The palm in the early maturity and early maturity of berry crops in the Russian garden belongs to the honeysuckle, the most light-loving of the garden bushes and berry bushes. Distinctive features of the culture are exfoliating light beige bark, sometimes extending in thin patches, a special love for sunny areas and an amazing ability to thicken if the gardener forgot about pruning for 2-3 years.
The fruits of this excellent berry - a storehouse of useful substances. Their taste depends on the variety and varies from sweet and sour-sweet to spicy-sour with a pronounced bitterness. The large-scale activity of breeders resulted in the emergence of many new promising varieties of this crop, derived from the species of edible honeysuckle. One of them is devoted to this publication.
Meet: Edible honeysuckle, Nymph variety
This newest variety of Pavlovsky selection is recognized as the best garden berry from the Honeysuckle family with excellent taste properties of fruits. Honeysuckle Nymph is an erect tall (more than 2 meters) spreading shrub with an oval crown and strong pubescent shoots with large oval leaves with pointed tips. The variety is late ripe, the berries ripen in late June. Honeysuckle Nymph is distinguished by excellent decorativeness, and it is often used in landscaping and the construction of hedges.
Honeysuckle is one of the most winter-hardy crops that can withstand not only abnormally cold winters, but also insidious spring return frosts that easily kill currant or gooseberry flowers. Statistics claims that it bears fruit annually even in the most risky farming zones - in the Urals, Altai and Siberia.
Honeysuckle Nymph, like other varieties, retains productivity for 25-30 years. The longevity of the bush is a significant advantage of this garden culture.
Fruit
Of particular note are the fruits - blue-violet berries with a thick waxy coating, elongated in shape and with an uneven tuberous surface. Fruits are large fusiform, sometimes bending, reaching a length of 2.5-3 cm and a weight of 0.9-1.2 g. Their taste is noticeable - sweet and sour with a pleasant astringency. The advantage of the variety is the fact that the berries are firmly attached to the branches and do not fall off, which many varieties of honeysuckle sin . It is large-fruity and taste properties that the Nymph honeysuckle compares favorably. Reviews gardeners who have already become acquainted with this variety are unanimous: the culture is really good.
We will not list all the advantages of honeysuckle fruits, we only note that rare garden plants are compared with these gray-blue berries in terms of their saturation with useful substances that act on the human body as a healing balm. We add that the Nympha honeysuckle variety is universal: the fruits are excellently suited both for fresh consumption and for any culinary processing or canning.
Productivity and Pollinators
A very average crop yield (up to 1.3 kg per bush) increases markedly with the planting of different pollinating varieties nearby. Varieties with the same flowering periods are planted with such a crop as Nympha honeysuckle so that cross pollination is as productive as possible. The most successful in this role are the late-ripening varieties Amphora and Violet, as well as Viola, Morena and Blue Spindle. Honeysuckle Nymph, pollinators listed above are planted in a permanent place with an interval between them of at least 1.2-2 m.
We learn about the rules for planting this berry shrub.
Landing: optimal timing and preparation
Honeysuckle is unpretentious, it can be planted throughout the entire spring-summer season, with the exception of the period when shoots are actively growing (May – June). But nevertheless, autumn is considered the best time for planting a bush . It is better to do this from the end of September to mid-October: before the onset of cold weather, the seedling manages to take root and survive the harsh winter time.
Honeysuckle develops well and bears fruit in areas illuminated and protected from the winds with neutral fertile loams or sandy loams. The soil at the selected place is preliminarily prepared: digged and lime, leveling the acidity indicator, if necessary. The seedling is also prepared for planting: inspect the roots, removing rotten or broken. Long roots shorten to 25-30 cm.
Honeysuckle Nymph: Landing and Care
Landing pits for culture are dug up, focusing on the size of the root system of the seedling. Typically, the pit sizes are standard - 0.4 x 0.4 m. They are filled by a third with an earthen mixture from the surface fertile soil layer with 10 kg of humus, 100 g of superphosphate, 300 g of ash, 30 g of potassium sulfate, spreading with a small mound. The seedling is placed on its top, carefully spreading the roots along the makeshift slopes, and is covered with prepared soil. The root neck of the plant is buried 3-5 cm from the soil surface. Having well compacted the soil around the bush, young honeysuckle is abundantly watered. In order for moisture to reach the roots of the culture, a roller is held around the stem around the circumference to hold water. After absorbing moisture, the soil under the plant is mulched with humus, peat, wood chips or plant debris.
Culture Care Stages
Like many garden crops, the Nymph honeysuckle described in the article needs watering, loosening the soil, timely top dressing, mandatory pruning, and protection from pests and diseases. Honeysuckle is responsive to care, proper care affects the increase in yield and overall decorative bush.
In the first three years, caring for the crop consists of high hilling in spring, watering and weeding, or mulching. Pruning is not performed during this period of time; young plants do not need it.
Watering
The culture requires regular moderate watering, the intensity of which increases in hot, dry weather. Particular attention is paid to the end of spring, when moisture becomes necessary for high-quality fruit formation. Lack of water affects the taste of the berries and the size of the crop. In mild, non-hot weather with moderate rains, the honeysuckle edible Nymph should be watered 3-4 times during the season. Watering rate - 10-12 liters per bush.
Loosening and weeding
After rain or watering, careful loosening of the soil under the shrub, removal of weeds and fragments of their roots is recommended. When loosening, it is important not to overdo it, since the root system of the bush is superficial, the roots are located dangerously close to the soil level. Therefore, the soil is not loosened deeper than 5-8 cm.
An alternative to periodic cultivation is mulching. This preserves moisture and inhibits the development of weeds, which significantly saves the time and strength of the gardener.
Top dressing
In the first two years, the young culture is not fed, it lacks the nutrients introduced during planting. Then fertilizers are applied annually, giving preference to good organic matter - rotted manure, compost or humus. In the spring, before the swelling of the kidneys, ammonium nitrate (15 g / 1 m²) or 30 g of urea under the bush is introduced into the soil, previously dissolved in water. In anticipation of winter, the shrub is prepared for wintering, feeding 5 kg of compost, 100 g of ash and 40 g of superphosphate per square meter of land.
When to prune a nymph honeysuckle
Pruning of the bush is carried out from the 3-4th year after planting, when the honeysuckle begins to thicken. It is better to do it in the fall. First, zero stems are cut, growing directly from the ground. Then the diseased, broken, dried or very short branches are removed, since they will not bear fruit. For quality fruit formation, it is necessary to thin out the bush so that the sun penetrates through foliage and shoots.
Berries are formed on strong year-old stems, therefore, to ensure a generous harvest, the shoots of the current year are not touched. Stems with weak growth truncate if their base and middle part are visually strong. Unproductive or drying branches are also cut out at the base. Unsuccessfully growing shoots that interfere with the proper cultivation of the soil in near-stem circles are also removed. The old bush is rejuvenated by conducting a total pruning of all stems, leaving only young growth.
In the spring, sanitary pruning is necessary, the purpose of which is the removal of frost-stricken, broken or diseased shoots. By trimming, they increase the decorativeness and increase the fruit production of such a crop as Nympha honeysuckle. The photos presented in the article not only demonstrate the exquisite elegance of this garden beauty, but also emphasize her very high potential in returning the harvest.
Features of fruiting and harvesting
Honeysuckle Nymph is an enduring variety, so you can take your time to harvest in stages, as the berries ripen. Gardeners who know the variety firsthand are advised to wait 5-7 days and harvest in one go.
The fruits of the honeysuckle are covered with a delicate thin skin that is damaged during rough handling. Therefore, when collecting use shallow dishes, laying berries in a thin layer. The nymph honeysuckle is no exception to the general rule. Reviews of gardeners emphasize their delicate structure and the impossibility of long-term storage. The harvest is processed almost immediately, for more than 2-3 days the berry is not stored even in the refrigerator.
Follow-up care
After the crop is harvested, top dressing is carried out. The culture is still moderately watered and cut shoots, sharply dislodged from the shape of a bush. If necessary, the plant is treated from insect pests. As a rule, they bypass her, but sometimes attack. Do not mind eating honeysuckle caterpillar caterpillar berries, and leaves - aphids, miners, sawflies, false shields and leafworms. Against insects that damage foliage, insecticides are used, for example, Inta-Vir, Decis or Aleksar; against caterpillars of the fingerfly - “Actellik”, “Rogor” or “Confidor”.
Honeysuckle breeding
An unpretentious berry is successfully propagated vegetatively and by seeds. Gardeners prefer to propagate honeysuckle with cuttings (green or lignified) or layering, since these methods will allow you to get the first harvest 2-3 years after the rooting of the planting material, fruits from seed propagation will have to wait 6-8 years. In addition, it must be remembered that this method does not always guarantee the transfer of varietal traits of the mother plant. Nymph bush division can be carried out when the plant is 6 years old. Ten-year-old bushes are already difficult to divide, which is facilitated by the rapid growth of the crop, therefore layering and cuttings are the most acceptable and productive methods of propagation of honeysuckle.
Cuttings are prepared for rooting in the spring, before the buds swell, from strong annual shoots, the diameter of which is at least 8 mm. The length of the cuttings is 18-20 cm. They are planted in a greenhouse, each deepening by 10-12 cm. 2-3 growth buds must be left above the ground. Rooted cuttings within a month.
An even simpler way of reproducing Nymphs is by layering. It is carried out as follows: at the beginning of summer, the soil is loosened under honeysuckle and a small groove is prepared, in which a strong shoot growing in the lower part of the bush is laid, they are pinned to the ground with a wire bracket and sprinkled with soil. Until next spring, they forget about the layering, and when it comes, the secluded cuttings are separated from the uterine bush by secateurs and planted.
We have listed the propagation features of such a crop as honeysuckle. Variety Nymph (reviews of gardeners growing shrubs confirm this opinion) is unpretentious, decorative and bears fruit annually, giving a good harvest of healthy berries.