Honeysuckle is one of the few fruit shrubs that endure the vagaries of northern weather and severe Siberian winters. Meanwhile, it is extremely important to provide competent care for the plant in the autumn period, which includes transplanting, pruning, watering, feeding and other manipulations. Read more about them below.
Transfer
Some gardeners transplant shrubs in the spring, but it is better to carry out this procedure in the fall, since honeysuckle refers to shrubs with an early growing season. So, already from the end of June, the plant goes into a dormant stage, which lasts until the beginning of March. According to gardeners, during this period, the sleeping buds do not bloom in the bushes. Therefore, replanting bushes can be carried out from August until October itself.
The transplant itself is performed according to the following instructions:
- Choose in advance a new place for transfer.
- Dig a hole, which should be several times larger than the original. Introduce humus into it.
- Do not move the bush to a new place, but drag it along the ground. To protect the plant from possible damage, it can be immersed in burlap and carefully dragged to a new location. At the same time, it is extremely important to leave an earthen lump on the roots.
- Plant a bush, deepening by about 5-6 m. At this, the transplant will be successfully completed.
When transplanting a shrub, you must act extremely carefully so as not to damage the sensitive root system of the honeysuckle.
Pruning
Like most shrubs, honeysuckle shrubs well: the plant rapidly forms new shoots and shoots. So, shoots form on old branches, and young shoots grow from basal buds. In addition, it appears in the root system.
To prevent random branching of the shrub, it is worth regularly cutting off old and damaged branches. This manipulation also performs a number of other tasks:
- strengthens the bush before winter and gives it a beautiful shape;
- improves plant productivity and rejuvenates it;
- stimulates abundant flowering in the next season;
- allows you to maintain the quality characteristics of berries, the taste of which can suffer from a lack of sunlight and poor ventilation.
The bushes need to be trimmed very carefully, since the honeysuckle of edible varieties is slowly growing, so it will resume its lost shape for a long time.
When is it better to carry out such an important garden manipulation, which bushes and how to cut, it is worth considering separately.
When is it better to prune - in autumn or spring?
Honeysuckle quickly wakes up from hibernation, so it is quite dangerous to prune it in spring. In addition, if you are late with this manipulation, you can harm the fruit buds.
So, the best time for pruning a shrub is November, when the air temperature drops below 0 ° C at night and the bush sheds its leaves. It is highly undesirable to carry out this procedure earlier than the specified period: with hasty pruning before frost, kidneys may develop, which will freeze with the onset of cold weather.
What bushes to cut?
Shrubs for the first time fully pruned at the age of 5-6 years. In the fall, when the leaves fall off the thickened bushes, you will need to remove old, dry, damaged and short branches, as well as the ends of shoots with poor growth. Fruits grow on annual shoots, so they do not need to be touched.
Unlike other shrubs, edible honeysuckle does not require annual pruning. So, if everything is done correctly, then the next treatment should be carried out no earlier than in 2-3 years. When the plant reaches 8 years old, the bush is subject to hilling and rejuvenation by cutting off all the old branches and the remaining young growth on the lower part of the skeletal branches.
Of course, young bushes older than 2-3 years cannot be pruned on a large scale, but some gardeners recommend carving out extra shoots from them, which grow in the center of the bush. Such an intervention allows access to the sun's rays inside the bush and increase the breathability of the plant.
How to trim?
When the plant reaches the age of five, it is fully pruned according to the following instructions:
- Remove dried or damaged shoots from the crown. If only their parts are damaged, then they should be cut off. Of course, there is no need to prune the entire branch if only the tip is damaged.
- On the skeletal branch, remove the apex and inward branching to prevent dimming of the bush and reducing the size of the berries. The cut should be done in the middle of the branch, not near its base.
- Cut off branches that are too bent downward to provide adequate ventilation for the plant.
- Trim branches that do not have branches, and irregularly shaped shoots, for example, excessively clumsy or curved. After the completion of pruning, an average of 8-15 shoots should remain on the bush. In any case, in order for the shrub to endure the winter and bear fruit well in the future, at least 5 healthy shoots must be left on it.
Experienced gardeners do not recommend pruning young branches, since it is on them that a greater number of buds are formed.
It is necessary to carry out the procedure for rejuvenating the plant with all care, since the branches are easily broken and damaged.
The nuances of processing young and old honeysuckle
Pruning features depend on the age of the plant. Unlike many berry bushes, after planting, honeysuckle does not need to be pruned, since such an intervention will stop the development of the plant and significantly affect the fruiting phase. So, until the plant is 5 years old, only three types of branches should be removed from the bush:
- growing inward;
- dried up;
- broken down.
With such a gentle pruning, the branches will not be intertwined, and more sunlight and moisture will get into the center of the bush. So, all conditions for the normal development of the plant will be recreated.
As for old abandoned bushes, in order to rejuvenate them, you will need to remove all old branches or completely cut the plant under a stump, cutting off all shoots more than 40 cm high with a pruner. Such garden manipulations are best done after leaf fall or, in extreme cases, in early spring before awakening plants.
After anti-aging pruning, experienced gardeners are advised to tie bushes. To do this, you need to bury wooden or metal pegs in the ground around their perimeter, and then tie them with a rope just above the place of the slices. Such a support will not allow the plant to fall apart and prevent breakage of the shoots.
Watering and soil treatment
Honeysuckle is a moisture-loving plant, so it needs regular watering even after harvest. Of course, in the fall you need to lower its frequency and abundance. So, the watering rate is 1.5 buckets per bush, but in the case of dry autumn, the volume can be increased to 2-2.5 buckets. Moisten the soil as it dries.
When watering, the area cannot be loosened and dug up, since the root system of the honeysuckle is superficial and can suffer from such manipulations. In this case, it is necessary to change the layer of mulch from sawdust or compost from time to time, since it retains moisture well and prevents the development of weeds.
Top dressing
Timely saturation of the soil with essential nutrients will contribute to the good development of bushes, their lush flowering and fruiting. At the same time, for the first time, the plant should be fed at 2 years of age.
First of all, honeysuckle needs organic matter. It will make the land more fertile and activate the development of soil bacteria needed by berry bushes. So, once every 3 years in the soil should be applied:
- rotted compost;
- humus;
- manure;
- chicken droppings.
This is enough to feed the shrub. Potassium-phosphorus fertilizers will also be an excellent top dressing for the plant. In the autumn, the gardener should introduce 100 g of ash, no more than 20 g of potassium salts and at least 30 g of double superphosphate per 1 sq. m plot. For a complex effect in the spring, before the buds open, honeysuckle can be fed with ammonium nitrate (15 g per 1 sq. M) or treated with a urea solution.
The gardener shares his experience of feeding honeysuckle in the video below:
The gardener should not overdo it with nitrogen-containing fertilizing, as they cause an excessively intense growth of honeysuckle. In the end, this leads to the opening of the buds during the onset of frost and death of the plant.
Protection from pests and diseases
Honeysuckle is quite rarely attacked by pests and gets sick with various diseases, but you should not neglect preventive measures. So, once every few years after leaf fall, it is worth spraying each bush with a urea solution (700 g of granules per bucket of water).
Despite such treatment, sometimes the shrub is attacked by pests. For example, bullfinches can feast on the buds of a plant, and small rodents (mice, hares) - on its bark. The sad consequences of such an attack will be obvious only in the spring, when the condition of the affected bushes can be fully assessed. So, in order to prevent such attacks of pests, you should protect the honeysuckle from rodents and birds, covering the landing net.
In the fall, it is also extremely important to carefully remove the entire area and near-stem circles of shrubs from last year's foliage, which can become a favorable environment for the development of bacteria and the life of harmful insects.
Time and method of autumn vaccination
In the fall, honeysuckle vaccinations are carried out after the fall of the leaves, so that the scion has time to take root, but does not grow and does not give new buds. This procedure is carried out according to simple instructions:
- Use a sharp tool to trim the scion and stock. The cut should be done obliquely.
- Tightly connect the scion and rootstock, securing the junction with tape.
- Cover the top with foil and a sheet of paper.
- Wrap the last layer with twine.
Vaccinations can be checked after 3 weeks.
Winter honeysuckle shelter
Do bushes need to be covered before wintering? It depends on which of the two types of varieties the honeysuckle growing on the site belongs to:
- Frost-hardy (winter-hardy)... Such plant varieties endure even severe frosts, so they do not need winter shelter. So, flower buds can even withstand temperatures up to -40 ° C, and growth buds - up to -50 ° C. To protect the plant for the winter, you need to tie the branches into a bunch and bend them to the ground. This will prevent breaking branches under an abundant layer of snow.
- Decorative... Not as hardy as frost-resistant varieties, so they need shelter. This is especially true for the climbing liana. So, in autumn, it is necessary to bend the branches of the bush to the ground, and then sprinkle with spruce branches or sawdust on top. In addition, the plant can be covered with a roll covering material.
The snow cover will additionally protect the shrubs from the cold.
After the winter, the first berry season opens the honeysuckle - a plant of the genus creeping, upright or climbing twigs from the honeysuckle family. Of course, in order to get a good harvest of berries with a specific, slightly bitter taste, you will need to correctly carry out the autumn processing of shrubs according to the above rules, because only this will allow the plant to survive even the most severe winter.