In the ranking of the most useful berries, sea buckthorn, without a doubt, will take first place. Its fruits are so rich in vitamins and minerals that it can be safely attributed to medicinal plants.
As for vitamins, she is a champion in carotene content - provitamin A. In addition, it contains a large list of trace elements: iron, titanium, aluminum, manganese, boron, sulfur, silicon. Vitamins B and C contained in berries, malic acid and the famous
sea buckthorn oil are healthy
.The source of medicinal substances are sea buckthorn fruits, seeds and leaves. The only drawback of the plant is the difficulty in picking berries: they tightly surround a branch with thorns. We have to carefully pluck them, knock them down on the spreading panels. Sometimes branches with berries are simply cut off, to be robbed later. Berries should be ripe, bright orange, slightly soft.
The fruits of sea buckthorn ripen in late autumn, and in the northern regions the harvest comes after frost. It is better to do this in the morning or in the evening, when the berries are frostbitten and not crushed. They are well stored in frozen form (useful properties are not lost until six months).
The Altai experimental gardening station is engaged in the breeding of new varieties of sea buckthorn. She recommends the best of them for cultivation. These are such as:
- Sea buckthorn of the Altai News variety. The variety has gained popularity. It has no thorns and ripens earlier - at the end of August. A short stalk is considered a disadvantage, so the berries are easily crushed when harvested.
- Sea buckthorn variety "gift of Katun" is also devoid of thorns. But its fruits are denser, which is more convenient when collecting and storing berries.
- The "golden cob" sea buckthorn has a compact crown, but it still has thorns on the branches, and this complicates the harvesting of berries.
In 1954, breeders created elite varieties of this wonderful plant.
Sea buckthorn of the oilseed variety is tall bushes with branched thin hanging branches, berries on a long stalk. The berries are large, brown-red.
Sea buckthorn of the varieties “oilseed”, “Altai news”, “golden ear” has a high yield: it is from 8 to 16 kg per tree and does not decrease with age.
It is believed that every gardening family should have a planting of this unusually useful crop. The berries must be collected, stored and constantly consumed at the rate of at least 5 kg per person per year. This will guarantee the prevention of many diseases.
Sea buckthorn seedlings are placed on personal plots and in gardens as follows: 1 male plant must be planted on 2 female plants for pollination. In this case, prevailing winds must be considered. Consequently, it is necessary to plant the male plant as an extreme on the side from which the pollen will blow in the direction of the female bushes.
Seedlings of the selected variety are planted in the fall, often simultaneously with apple trees.
Autumn varieties of apple trees can also be attributed to medicinal plants, already because of other, only their inherent properties. Their fruits are rich in fiber, pectin, mineral salts, contain volatile. In addition, autumn apple varieties are stored for a long time without losing useful properties.