When and how to collect sea buckthorn?

Sea buckthorn contains a record amount of vitamins E and C, as well as vitamins of group B, manganese, iron, healthy oils, serotonin. Its use is indicated to strengthen the immune system, for colds, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. However, in order to use the berries to bring maximum benefit, it is important to properly collect and store them.

Determining the time of gathering the berries is important because the benefits of the fruit depend on it, as well as the simplicity of their assembly. The time when you can start harvesting depends on the plant variety: there are early-maturing varieties, and there are those that ripen by mid or late September.

The beginning of fruiting sea buckthorn begins at 2-6 year after planting, more accurate dates are called on the basis of the variety and conditions of care. Earlier, Siberian varieties start to bear fruit, later - Caucasian ones.

Sea buckthorn belongs to wind-pollinated plants, and there are bushes on which only female or male pistils are laid. For pollination, it is recommended to plant both female and male sea buckthorn at the rate of 1-2 male species per 4-5 female shrubs. Male plants should be planted on the side from which the wind often blows on the site.

It is important for creating high-quality crop to create suitable conditions for the shrub. Sea buckthorn likes friable land, so on peaty and clay soils it is better to arrange drainage using sand. It is recommended to add lime to acidic soils. You should not place a shrub near trees with a voluminous crown, and also plant next to currants, potatoes and strawberries - plants will depress each other.

Accelerate the beginning of fruiting allows each spring to make complex fertilizer for fruit trees and pruning young shoots that appear around the mother seedling.

The signal that it is time to harvest, is the intense coloring of the berries - they get a bright orange, even carrot shade. Ripe sea buckthorn berries cling tightly to the branch. If you gently press on the berry, it is amenable to compression, and with more active force juice flows out of the fruit. In general, the assembly period lasts from late August to mid-October.

• Early ripe varieties usually ripen in early August. However, there are exceptions, for example, the sea-buckthorn “Chui” only by the end of August is saturated with useful components as much as possible and demonstrates the best taste palette.
• Late ripening varieties harvested in late September, there are varieties of sea buckthorn, which are removed after the first frost.

The timing of sea buckthorn assembly also depends on the further processing method. If fresh berries are to be consumed or it is planned to make jams and fruit drinks from them, then they should be collected in late August and early September, as soon as the fruits ripen. During this period, they contain the maximum amount of ascorbic acid and have a fairly dense structure.

Withstanding the berries for another 4-5 days after ripening on the branches, you can cook jams and marmalade from them. For example, for sea buckthorn oil, ripe fruits are recommended to stand on the branches for about two weeks. In these berries will be lower in vitamin C, but the oil yield is greater.

The complexity of picking sea buckthorn is due to the peculiarities of the appearance - small berries that have a short stalk tightly cling to the branches. Separating a berry without damaging the skin is rather difficult.However, today there are varieties characterized by a longer, large stem, which somewhat simplifies the process of picking berries.

The following recommendations will help to harvest correctly.

• Before work, you need to protect your hands with gloves, because sea buckthorn has thorns that can injure them. It is recommended to protect the clothes with an apron or not to wear a new, expensive one - the juice of the berries can hopelessly spoil the thing.
• Start collecting from the top of the bush, gradually moving to the bottom.
• Gardeners invented a lot of devices and devices that simplify the assembly process, in addition, similar devices can be found in specialized stores. More about them will be discussed in the next chapters of the article.

The easiest way, of course, is to pick berries by hand. However, with this method, there is a high probability of crushing of fruits and their damage. Prevent this by using nail scissors. This method is time consuming and laborious, in the process you can prick your hands on the thorns of the bush.

A common method is cutting the branches with fruits: they can be frozen and, if necessary, picked the right amount of berries. If butter or other products are prepared from the berries on a branch, they are robbed at home in more comfortable conditions.

Cut the branches should be done correctly, otherwise you can harm the plant. The following technology can be used for fruiting sea buckthorn for more than 4–5 years: shears cut up to 25% of the branches while keeping the stumps in 5 cm. The shoots that emerged from hemp after 2-3 seasons will start to bear fruit. A year later, part of the branch is cut off, remaining in the previous season. This method not only facilitates the process of assembling the fruit, but also has a rejuvenating effect for the plant. Branches need to cut it with shears, and not break off.

Commercially, the berry is removed by cutting branches. In this form, it is transported. To get whole berries sometimes shrub shake or tap, but this method can only be used for fruits that have suffered frost - just slightly frostbitten.

The choice of the method of assembly should be carried out taking into account further technology storage or processing of berries. If it is important to preserve the integrity of the shell and the juiciness of the berries, then they are cut off on the branches. In the future, branches can be hung in a well-ventilated area or freeze. In this form, the crop will continue until spring.

If the berries are consumed fresh, then you need to choose a technology of assembly, in which the fruits are not crushed. For jam and jams, you can not worry too much about maintaining the integrity of the berries. Of course, the fruit should also be removed with caution. Otherwise, juice will flow out of them.

To pick the berries, as already mentioned, savvy gardeners invented a lot of tools. Consider the most famous of them.

• Use forcepswhich cut the stem - the process promises to be long.
• Device "cobra", which is a thin, but rather rigid wire, which at one end has a loop - a hook, at the second - a wooden handle. A branch with fruits is inserted into the loop, pressed and dragged down by a handle with a sharp movement. The peaches are cut, and intact fruits are poured into the container.

• A steel wire scraper (for example, an old spring) that has a knee-shaped bend. The latter forms 2 teeth, which are closed in a ring when the spring is compressed. To activate the device, the scraper must be put on the branch and the spring compressed: the branch with the berries will be in the ring. By advancing the scraper, remove the berries. Under the tree you need to lay an old umbrella in the opened form or pure polyethylene, so that the berries pour there. This method is considered one of the most effective, because it allows for a day to take up to 20-25 kg of crop.
• The device "tube", made from tin cans. She needs to shape the tube (4 mm in diameter, 100 mm long) and wrap with insulating tape, keeping a small distance along the edges. At the bottom of the tube is fixed plastic bag. It is simple to use the device - the upper part of it should be brought to the stem, cutting the berry. Fruits will roll down the tube and assemble into a package. The latter as the filling changes or emptied.
• Slingshot, in which instead of the gum stretched fishing line. Holding the branch with one hand, you need to put a slingshot to the part that is closer to the trunk and with smooth, but confident movements should lead the slingshot towards you. The line will cut the stalks, maintaining the integrity of the skin.

• Crest - A special device that can be found in stores for gardeners or make your own hands. Thanks to the rare teeth, the device lets the leaves through, but cuts off the berries. Removing sea buckthorn in this way can damage it, so the method is not used very often. This option is good if the integrity of the berries is not fundamentally preserved (fruits are collected for the preparation of oils, jams, juices, etc.).
• Special combine, which can have various dimensions and be made of different materials. Common to all devices is the presence of cutting elements in the form of several arcs and the built-in compartment where the fruits fall.

If there is no time to harvest, and the berries are meant for making juice, you can put on clean rubber or plastic gloves and put the pots under the bush. After that, you should hold your hands on the branches, squeezing the berries and squeezing the juice out of them. For an hour this method can collect up to 3-4 liters of juice.

If the berries are supposed to be transported, then the branches with berries should be cut and placed in wooden boxes. In this form, the crop is stored and transported better than berries in bulk.

It is important to know the following:

• If the berries are cut on the branches, and then removed at home, the young shoots and leaves of the plant can also be left for storage. They contain titanine, a large amount of ascorbic acid, tannins.
• Leave only gentle shoots and leaves. If we talk about the purposeful gathering of the latter, then the best time for this is from the end of May to the beginning of June.
• If you pick berries from high-growing branches, it is convenient to use a small bucket as a container, which is suspended from the neck on a rope.
• It is not recommended to wash harvested berries, in order not to crush them. Therefore, before collecting the fruits, it is advisable to wash the bush with a sprinkler.

For information on when and how to collect sea buckthorn, see the following video.