Garden buckthorn: when it ripens and how it is harvested

Valuable garden culture - sea-buckthorn, when it ripens, it turns into a real storehouse of vitamins. If you look at the composition of berries, you can find vitamins A, C, E, PP, B, as well as iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, valuable amino acids, pectins and the "hormone of happiness" serotonin.

Cultivation of this culture is widespread throughout the territory of Russia. For a long time, sea buckthorn was used for cooking tinctures, compotes, jam, kissels. When the sea-buckthorn ripens, its fruits turn bright orange, juicy, with sweet and sour taste and pleasant aroma. Depending on the variety and region in which the culture is grown, maturation falls on different months. But on average, from flowering to the appearance of ripe berries passes from 90 to 100 days.

In this case, it is possible to detect fruits only on "female" plants. Like all dioecious, sea-buckthorn is pollinated by wind and insects. Male flowers have a huge amount of pollen, but never form ovaries. Recognize such a tree can be larger, but most often we have to wait for the fruiting period. Seabuckthorn, when ripe, has completely covered with berries branches, hence its unusual name took.

Fruits have a different color and shape. Most often berries are cylindrical, spherical or oblong. The weight of one berry is from 0.5 to 1 gram. At the same time, the color varies from light yellow to bright red. The value of these fruits is great in fresh form. They are recommended for use with gastritis, various heart diseases, beriberi, impaired metabolism, ulcers. External use of oil based on this valuable plant for the treatment of skin diseases, rapid healing of wounds and burns.

The harvest of sea-buckthorn lasts all autumn. The ripened fruits begin to be harvested from August and continue in September. Varieties with a very short peduncle, are amenable to collection is much more difficult. Seabuckthorn, when ripe, becomes very soft. The berry crumples in the hand, with the juice that causes skin irritation. If we consider that at this time the weather becomes cool, then we can imagine how difficult and unpleasant it is to collect these berries.

Because it is much easier to tear off unripe fruit or grow varieties with a long peduncle. It should be noted that the unripened sea buckthorn has not yet accumulated biologically valuable substances in full. Cope with the collection can be using certain techniques. That is why most gardeners wait for the middle of September until the full ripening of berries. Sometimes they use fishing lines, wire in the form of a slingshot, manicure scissors, hang an inverted open umbrella on a branch and cut the fruits in it.

Seabuckthorn, when ripe, has many lateral fruiting processes, they are completely covered with berries. These branches can be cut off safely without damage to the tree, and at home you can safely choose berries. After the harvest, the fruits are usually not washed, as they crumple and lose some of the useful juice. If it is necessary to clean the peel from dust, then it is better to do this before collecting berries - to water the bush from the hose or to wash the cut branches under the shower, allow it to dry out, and then start harvesting.