For many centuries, hawthorn was considered a wild plant with all the disadvantages of "wilds" - low productivity, low taste. But this is an extremely useful plant, the fruits of which are edible, tasty, used fresh and as raw materials for jam, jams and compotes. Leaves and flowers are considered healing. Work on improving the quality of natural wild-growing hawthorn has been underway for a long time, and today varieties that can be considered the most advanced have been developed.
History
The first surviving written references to the fact that mankind knew hawthorn as a powerful medicinal plant belong to the era of Ancient Greece. Europeans recognized the healing culture in the early Middle Ages. In Russia, hawthorn has a popular name - mistress, noblewoman, noblewoman-tree, and it is treated with respect and respect.
General properties for all types and varieties of hawthorn
In total, about 200 species of this plant are known in the world with a very significant difference in appearance and size - from low bushes to tall trees. Many of them are exotic plants for us. 47 species grow in Russia. The most common of them are common prickly hawthorn, punctate hawthorn and blood red hawthorn.
Hawthorn - an ornamental plant with healthy berries
Hawthorn is a hardy plant with a powerful root system covering the area under the crown with a diameter of up to 4 m to a considerable depth. This allows you to provide the bush with the necessary nutrients and moisture on the very meager soil and in dry years. It does not freeze even in very cold winters, so the distribution area in the northern regions is much further than other fruit trees.
Hawthorn does not like shading
Resistant to all diseases and pests. He does not like shading, especially from the south, because you can not plant hawthorn at the northern walls of buildings, especially the higher ones. Damp lowlands, highly acidified soils are also contraindicated.
Varieties
Varieties of hawthorn can be conditionally divided into three types - fruit, fruit-ornamental and decorative. Although, of course, fruit varieties have their own decorative value. Nevertheless, it is important to understand why a tree is planted - for harvest or for beauty.
Half-pan
Fruit variety, selected by selection of the best-yielding specimens from hawthorn semi-soft. The most outstanding in terms of fruit quality and yield. The berries are large, red, very tasty. In favorable conditions it produces fruits no less than cherries, cherries and plums, which are widespread in orchards. The bush is more prickly than other varieties, which makes it difficult to harvest. Ripens late, berries can be picked up to severe frosts.
Toba
Fine decorative grade of the Canadian selection. The winter hardiness is not inferior to local varieties. It is used in landscaping in gardens and parks, but as a stand-alone tree, because it does not like shading and grows well in areas completely open to the sun. It can grow up to 6-7 m in height. It looks very impressive in a standard form. It has a spreading crown, most often forms a powerful bush, but sometimes it can grow with one trunk. The fruits are red, round in shape, large, but very few.
Toba hawthorn flowers during flowering change color from white to pink
Daursky
It bears fruit well, but also has decorative value. The form, like the Toba cultivar, can be both bushy and tree-like with one trunk, but Daursky is shorter than Toba, on average 1-2 m. It has thorns up to 2.5 cm long. Blooms in white flowers in mid-May. The fruits ripen in September. They are in the form of an ellipse, about 1 cm thick, can be different in color - yellow, orange and red.
Daursky variety is widely distributed beyond the Urals, in Siberia and the Far East, as well as outside Russia, in Mongolia and China.
Daursky leaves have a specific lilac hue
Paul Scarlett
It is seen among the brethren and highlighted as a variety back in the 19th century. It grows either with a bush or a tree with one trunk. Not the tallest. The oval crown, very dense, can grow up to 3 m wide. It blooms at the usual time for all varieties, in the middle of May and beginning of June, but the flowering time is longer, almost 2 weeks. Flowers of a rare, intense hawthorn red for hawthorn. It differs from other varieties also in that it is not so picky about the sun, tolerates shading. Paul Scarlett gives few fruits, so you can consider it a decorative variety.
Flowering of hawthorn Paul Scarlett lasts almost 2 weeks
Volzhsky
It differs from other varieties in the shape and size of the crown and leaves. Short, no more than 3 m, does not grow a bush, but only a tree. Crohn even without trimming and the formation of a decorative spherical shape.
The Volzhsky variety is distinguished by carved maple-like leaves.
The name indicates the place of origin. Distributed in the Volga region. Valuable in durability, retains decorative qualities for up to 40 years. More than others resistant to diseases and pests.
How to plant a hawthorn
Propagated by hawthorn seedlings, cuttings, cuttings, seeds and grafting.
The easiest and most reliable way is to find and dig out a single seedling or 2-3-year-old root shoot. It is even easier to buy a varietal seedling grown in a nursery. Two-year-olds are best taken root.
Cuttings
Propagation of hawthorn by cuttings is justified only if you need to save a virtually extinct or rare variety, which is difficult to find seedlings. Cuttings of hawthorn take root very poorly, there is always a large percentage of withdrawal. From the beginning of the cuttings to obtaining full seedlings, 4 years pass. And no one can guarantee the successful result of this many years of work, even if the long and complex agronomic procedures are strictly followed.
Layering
Reproduction by layering is much simpler and more grateful.
- In late spring or early summer, 1-2-year-old shoots are found on an adult bush of hawthorn.
- Prepare a groove with a depth of 10-12 cm.
- In it they bend down and pin the shoot to the ground with a metal bracket, fill it with earth, leaving only the crown with 5-8 leaves on the surface.
- Before you fill up the shoot, it is pulled at the base with a soft knitting wire to reduce the flow of nutrients from the mother plant. This will accelerate the formation of layers of their own roots.
- In a dry summer, layering is periodically watered.
- So that the twig does not become bare, you need to sprinkle the earth, on top you can pour mulch - humus, peat, rotted sawdust, needles.
- As a result, by the autumn you will receive a rooted layering, which can immediately be transplanted to a permanent place.
In some cases, rooting is carried out not one, but two seasons. For example, if some layers have a weak root system.
By the fall, the twig will let go of its independent roots
Propagation by root shoots
In late August - early September, young shoots are found that grow near the main trunk. Dig up with young roots, trying not to damage the horizontal old root of the mother plant. Planted in a temporary place. Next spring, the viability of the seedling will be visible. If he is alive and continues to grow, it will be possible to transplant him to a permanent place immediately, with a large lump of earth, so as not to damage the small root system. It can be transplanted both in autumn and next spring, in a year.
Graft
The same general rules apply for grafting hawthorn as for grafting any fruit trees. But there are some peculiarities.
- the best rootstock is either another hawthorn bush, which does not suit with something, or a red mountain ash. Moreover, on the mountain ash, the survival rate is very high, and it is possible to grow the mountain ash stock very easily by the root shoot;
- inoculate on the first heat, but before the leaves bloom;
- use 2-year-old twigs with a thickness of about 1 cm, and the side branches from the scion, as is done when grafting other trees, can not be removed.
Seed propagation
Seeds of hawthorn have many "soothers" that are unable to germinate. Therefore, it is necessary to plant several seeds at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other.
Seeds of hawthorn must be processed before planting
Seeds are prepared for planting in one of the following ways:
- take dishes with boiling water and ice water. The seeds are placed in a bag made of natural fabric and dipped in hot and cold water for 0.5 minutes in turn until the seeds swell, increasing in size - this will be seen;
- the seeds are placed in a container with warm water and kept in a warm place for several days.
A seed tree grows for a very long time. The first two seasons the shoot increases by only 10 cm per year. But from the third year begins to grow rapidly.
Landing dates in different regions
Any seedlings - from cuttings, cuttings, root shoots, from seeds in the Central European part of Russia are planted both in spring (mid-April) and autumn (mid-October). For the Moscow Region, these terms should be adjusted for 5-7 days, for the North-West region - for 7-10 days in the direction of a warmer period - in spring closer to the end of April, in autumn closer to early October. South of the Black Earth region, these dates are shifted in the opposite direction. The farther south, the earlier the landing is carried out in the spring and later in the fall.
The rest of the agricultural technology for hawthorn care is the same for all regions of Russia, where the hawthorn feels good, including Siberia and the Far East.
Care Features
Despite endurance and unpretentiousness, it is important to remember that under optimal conditions hawthorn grows better.
- When planting on obviously scarce soils, it is necessary to introduce high-quality humus and wood ash into the planting hole at the rate of 0.5 l per 10 l of soil.
- Hawthorn will require your help in abnormal conditions - in the summer in severe prolonged drought, it is necessary to moisten the earth well according to the crown projection. In winter, frost below -40aboutC, especially long ones, you need to throw the trunk with snow as high as possible.
- If in the summer the plant is still attacked by pests, which is rare, you will have to use the means recommended specifically for each type of pest. But for starters, you can try to solve the problem in the easiest way - to powder the crown with a mixture of tobacco dust and wood ash in a 1: 1 ratio.
Pruning
In the illuminated expanse, hawthorn, as a rule, forms the correct crown itself. Therefore, only over the years requires sanitary and anti-aging pruning. With sanitary pruning, all dry, broken and damaged branches are removed.
Anti-aging pruning is required for bushes with a respectable age. 1-2 old branches are removed. Instead, new ones will grow and will also bear fruit.
Sometimes, if the bush grows too thick, it is necessary to remove the overgrown internal branches to increase the illumination inside the plant and increase fruiting.
Trimming decorative varieties
Trimming decorative bushes is done for completely different purposes - you need to give the crown the desired shape. Hawthorn transfers any pruning easily and quickly forms new shoots. To give the bush any shape is much easier than other types of plants. You can get a crown in the form of a ball or even a square, but this will require not only pruning, but also cutting of foliage and shoots, and several times a season.
By itself, hawthorn can grow both in the form of a bush, and in the form of a tree.
In order to guarantee a hawthorn in the form of a tree, from the very beginning of the growth of a seedling, they simply cut off all the branches coming from below, except for one, central, most powerful and straight. You can start turning the bush into a tree at a later age, but by doing so you will reduce the crown of the plant by several times. Then a single trunk will form new branches, but it will take years.
Pruning of large branches is carried out in the cold season, when there is no sap flow. Haircut, on the contrary, during the warm period of growth.
To form hawthorn on the stem, pruning should be started as early as possible.
Lighting Requirements and Live Fences
You can try to use the thickets of hawthorn as natural fences, impassable due to thorns. However, the plant loves good lighting, and the hedge requires a dense, dense planting. In the shade, it blooms and bears fruit much worse. An extensive root system requires space and a landing pattern of at least 3-4 m from each other, and ideally about 5 m.
Of course, you can plant a hawthorn with a solid wall, but in the end you will get wild thickets of oppressed plants, competing for illumination growing in all directions, including outside the site. The bushes will have to be regularly ennobled, pruned, dug up root growth sprawling in all directions, cut several times during the summer. And this is a lot of work and time, especially when you consider that you have to work with prickly branches that are easy to get hurt.
A hawthorn hedge requires care and attention
Video: hawthorn growing features
Reviews on the cultivation of hawthorn
A very tasty and large variety of Arnoll, with a decent cherry - there is one. On the occasion, they gave several cuttings, now I store them in the cellar of the garage and plan to plant them in the spring on pre-planted seedlings in my area. I was surprised by the size of the berries, and I didn’t let the taste down - but almost no seeds!
matchevik //www.forumhouse.ru/threads/133285/
You can propagate hawthorn seeds. But at the same time, you have to wait long enough for the fruiting to begin and no one guarantees that the seedlings will repeat the mother plant in their characteristics. Vaccination is most often used in order to approximate the time of fruiting and propagate the variety you like.
Andy //forum.prihoz.ru/viewtopic.php?t=4161&start=15
When our neighbor sowed hawthorn, his son said that he would not wait for the result. And they managed to reach up to 4 m. The difficulty is one - they sprout in the second year. I was vaccinated, it’s very easy to get vaccinated. I planted red with large spines on black and on a mountain ash.
Raven //www.websad.ru/archdis.php?code=366300
Hawthorn is a wonderful plant! Not only does it form a beautifully blooming impenetrable hedge, it also tolerates almost any conditions and any soil, it only needs to take root. In addition, tolerates shading (sun, partial shade). Species hawthorns have varieties and hybrids, with different colors of flowers, with bright autumn colors of foliage. There are terry hybrids hybrids.
gold fish //www.catalogdesign.ru/forum/thread257.html
Hawthorn deserves respect. If a bush of this plant grows in your garden, remember that this is a real gift of nature, a treasure of delicious, healthy fruits that we often do not notice and do not appreciate. And they can strengthen their strength and health. It is not difficult to grow hawthorn, even a novice gardener will cope with simple rules of care.
