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Not so long ago, sunberries, or blueberries forte, began to be grown in garden plots. Few people know about it yet, but there are already both supporters and opponents of this culture. For the former, the berry is healthy and tasty, for the latter it is a weed. It is quite possible that this opinion was formed due to the purchase of fruits from careless sellers who replaced real berries with low-quality goods. In this regard, it is worth knowing what a sunberry is and how to grow the crop yourself.
Features of growing sunberry berries
The plant has a powerful spreading bush, reaching a height of 1.5 m. Its stem is thick, faceted. Because of the similarity of the fruit, sunberries are called garden blueberries. The culture is resistant to cold and can tolerate light frosts. The inflorescences of the plant are small, similar to pepper flowers. The size of the fruit is comparable to a cherry; there are up to 15 pieces in a brush.
The berries are grown using seeds. Adult plants can be obtained by self-sowing, but their germination rate is low and the growing season is long, so the best option is to grow sunberries from seeds through seedlings.
How to grow sunberry from seeds
Sunberry, or garden nightshade, as it is also called, does not have a variety of varieties; to obtain seeds, it is better to contact a specialized store or friends who already have a new product on their site and can share the seeds. Growing sunberry (garden nightshade) is a simple process. This fairly fast-growing annual produces a large harvest of berries at the end of the season. But sowing seeds in open ground is undesirable, since the temperate climate and long growing season may not allow the sunberry berries to ripen before frost sets in. Growing using seedlings is the only sure way to guarantee a harvest.
When to sow sunberry seedlings
The timing of sowing sunberry seedlings depends on the climatic conditions of a particular region. For the Moscow region, the period from mid-February to mid-March can be considered optimal for growing seedlings. It must be remembered that seedlings are planted in open ground after the threat of return frosts has passed. By this time, the young plants will have developed and become stronger. Seedlings must have at least 6 true leaves.
Preparation of soil and planting containers
To plant sunberry seeds, you need to prepare containers. In this capacity, you can use boxes, containers, and plastic cassettes. Regardless of choice, they must have drainage holes.If there are none or their size is small, then during cultivation excess moisture will accumulate, which will lead to rotting of the roots. The optimal hole size is 3 mm. Through them, not only does excess moisture drain out, but oxygen also penetrates into the soil to the roots. It is worth installing a tray with expanded clay under the containers to prevent water from flooding the window sill.
Containers that have been used many times for growing seedlings are capable of accumulating pathogenic microflora. Wooden containers should be treated with fungicidal preparations, plastic containers should be washed with hot water or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Sunberry tolerates picking well, so it doesn’t matter what containers are used - shared or separate.
Sunberry is not picky about soil composition, but peat should not be used for growing seedlings, since the crop does not tolerate acidic soil. Sunberry seeds are sown in a light substrate with a neutral environment. For these purposes, you can use a universal soil mixture for seedlings. Drainage is placed at the bottom of the prepared container and soil is poured.
Seed preparation
Sunberry seeds have poor germination, so before growing berries you need to prepare for sowing:
- Disinfect in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes. to protect against fungal infections.
- Rinse.
- Scarify sunberry seeds by placing them in a jar with sand and shaking them several times to break the dense shell and facilitate germination.
- Place on damp gauze until it swells, keeping an eye on the humidity.
The seeds are ready for sowing after 5 days.
Planting sunberry seedlings
When growing sunberries from seeds at home using seedlings, you must follow certain instructions:
- Prepare boxes with a drainage expanded clay layer and a nutrient substrate sprinkled on it.
- Sow sunberry seeds 4 cm apart and planted 5 mm deep.
- Cover with glass or plastic film to create an optimal microclimate for growing seedlings.
- Transfer the containers to a warm place with a temperature of 25 ⁰C and diffused light until the seeds germinate.
- It is necessary to moisten the soil periodically to prevent it from drying out.
Seedling care
After sunberry berries emerge, cover should be removed from boxes and containers. Seedlings are unpretentious in cultivation and do not require special care. It must be sprayed with warm water twice a day. As the seedlings grow, they switch to root watering. The soil must not be allowed to dry out. During short daylight hours, plants require additional lighting, as they are very sensitive to lack of lighting. Periodically, it is worth turning the pots of sunberry seedlings so that they do not become overstretched and become one-sided. Seedlings can be fed with special mineral fertilizers for seedlings. As soon as the third sheet is formed, picking is carried out if necessary. For further planting and growing sunberries, or blueberries forte, in open ground, the seedlings must be hardened off. For this purpose, they are taken out onto the balcony or veranda for two weeks, gradually extending the time spent in the fresh air.
How to plant sunberries in open ground
Seedlings after germination develop quite quickly and after a month reach a height of 30 cm. After the threat of frost has passed, they can be transferred for further cultivation in open ground.Even if the foliage has turned somewhat yellow, after planting the sunberry seedling will quickly gain strength and develop. Plants should be placed in pre-prepared holes, adding the necessary soil substrate and fertilizer.
Landing dates
Planting dates depend on the climatic conditions of the growing region. After the soil warms up to 12 - 15 ⁰C and the threat of return frosts has passed, it is time to plant garden nightshade bushes. Growing sunberries in the Moscow region in open ground begins in late May-early June. You can plant in the greenhouse a couple of weeks earlier. If there are temporary shelters that can be used to protect plants from short-term drops in temperature, seedlings can be placed in a permanent place 10 days earlier.
Preparing the landing site
To obtain a bountiful harvest of berries, you need to choose the right site for growing sunberries. The plant prefers well-lit, open, sun-warmed places. The area must be protected from drafts and strong winds. It is recommended to grow sunberry, or garden nightshade, after cucumbers and zucchini. If the predecessors were peppers, potatoes or tomatoes, such a plot should be abandoned. Otherwise, the plants will feel poorly, bloom weakly, and dry out. The area must be dug up to the depth of a spade bayonet and ridges must be made. The soil should be loose and light.
How to Plant Black Nightshade Sunberry
The growing area is made level, after which holes are prepared on it. Their size should correspond to the volume of the sunberry root system, taking into account the earthen ball. After planting, the berries grow, so holes are made at a distance of 1 m and 80 cm between rows.If they are located closer together, the bushes will thicken and interfere with each other. Gardeners recommend placing sand or fine gravel at the bottom to serve as drainage, and also adding humus. Immediately before planting, sunberry seedlings are watered abundantly so that they can be painlessly removed from the container and placed in the hole. The root system is covered with soil and compacted a little. Young plants are watered again and the tree trunk circle is mulched with rotted manure.
Sunberry care
Sunberry is not known for being capricious. Caring for the crop is not difficult. After planting, regular moistening, loosening of the soil, and hilling are necessary. Mulching the soil helps retain moisture and protect the plant from weeds. Three times throughout the entire season, the bushes are fed with mineral fertilizers or mullein infusion. At the beginning of summer, sunberries begin to bloom and continue until frost. The bushes do not require pinching. It is believed that growing garden nightshade is no more difficult than growing potatoes.
Watering and fertilizing
Sunberry is a drought-resistant berry that does not require abundant watering. But it is necessary to ensure that the soil does not dry out. Irrigation is carried out early in the morning, at 6 o'clock, or in the evening, at 20 o'clock. For irrigation, use warm (about 22 ⁰C), settled water. You should be guided by the top layer of soil: as soon as it is dry, it needs to be moistened.
Gardeners believe that sunberry does not need special feeding. It can produce a rich harvest of berries on ordinary soil. To guarantee the result of cultivation, it is worthwhile to fertilize three times in the form of mullein infusion, the application of complex mineral fertilizers, and garden herbal infusions.
Weeding and loosening
If the soil is dense and heavy, the sunberry bush will not develop well. The soil should be loose. For this purpose, weeding is carried out at least once every two weeks and the rows are loosened. At first after planting, they do this to a depth of 10 cm. Later, in order not to damage the roots, up to 8 cm. They try to loosen heavy soil deeper, but only in places where the root system has not penetrated. Mulching helps retain moisture and maintain optimal temperatures for growing.
After the bushes grow, loosening is carried out simultaneously with hilling. Thanks to it, additional roots are formed that promote the development of sunberries and accelerate the ripening of berries. Hilling up can be replaced by adding humus.
Protection from diseases and pests
The chemical composition of sunberries contains silver. The element serves as a shield for diseases and infections. The plant is not very susceptible to the main diseases of nightshades, but under unfavorable climatic conditions, cultivation is complicated by infection.
Bacterial cancer
The leaf blades and branches of the sunberry are covered with brown cracks and ulcers. Even berries are affected by yellow spots, opening the entry of infection into the seeds. The reason is unfavorable climatic conditions and bacteria. There are no means to combat the disease; affected bushes are urgently removed and destroyed.
White spot
The main signs of the disease are the appearance of dirty white spots on leaves, fruits, and branches. The cause of the pathology is excessive environmental humidity at high temperatures.
Brown spot
It manifests itself in a change in the color of the lower leaves of the sunberry bush from green to olive and even dark brown. Bordeaux mixture is used to combat spotting.
Blossom rot
The disease affects unripe berries. Their tops turn brown and the fruits fall off prematurely. One of the reasons may be non-compliance with the moisture regime and drying out of the soil.
Sometimes planting and growing sunberry berries is overshadowed by an attack by spider mites, cruciferous flea beetles, Colorado potato beetles, aphids, and midges. Gardeners do not recommend the use of insecticides, suggesting the use of folk remedies in pest control - infusion of onions, celandine, garlic, hot pepper, soap.
Other events
The flowering and formation of blueberry forte berries continues throughout the growing season, until frost. The formation of the sunberry bush is not required, with the exception of the periods of setting berries and autumn. At this time, the buds are still appearing, but the upcoming frosts require stopping the growing season of the plant so that all its forces can be directed to the ripening of the already formed crop. Experts advise plucking the shoots and removing all the buds to speed up ripening.
Early frosts are not particularly dangerous for sunberry bushes, but to be sure, you can cover them with non-woven material.
In order for the sunberry berries to be as large as possible, during the period of active flowering, some of the inflorescences are pinched. During cultivation, the plants do not require staking, but the massive ripening of the berries makes the branches heavy, as a result of which they can fall to the ground. To prevent the crop from dying, it is worth making sling supports for shoots weighed down with large berries.
When to Harvest Sunberries
By the end of September, the sunberry crop is ripe. When ripe, the berries become soft and deep black in color. They are not prone to shedding. In order for the berries to ripen, you can hang the bushes in a ventilated area.In a week the fruits will be ripe.
To improve the taste, you can leave the berries on the bush overnight when the temperature drops below zero. Their ripening is possible even after cultivation: they need to be placed on paper in a cool, dry place.
The taste of fresh berries is very specific. Before processing sunberries, they are advised to be doused with boiling water. After this procedure, the quality improves somewhat, and the nightshade taste disappears. Most of all, the berry is intended for processing - making preserves, jams, marmalade. To preserve beneficial properties, heat treatment should be minimal. Only in this case does dessert serve as a remedy for hypertension, migraines, osteochondrosis, asthma, and epilepsy.
The juice obtained from the fruits of garden nightshade is a natural antiseptic that helps with sore throat. Sunberry leaves and branches have healing properties. However, as with any nightshade plant, their use must be done with great caution.
How to prepare sunberry seeds
Sunberries are easily propagated by self-seeding, but this growing method is not very good because seedlings appear very late.
Seeds can be purchased at a specialty store to obtain a proven, pure variety.
It is possible to obtain seeds for next year on your own. For this purpose, you need to take ripe berries, grind them, dilute them with water and pass the resulting pulp through a sieve or cheesecloth. After this, rinse the seeds and dry well. The seed material for growing sunberries next year is ready.
Conclusion
Despite the benefits and properties of the plant, sunberry berries have not yet been grown en masse in Europe and Russia. She is a rare visitor to garden plots, although interest in blueberry forte is growing.
With all the beneficial properties of the berry, you should be careful about its consumption and use in the treatment of pathologies, remembering to consult a doctor.
If you don’t like the taste of the berries, then there is another reason for growing sunberries - decorating the site, since during the fruiting period they are very decorative.
