Honeysuckle berries ripen in late May - early June. In some varieties, the harvest ripens later, but this berry can hardly be seen in July. In order for your honeysuckle to have abundant fruiting every year, you need to pay attention to caring for the plant throughout the summer and fall.
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Proper watering of honeysuckle in summer and autumn
Despite the fact that mainly honeysuckle grows in early spring, it needs moisture throughout the growing season.
If it rarely rains in your area, then water the plant every 10 days, soaking the soil under the bush 30-40 cm deep. Water consumption for a young bush is at least 8-10 liters, and an adult plant requires up to 30 liters.
Protection of honeysuckle from parasites and diseases
Basically, honeysuckle is treated from invasions of harmful insects in early spring, but in the future, you do not need to relax.
During flowering, the formation of numerous ovaries and the collection of fruits, chemicals should not be used during treatments.
Problems can be solved only after the berries are picked and eaten. Basically, honeysuckle suffers from aphid invasions, but it is not bypassed by the rose leafworm, and the honeysuckle fingerfly, and the gooseberry moth, and various scale insects. If parasites are found, first determine exactly what kind of insect it is, and only then use a complex or specialized insecticide, dilute the drug strictly according to the instructions.
Fight diseases in the same way. If only the bush becomes lethargic, the leaves are covered with spots, a sooty bloom, then you are late to process the plant with Bordeaux liquid. In this case, wait until the end of fruiting and still carry out the processing. Use the product in 1%, and before carrying out the procedure, cut off the dried shoots, remove fallen leaves, grass under the plant and burn.
Summer feeding of honeysuckle
When planting seedlings, put a dose of organic and mineral fertilizers in the hole, their volume will be enough for about 3-4 years. Then, for the honeysuckle, you need to carry out additional feeding. In the spring, during the development of young shoots, nitrogen is needed (in the form of mineral fertilizer or organic matter), and at the end of harvesting, the plant needs phosphorus and potassium. The solution is prepared from potassium sulfide (15-20 g), as well as superphosphate (15-20 g), dilute all the components in a bucket of water, and then add the agent in a proportion of 3-4 g per plant.
If your site has poor soil, you can re-fertilize at the end of summer. Do not apply nitrogen fertilizers from mid-summer, as the crop will grow and will not be able to prepare for winter.
Breeding methods and transplantation of the honeysuckle bush
Open-rooted honeysuckle should be planted in a new location in late summer or fall. And a plant bought in a pot is transplanted in any warm period.
If you have this plant on your site, and you just want to increase the number of shrubs, you can propagate it by the following methods:
- Seminal. Even if you choose the largest fruits, get seeds from them, sow, you can only grow wild. The disadvantage of this method is that the bushes grown from seed do not retain varietal properties.
- Reproduction using cuttings. Green cuttings are cut from the growths at the end of flowering, and lignified ones after the leaves have fallen off. Then the seedlings must be stimulated by means of "Kornevin", and after all they are placed in the cuttings so that they take root.
- Plant propagation by simply dividing the bush. This method is used for young honeysuckle, which has reached the age of no more than five years. First, dig out the bush, divide it into parts with a sharp tool so that roots remain on each, and plant it.
- Reproduction of culture by layering. Take annual shoots located next to the ground, then dig up the ground under the plant, tilt and press the branch to the surface of the ground, and pour a little soil on top. The next year, roots will form on the shoot, and you can separate it from the plant itself.
Summer care for honeysuckle
Caring for honeysuckle is reduced to regular weeding in the near-trunk circle, loosening, changing mulch (if mulch) or mowing a green lawn (if the ground around the plant is turfed).
Grass should not be allowed to grow in the crown. Weeds can become pest bait.
Pruning a plant in the fall
At the end of September, leaves fall from the honeysuckle. You can just do the pruning of branches.
Until the age of five, the bush is cut minimally, getting rid of sick, frozen or dried shoots, as well as those that interfere with the full formation of the crown.
Then the bush can be thinned out by removing small shoots from the central part, as well as outdated branches that do not have growths and do not form ovaries. And only after 8 years of life, you need to carry out the main haircut.
If your bush is aged (20-25 years old) and ceases to bear fruit abundantly, you need to carry out anti-aging pruning. Cut off most of the branches, leaving the youngest shoots in the amount of 2-3 pieces. In the near future, a new aboveground part will form near the bush.
Have you already planted honeysuckle on your site?
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