Hardworking gardeners are preparing for the harvest season in advance, trying to learn new ways to quickly preserve and protect their hands from highly prickly plant species. Very few people know how to collect sea buckthorn safely and not damage the berries. The fruits of this tree-like shrub are a real concentrate of various vitamins and nutrients, however, it is not so simple to prepare them for the winter.
Fully ripened berries acquire a bright orange color and become quite soft in late summer - early fall. Experienced summer residents know when to collect sea buckthorn in a particular region, but, in most cases, the deadlines fall in the second half of August, September or early October. The branches of this plant are very densely covered with berries, reliably protected by sharp and strong needles. Before direct collection, you need to determine the purpose of the crop.
If you plan to cook jam or sweet compotes, sea buckthorn is collected in August, in extreme cases - in early September. These terms should be observed, since the berries have the highest density at this time. How to collect sea buckthorn for raw consumption - it is up to the summer resident to decide on it, it all depends on the personal tastes of the plant owner. But the highest content of such ascorbic acid necessary for humans in berries occurs in August-September. If the purpose of the crop is to make jam or various marmalades, sea buckthorn is collected later, usually in September-October. Juices are also harvested at the end of September, after the fruits have fully ripened. It is during this period that you can make wound healing and bactericidal sea buckthorn oil.
When deciding on how to properly collect sea buckthorn without the help of special tools, you need to take care of reliable hand protection. The stalk of the berry is very short, and the sharp thorns of the plant are quite long. If you harvest the crop, a lot of juice will be released, which can cause irritation on the skin of unprotected hands. Therefore, there are a few simple rules on how to collect sea buckthorn quickly and painlessly:
- Before starting work, always wear an apron and tight gloves. It is difficult to predict in advance how the skin will react to fresh juice. It is almost impossible to wash the sea buckthorn that has fallen on the clothes, so dressing is easier.
- When picking berries from branches adhere to the direction from top to bottom.
- There is a little trick in how to collect sea buckthorn very quickly. You need to put the whole branch in the freezer, and then just knock it on the table - the berries will fall off themselves, and the thorns will remain in place. But this method is only suitable if the fruits were originally intended to be stored in a refrigerator.
There is also a very long, but more accurate method of collecting sea buckthorn berries. Garden tongs are used for it, with the help of which they pluck the fruits methodically one by one from the cut branches of the plant. The disadvantage of this method, in addition to the long collection time, is the serious damage to the entire tree bush. The best option is the manual option - the berries do not crush, and the next year's harvest will be more plentiful due to the preservation of healthy branches and bark.