Content
Modern varieties of honeysuckle make it possible to grow tasty and healthy berries not only in garden plots. More and more farmers are paying attention to this crop. Previously, it was unattractive for cultivation over large areas - the fruits fell off, and their taste and size left much to be desired.
Most varieties of honeysuckle bred in the 21st century have sweet, large berries firmly attached to the branches, which makes them convenient for manual and mechanized harvesting.
Description of the variety
The Sibiryachka variety is not considered the newest, although it was registered only in 2000. This hybrid was obtained from Turchaninov and Kamchatskaya honeysuckles by the Bakchar Federal State Unitary Enterprise, located in the Tomsk region.
Specifications
A bush with an oval crown, medium height, moderately spreading - it reaches a height of 1.6 m and a width of 1.4 m. The shoots of Siberian honeysuckle are arched, the top hangs down. Mature branches are brown, with peeling bark.
The berries are drop-shaped, dark purple, with a whitish waxy coating. The weight of each varies between 1.0-1.4 g.The fruits of the Sibiryachka variety are among the most delicious and sweet among edible honeysuckles, their tasting score reaches 5 points.
The berries ripen early and quickly - only one harvest is needed. The average yield of honeysuckle variety Sibiryachka from an adult bush is 3.1 kg, under favorable conditions - up to 3.7 kg. The fruits are well attached to the branches and do not fall off when ripe, but they can come off with damage, so they are not suitable for freezing.
Pollinators
Edible honeysuckle is self-sterile, Siberian honeysuckle is no exception. To obtain a decent harvest, cross-pollination by bees or bumblebees with pollen of other varieties is necessary. Otherwise, the bushes will bloom, but will only produce a few small berries.
You can plant several other varieties next to Sibiryachka, but Tomichka, Pamyati Gidzyuk or Narymskaya are best suited as pollinators. There is no need to specifically attract bees and bumblebees to planting honeysuckle - it is a good honey plant and itself attracts beneficial insects to the garden.
Advantages and disadvantages
Siberian is an excellent variety for processing and fresh consumption. Among its advantages:
- Early maturation.
- Early fruitfulness of the variety. It is fashionable to try the first berries 1-2 years after planting honeysuckle.
- Good taste – tasting score 5 points.
- Stable fruiting.
- Large berries.
- High yield variety.
- Honeysuckle is extremely winter-hardy, it can withstand frosts of more than 50 degrees, the ovaries do not fall off at minus 7.
- The Sibiryachka variety does not fall off after ripening.
- You need to harvest the crop once.
- Durability and undemanding - with proper planting, honeysuckle bears fruit for 30 years.
Siberian has a significant drawback - its berries are so delicate that when harvesting it is not always possible to get a dry tear. This reduces transportability and makes the variety unsuitable for freezing.
Accommodation on site
Honeysuckle is not capricious, the secret of its successful cultivation is to buy healthy planting material and place it correctly on the site.
Selection of planting material
Seedlings take root best when they are 2-3 years old. You need to buy them at large garden centers or directly from manufacturers. Planting time is late summer or early autumn. In the spring, there is no guarantee that all honeysuckle seedlings will take root, and fruiting will occur a year later.
Make sure that the root is healthy and the branches are elastic. Siberian is distinguished by curved shoots - this feature will help determine varietal compliance.
Choosing a suitable location and landing
Only a sunny area is suitable for planting honeysuckle - it is impossible to get a harvest in the shade. The berry garden should not be placed in lowlands or ravines - the accumulation of cold air and stagnant water will reduce the yield and can lead to rotting of the root system.
Honeysuckle can grow on any soil, but prefers slightly acidic, loose, fertile soil. Only sandstones are not suitable; there you need to add 2 buckets of organic matter to the planting hole. Lime or dolomite flour is added to excessively acidic soil.
Pits are prepared measuring 40x40x40 cm; a bucket of organic matter and 50 g of phosphate and potassium fertilizers are added to the top fertile layer of soil.For poor soils, the amount of starting fertilizing should be large.
Standard planting of honeysuckle is 1.5 m in a row, 2 m between beds. Different sources may offer different schemes, you need to stick to the one that suits you.
Planting holes are filled with water and allowed to absorb moisture. A mound of fertile soil is poured in the middle, the roots are carefully spread around it, covered with soil, and lightly compacted. The neck should be buried by about 5 cm. After planting, the bush is watered abundantly, the tree trunk circle is mulched with humus or peat; in their absence, dry soil will do.
Growing honeysuckle
Growing honeysuckle is easy - it is not a fussy crop. To get a good harvest, it is enough to plant several varieties nearby.
Caring for a young plant
First of all, seedlings require sufficient watering. If there is a lack of moisture, the young plant may die, but even if this does not happen, the honeysuckle will hurt and will not produce a good harvest in the future. A day after rain or watering, you need to loosen the soil to a depth of 5-8 cm to improve the supply of oxygen to the roots.
For the first 2 years after fruiting, honeysuckle is not fed - the fertilizers that were added to the planting hole are enough for it. In the spring (you can directly on the snow) a bucket of water with a solution of ammonium nitrate or urea is brought under each bush.
Caring for an adult plant
Caring for honeysuckle consists of weeding, watering in dry weather and loosening the soil.Every spring it is fed with nitrogen fertilizers, in the summer - with a full mineral complex, in the fall - with phosphorus and potassium for laying the next year's harvest and successful wintering.
Pruning and wintering
Honeysuckle is a plant of the North, varieties are created specifically for cold climates; it does not need shelter for the winter. Until the age of 15, the bush is not pruned, only dried or broken shoots are removed. Then the oldest skeletal branches are cut out at ground level. After 20, but only in case of a significant reduction in the yield, the honeysuckle is cut off, leaving stumps of 15-20 cm. It grows well over the season and will be able to bear fruit for another 5-10 years.
Reproduction methods
Honeysuckle can be propagated in different ways. Some are available to amateur gardeners, others are of interest only to breeders:
- Seeds. Germination is good, but berries are obtained only with cross-pollination. Because of this, the seedling does not retain maternal characteristics. This method of propagation is used when creating new varieties; amateur gardeners are not interested in it.
- Cuttings. Honeysuckle can be harvested from green or woody pieces of the stem. Rooting requires a greenhouse or greenhouse and the use of rooting hormones. For amateurs, it is difficult to meet all the necessary conditions; only 20% of the cuttings survive.
- Vertical and horizontal layers. The method is suitable for self-propagation of honeysuckle.
- Dividing the bush. Hobbyist gardeners can easily get several new plants from young, well-grown honeysuckle.
Problems during cultivation
Honeysuckle gets sick so rarely that it is worth mentioning only powdery mildew - it can appear in damp, cool summers. You can fight the fungus using fungicides or the biological product Fitosporin. Honeysuckle pests and protection measures are presented in the table.
Insect pests | Signs of defeat | Methods of protection |
Leaf rollers | During the ripening period of the harvest, caterpillars damage leaves and green shoots | Twice, with an interval of 10-14 days, the bush is treated with an appropriate insecticide or biological preparation. |
Aphids | They affect young leaves and shoots by sucking out cell sap | |
Willow scale insects | Dense elongated growths attach to the bark and draw sap from it |
Among the possible problems, repeated flowering stands out, from which the Sibiryachka variety is not immune. This most often happens if warm weather persists for a long time. Honeysuckle goes dormant early and can spontaneously enter a second wave of vegetation in late summer or early autumn. It will not be possible to get a harvest from late flowers, but the next season will not please you with berries. It is recommended to pick off the buds immediately after finding them.
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