Large-haired Arnold Hawthorn: A guest from America living in Siberia

Arnold Hawthorn is a plant variety native to America, but it feels great in Siberia.A great many nations call hawthorn a “thorn”, since this is indeed one of its main parts. During flowering shrubs have a very beautiful decorative appearance. However, their main value lies in the other - the fruits contain a large amount of vitamins, which give the berries some healing properties.

Arnold Hawthorn has some important differences from other varieties of this plant, namely:

• large size of the crown - decorative trees reach a height of 6 meters;
• large edible fruits reach three centimeters in diameter, have orange shades, flesh is juicy, pinkish, not floury, sweet and sour in taste; each berry contains 3-4 bones;
• the rich chemical composition of the fruit - the berries contain a large amount of vitamin C and carotene.

The trees are blooming at the end of May, and the ripening of berries occurs in the first half of September. Trees begin to harvest about 5 years after planting. Fruit harvest is usually quite high - an adult plant brings up to 6 buckets of large fruits. They can be eaten fresh, as well as making of them preparations for the winter - jam, wine, compotes, or brew them as tea.

The hawthorn of Arnold, like all other varieties of large-fruited hawthorn, has powerful long spines that reach a length of 9-10 cm.

Arnold Hawthorn can be called an unpretentious plant. Only in rare cases, it can be affected by fungal diseases - the leaves are covered with a bloom of gray tint. This can happen if the plant was planted in a shady place with a high level of moisture.

If you plan to grow hawthorn from seeds, be prepared for the fact that for the first few years it will grow very slowly, but already at the age of four or five, its growth rate becomes much faster. The trees begin to bloom for the first time only 5-8 years after planting. If you want to get a fruit tree in a shorter period of time, grow hawthorn through vaccination. Such plants begin to bloom after 3-4 years.

Trees reach their maximum sizes at the age of about 25 years. Each tree can live more than 200 years under favorable conditions.

To speed up the germination of seeds, you can use seeds from half-ripe fruits. The berries should already begin to acquire a characteristic shade of ripening, but they should still remain firm. Also, when selecting the seeds of a plant for sowing, it is necessary to take into account that almost half of them are left without seeds inside.

Hawthorn can also be propagated vegetatively. Often, the trees start up young shoots - these root shoots can be planted and multiplied by this method. Another method of plant reproduction is cuttings, which is carried out in the same way as in all other fruit and berry plants.

Hawthorn bushes should be planted in exactly the same planting pits as fruit tree saplings (apple, pear, etc.) - the distance between the trees should be at least four meters. This plant is very fond of sunny places, but in the shadow areas hawthorn can hurt, bloom badly and not bear fruit.

Hawthorn trees do not require too abundant watering, 1-2 buckets per plant once a month will be enough. In particularly hot and dry periods, watering can be done up to two times a month.

Plants tolerate pruning very well, quickly forming new shoots, so it is possible to give trees interesting shapes, such as a cube or a ball. In this way you can make an interesting unusual note in the design of the site.

Often hawthorn is grown not only for the purpose of obtaining the most useful and very tasty fruits, because hawthorn bushes can also be used as a living barbed hedge. This plant has a very attractive decorative appearance, especially in the fall, so the hawthorn will definitely decorate the site.

As already mentioned, hawthorn fruits contain many nutrients and vitamins - vitamin C and carotene, as well as fructose (which allows diabetics to use hawthorn) and pectin (removes harmful heavy metals from the body).

Hawthorn leaves also have beneficial properties, a decoction of which improves coronary blood circulation, as well as the work of the heart muscle. That is why hawthorn is often recommended for use by older people, if there are no contraindications to use from the attending physician.

No less useful is hawthorn for young people, especially in situations where the heart suffers additional loads due to serious illnesses and stresses.

Hawthorn berries are also effective in treating the biliary tract and liver. In addition, they normalize the function of the thyroid gland and eliminate shortness of breath.

Pay attention to some contraindications to the use of hawthorn berries - it can not be used in the following diseases and conditions:

• hypotension;
• bradycardia;
• increased blood clotting;
• pregnancy and lactation period.

One of the best and most convenient recipes to prepare is hawthorn jam in combination with other berries, prepared in a slow cooker. This recipe collects on the Internet is always only positive reviews.

For cooking will require:

1. hawthorn berries - 1 kg;
2. sugar - 1 kg;
3. raspberries - 300 g;
4. blueberries - 200 g;
5. red currant juice - 250 ml.

In the multicooker, you need to turn on the mode of roasting vegetables and prepare a syrup - to do this, add sugar to the currant juice. In the syrup you need to add all the berries, and after boiling - remove the foam and cover with a lid. After 5 minutes the multicooker can be turned off, but leave the jam to simmer under the lid for another hour. After that, ready-made jam can be poured into cans and rolled up.

How to cook hawthorn jam, see the next video.