For home gardeners
For home gardeners:
- Purchase young plants only at well known and professional growers and retailers. Follow their guidelines.
- Sea buckthorn leaves love sun, plant them in sunny spots.
- Sea buckthorn roots love air and moisture. Plant them on moderately moist an well drained soils with coarse texture. Sandy loam, sandy clay loam, fine pebble and gravel soils on flat terrains is the best choice. Avoid low hollow spots and tops of hills, do not plant on dense, heavy soils with silty and fine texture.
- Prune off 1/3 of shoot tops before planting. The more cut are roots, the more you should shorten shoots as soon as you purchase young plants. Pruning of potted plants is not needed, it refers only to bare roots.
- Fertilising is adjusted to natural fertility of soil. Usually 150 g of complex fertiliser is applied on each young plant right after planting. In coming years topdressing by complex fertilisers up till 300 g per shrub, depending on their age and size is needed.
- Do not place mineral fertilisers down in the planting hole, if you are not 100% sure that grains of fertiliser do not touch roots. Better disperse them upon the soil surface. It might cause some evaporating nitrogen loss, nevertheless roots will be safeguarded from chemical burns.
- Keep young plants well protected from draught and weeds, especially during the first season. A circle of at least 50 cm in diameter around the plant must be loose, moist and clean of weeds.
- Three years old sea buckthorn shrubs start forming root suckers. They might be unwelcome in lawns and flower beds.
- If you plan to pick fruits by fingers instead of harvesting of whole branches, the best choice of variety is ‘Eva’. Her fruits are large and located sparse. Late picked ‘Eva’ fruits are very tasty.
- If you are going to dispart fruits from branches by knives, hooks, loops or similar instruments, make sure they do not hurt bark of shoots. Safe tools detach single fruits. Cutting of whole fruit clusters leave large open wounds
For commercial growers
For commercial growers:
We organize regular seminars and workshops. They are free of charge, though intended only for our customers.
FAQ
FAQ:
- What is the right planting distance between shrubs?
If you plan to pick fruits by fingers instead of harvesting by whole branches, shrubs should be located at least 3 m from each other. Harvesting by whole branches allows to plant closer.
- What is the best age of young plants ?
One or two years, if they are bare root plants. Both ages have advantages and disadvantages. One year old plants are low priced, easier to plant, though they require more frequent weeding and watering during the first season. Two years old plants will start yielding earlier. They are less sensitive against lack of water and competition of weeds, but more expensive, bulky in transportation and harder to plant.
- What is the best ratio between male and female shrubs ?
In orchards 1 male to 8 females. Small groups or individual females require at least one male, better two (one replacer, in case..).
- How to distinguish male and female sea buckthorn ?
It can be seen, when shrubs start blossoming, at the age of three or four years. Male buds are larger, they look like very small pine cones.
- Can wild males be used as pollinators of female varieties ?
Yes, because they blossom simultaneously with described female varieties, except males from different latitudes and mountain districts. Origin of pollen does not influence the quality of fruits, it changes only inheritance of seeds.
- Why sea buckthorn shrubs do not yield ?
Probably because they are of the same gender. Males can be recognized by larger buds. Females can develop single fruits even without direct presence of males.
- Can sea buckthorn varieties be propagated by root suckers?
Yes, but there are some disadvantages of this way of propagation:
1) Root suckers do not have their own feeding roots, they are simply a branch with T-shaped underground junction. Pruning of tops and frequent watering after transplanting is needed to promote developing of self-sufficient root system.
2) It is not easy to determine variety of the sucker, that grows between the group of different mature shrubs. Sea buckthorn spread their roots till 15 m.
3) Root wounds may be infected by soil born diseases
