Honeysuckle Leningrad Giant: description of the variety, planting and care, breeding

Honeysuckle is a unpretentious, plastic early-ripening culture, which is an amazing find of modern gardening. Among the huge variety of varieties are decorative and edible, a vivid representative of which is the honeysuckle of the Leningrad Giant.

Variety description

Leningrad Giant is characterized by early maturation and can grow on one place for about 30 years. The average height of a strong upright bush is 1.5 meters with a slaboroskidistoy diameter, an average thickening of the crown in 1.6 meters. Bark - brown, with a shade of gray or red - easily separates from the trunk with longitudinal narrow strips. The leaves are dull-green, rounded, weakly pubescent. The root system is friable, of a superficial type.

Honeysuckle The Leningrad giant, whose variety is of interest to most gardeners, is a winter-hardy plant. Flowers and young ovaries can carry spring frosts to -7 ^o C, and wood and roots - up to -40 ^o C.

The plant is practically not prone to infection with diseases and pests. Consequently, it does not need chemical treatments, which at the output gives environmentally friendly and safe berries. The variety was harvested at the Pavlovsk Experimental Station in St. Petersburg (Russia) in a seed method. The initial form is Kamchatka wild honeysuckle.

Taste characteristics

Honeysuckle edible Leningrad giant is characterized by large dark blue berries up to 4 cm in length. The average weight of each is from 1.3 to 1.5 grams. The shape is elongated, with a round base, a flat top. Coating with a gray wax coating is average. The skin is thin, dense. Pulp of fibrous consistency, sweet and sour, delicate, dessert taste, with a strong aroma. The bitterness inherent in the remaining varieties of honeysuckle is absent. One bush can yield up to 3 kg of selected ripe berries; The maximum figure is about 5 kg. Fruits ripen unevenly, from the middle of June to the end of July. On the branches are large clusters, which is why they are easy to assemble. The weakness is weak. When harvesting, one should take into account the high coloring ability of the juice of honeysuckle, which has a dark ruby color and leaves heavily washable stains on clothes. A variety of universal use, used in home preservation (jelly, jam, jams, compotes), as well as for medicinal purposes. Juice plants are often used to tint light compotes of white fruit and berries. Berries of honeysuckle are good at freezing, while they retain their healing properties.

Honeysuckle The Leningrad giant, whose yield has an average index, grows very slowly in comparison with other varieties for the first few years, since it spends the main forces on the development of the underground part. In the phase of full fruit bearing the bush comes in 2-3 years from the moment of planting.

Honeysuckle Leningrad Giant: Pollinators

This variety is self-fertile and fades, not giving ovaries. Therefore, to ensure fructification in one area with it is recommended to grow 3-5 different varieties of pollinators (for example, Morena, Malvina, Blue spindle, Gzhelka).

Growth conditions

Honeysuckle The Leningrad giant, whose description indicates that the plant is unpretentious in home gardening, grows well in sunny areas. To the soil the plant is undemanding, can grow on any soil, but prefers light, moistened earth. Before planting and after it every 2-3 years, it is recommended to carry out fertilizing with organic and mineral fertilizers.

Bushes should be planted at a distance of not less than 1.5 meters from each other. Optimal will be their alternation with dogwood, barberry or black currant. Due to the decorative appearance, the honeysuckle looks beautiful as a hedge.

Medicinal properties of honeysuckle

According to gardeners, honeysuckle Leningrad giant is a convenient and easy-to-care plant. Culture is characterized by medicinal properties. Its fruits - a source of useful micronutrients and vitamins - is recommended for people of any age, since they:

• Excrete heavy metals and salts from the body;
• Normalize the work of the liver and gastrointestinal tract;
• Reduce blood pressure;
• Are an effective antipyretic agent.

Medicinal properties, in addition to fruits, have flowers and branches of the plant. So, a flower decoction in folk medicine has long been used to treat headaches and dizziness. A strong diuretic effect is a decoction of the leaves and branches of the plant. In Siberian peoples, the juice of berries of honeysuckle is used in the treatment of skin diseases, suppurating wounds, and with a decoction of the leaves rinse the sore throat. Powder from dried leaves, characterized by antiseptic properties, is used to sprinkle wounds.

Recommendations for planting

For planting honeysuckle, the Leningrad giant needs to be able to choose the right seedlings. It is not recommended to purchase adult specimens above 1.5 meters, as they do not adapt well and do not bear fruit for a long time. For cross-pollination, in addition to the variety, several other plant varieties are to be planted.

Honeysuckle The Leningrad giant, whose description prompts to acquire such unpretentious plant on its own plot, is better planted in the middle of October; Vegetative processes are completed already in the middle of the summer season, from the same period begins the laying of the apical buds. Spring planting is recommended before the beginning of the vegetative period, because late-spring activities negatively affect the survival of the bush.

In the planting pit (size 40 x 40 x 40 cm), humus, wood ash, potassium sulfate and double superphosphate must be added . Then build a small mound, install a plant on it, spread the roots well, and then sprinkle them with loose soil. The young plant should be sloughed so that the location of the root neck was 5 cm below the ground level. The earth around the seedlings should be well tamped and watered abundantly. Then planted honeysuckle is recommended to be sealed with humus, rotted foliage or peat.

In the first 3 years of planting, the honeysuckle is edible, planted and nursed, the reproduction of which is not difficult even for beginning gardeners, needs timely irrigation and propolok from weeds. The water is delivered 3-4 times per season at the rate of 10 liters for each bush. For qualitative growth and abundant fruiting, it is recommended to carry out fertilizing every year: on a bucket of humus in spring and in the autumn period from 100 to 150 grams of wood ash per plant. The introduction of nitrogen preparations should be made early, practically in the process of snow melting. Consumption for each bush is a tablespoon of urea, diluted in 10 liters of water.

Pruning of honeysuckle

Honeysuckle bush The Leningrad giant is recommended to be cut off 6-7 years after planting. This event is of a sanitary nature, which amounts to the removal of damaged, withered and diseased branches. You should not trim the tops of young shoots due to the presence of flower buds on them - the basis for the formation of the crop of the next year. In order to continuously stimulate an annual increase, every 2-3 years it is desirable to remove 1-2 unproductive branches.

For perennial (from 15-20 years) specimens, cardinal rejuvenating pruning, carried out at a height of half a meter from the surface of the soil, will be effective. Due to the active growth of young trees, the shrub can be fully rehabilitated within 2-3 years. The most optimal period for cutting is autumn (the period after the fall of the leaves) or early spring (March).

Pests and diseases

Honeysuckle is edible, planting and care, the reproduction of which practically does not require the investment of material means, is characterized by high resistance to pest infestation. Sometimes on the plant there may be the presence of a leaf roller, a honeysuckle, aphids, scutes, mites. For their destruction should be applied treatment with potent drugs, such as "Confidor", "Actellik".

In conditions of high humidity, the Leningrad giant occasionally is exposed to powdery mildew. In the fight against this disease, effective use of fungicides "Topaz", "Fundazol", "Skola" and others.

Honeysuckle The giant of Leningrad, the cultivation of which is a fascinating process, will be pleased for many years with a tasty, useful harvest, rich flowering in the spring and an attractive decorative view. Honeysuckle berries are the very first vitamins after winter.