ranking of the most useful berries, sea buckthorn will undoubtedly take first place. Its fruits are so rich in vitamins and minerals that it can be safely attributed to medicinal plants.
As for vitamins, it is the champion in the content of carotene - provitamin A. In addition, it contains a large list of trace elements: iron, titanium, aluminum, manganese, boron, sulfur, silicon. Vitamins B and C contained in berries, malic acid and the famous sea buckthorn oil are good for he alth. The source of medicinal substances are sea buckthorn fruits, seeds and leaves. The only drawback of the plant is the difficulty in picking berries: they tightly surround a branch with thorns. You have to carefully pluck them, knock them down on the lined panels. Sometimes branches with berries are simply cut off to be picked later. The berries should be ripe, bright orange, slightly soft.
Sea buckthorn fruits ripen in late autumn, and in the northern regions the harvest comes after frost. It is better to do this in the morning or in the evening, when the berries are frozen and not crushed. They are well stored frozen (useful properties are not lost up to six months). The Altai Experimental Station is developing new varieties of sea buckthorngardening. She recommends the best of them for cultivation. These are like:
- Sea buckthorn varieties "news of Altai". The variety has gained popularity. It has no thorns and ripens earlier - at the end of August. A short stalk is considered a disadvantage, so the berries are easily crushed when harvested.
- Sea buckthorn variety "gift of Katun" is also devoid of thorns. But its fruits are denser, which is more convenient when picking and storing berries.
- Golden cob sea buckthorn has a compact crown, but it has thorns on the branches, which makes it difficult to harvest berries.
In 1954, breeders created elite varieties of this wonderful plant.
Oil-bearing sea buckthorn are tall bushes with branched thin hanging branches, berries on a long stem. The berries are large, brown-red. Sea buckthorn varieties "oilseed", "news of Altai", "golden cob" have a high yield: it ranges from 8 to 16 kg per tree and does not decrease with age.
It is believed that every gardening family should have plantings of this extremely useful crop. It is necessary to collect, store and constantly consume berries at the rate of at least 5 kg per person per year. This will guarantee the prevention of many diseases.
Sea buckthorn seedlings are placed in household plots and gardens as follows: 1 male plant should be planted on 2 female plants for pollination. In this case, the prevailing winds must be taken into account. Therefore, it is necessary to plant an extreme male plant on the side from which the wind willcarry pollen towards female bushes. Seedlings of the selected variety are planted in autumn, often at the same time as apple trees.
Autumn varieties of apple trees can also be attributed to medicinal plants, already because of others, only their inherent properties. Their fruits are rich in fiber, pectin, mineral s alts, contain phytoncides. In addition, autumn varieties of apples are stored for a long time without losing their useful properties.
