How to grow honeysuckle variety "Pride of Bakchar"?
Honeysuckle fruits "Pride of Bakchar" have excellent taste qualities. In addition, they have valuable medicinal properties due to their rich content of important trace elements and vitamins. This is a favorite and popular variety of fruit shrubs among gardeners, quite resistant to diseases and various climatic conditions. And yet, in order to grow these berries, you need to get to know the intricacies of its planting and care.
Description and main characteristics
Honeysuckle "Pride of Bakchar" was bred by breeders of the famous nursery "Bakcharskoye" in 2000 and four years later it was recognized all over the world. The variety has many advantages and relatively few disadvantages.
Main characteristics:
- the bush of this honeysuckle is medium-sized: it can reach a height of 1.5 m;
- the shape of the crown is spherical, it takes about 1.2 m in width;
- the branches are long and thin, covered with light bark, they grow randomly: some of them stretch upwards, trying to break through to the sun's rays, others bend down, but they are very flexible and durable;
- the leaves are leathery, matte, dark green, medium in size;
- berries are dark purple, as if covered with wax, weighing up to 1.3 g, they are in the form of a spindle, bean pod, their length can reach 4.5 cm;
- the pulp of the fruit is medium juicy and dense in texture, its taste is sweet and sour with a slight bitterness.
After 5 years, with proper care, one plant can produce about 1.5 kilograms of fruit.The culmination of the yield is the 8th year, when you can collect up to 4 kilograms of berries.
Usually honeysuckle ripens in late July - early August. Ripe fruits crumble, so it is enough to lay a dense film under the bush. It is characteristic that in this case they are not damaged due to the fact that they have dense flesh and skin.
Advantages and disadvantages
The honeysuckle bush "Pride of Bakchar", unfortunately, cannot be called decorative, so it will not decorate the landscape of the site, but it pleases with a good harvest, which can be used to prepare jams, jams and other dessert dishes. Even after freezing, most of the nutrients remain in the berries and the characteristic taste is preserved.
Of the advantages of this variety, it makes sense to highlight the following:
- the plant has large fruits;
- berries are stored for a long time, are not damaged during transportation;
- honeysuckle is tasty and healthy, due to its rich composition, including vegetable acids, vitamins, natural flavonoids, many trace elements;
- it is convenient to harvest the crop, and this can be done in several stages, since the culture has a long fruiting period;
- the variety is immune to pests, diseases, rather low temperatures (up to -8 degrees).
There are also disadvantages, but they are much less than the advantages of cultivating honeysuckle. First of all, it is self-fertility, which will require additional planting of other varieties, the main of which are Bakcharsky Velikan, Strezhevchanka, and Vostorg. Other disadvantages are shedding of ripe berries, which requires timely collection, and a chaotically sprawling crown.
Features of planting and growing
The plant is propagated by layering, which is done in the summer from adult plants - this is the easiest way.You can also breed "Pride of Bakchar" using cuttings, dividing the bush and seeds. The last option is the most troublesome task, which is suitable only for gardeners with many years of experience and experience. You can plant a crop both in spring and in autumn if the seedling was grown in a pot or box. Purchased bushes with a root system without an earthen coma are planted towards the end of August or in September.
Variety "Pride of Bakchar" requires open ground, the best option is loamy or loose, sandy with low acidity. It is not recommended to choose lowlands and wetlands for planting. The plant needs a lot of light, normal watering and the absence of strong winds. If certain requirements for growing a crop are not met, this will immediately affect its quantity and taste: the berries may turn out to be unsweetened or with pronounced bitterness.
Proper landing involves the following actions:
- first, the soil is prepared: the earth is dug up, cleaned of weeds, fertilized with wood ash;
- the dimensions of the fossa should correspond to the size of the root system, and the neck of the root should be flush with the surface;
- the bottom of the hole is covered with drainage material in the form of expanded clay, pebbles or coarse pebbles;
- each seedling should be covered with a mixture of garden soil, 50 g of potassium salt and 3 kg of manure;
- it is desirable that the distance between the sprouts is at least 1.5 meters;
- then the soil around the sprout is compacted and watered, especially in hot weather, abundantly with water at room temperature;
- after that, the shoots of the seedling are removed by about a third of their total length;
- at the end, they cover the soil with mulch from humus, manure, compost.
Experienced farmers advise planting honeysuckle in sunny areas with no drafts and strong winds, as well as near paths and walkways, since the culture tends to crumble when mature.
Proper care
Regular and competent watering is of great importance in the fruiting of the variety. During the appearance of flowers and ovaries, he should be especially careful. On dry days, it takes about 3 buckets of water for one bush to keep it alive. To prevent moisture from evaporating too quickly, mulching is used. If the seedlings are planted in early spring, before the buds open, honeysuckle is watered with water at a temperature of +60 degrees.
Otherwise, caring for the crop is quite simple, but it is necessary to periodically remove weeds, carry out disease prevention, and feed the root system. Fertilizers are not applied for the first 2 years, they begin to do this at the age of 3–4, adding organic compounds to the soil. Mineral fertilizers are required during the flowering period: mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium, or spraying with urea. When the ovary is formed, ash is required.
An important point is the spring pruning. Up to 6 years old, dry and injured shoots are simply removed from honeysuckle, then rejuvenation is carried out in order to increase productivity: the old skeletal branches are cut off completely and a bush is made from the 5 strongest sprouts.
For preventive purposes, Rogor is sprayed twice with a gap of 10 days from the scale insect, the same remedy will help get rid of aphids. "Tedion", "Mavrik" are necessary for the defeat of leaves by a tick. In rainy summers, it is necessary to spray the plants with copper sulfate (10 g per 10 liters of water).
Reviews about the merits of the culture are most often positive, and this is natural: subject to the main requirements for planting, growing and caring for honeysuckle, the gardener always expects a large and high-quality harvest.
In the next video, you can take a closer look at the Pride of Bakchar variety honeysuckle.