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Breeders have domesticated many wild plants so that gardeners can grow them on their site. One of these representatives is forest beauty honeysuckle. The berry is saturated with trace elements and vitamins useful for humans. Among the many varieties bred, Kamchadalka stands out.
Breeding history
The culture was bred by the employees of the Siberian horticulture at the Bakcharsky strong point. The parent of the variety is the wild Kamchatka honeysuckle. The authors of Kamchadalka are considered to be breeders A.T. Tkacheva and I.K. Gidzyuk. The culture was developed by natural pollination of the wild form of the plant. The variety was sent for testing in 1984, and after 9 years the honeysuckle was zoned in the Russian regions.
Description and characteristics of the variety
In terms of ripening, the Kamchadalka honeysuckle variety is considered a mid-season crop. The plant form is a bush. Active fruiting usually begins 3 or 4 years after the seedling is planted.
The Kamchadalka bush bears large and medium-sized berries. The length of the fruit varies from 2.2 to 2.7 cm. The diameter of the berry reaches 1 cm. Fruits are elongated oval in shape, tapering towards the apex. The skin is smooth, firm, blue in color. The superficial white bloom gives the berry a light blue hue.
Kamchadalka honeysuckle pulp consists of many fibers, but they are not felt when chewing the fruit. The berry tastes sweet and sour with a pronounced forest aroma.
The berry contains:
- dry matter - no more than 14.2%;
- acid - from 2.5 to 2.6%;
- sugar - from 5.4 to 7.9%.
Additionally, 100 g of pulp contains 52 mg of vitamin C, as well as up to 40 mg of vitamin B1. Kamchadalka berries are saturated with minerals that help strengthen blood vessels. The fruits are used for medicinal purposes by people with high blood pressure. In folk medicine, honeysuckle is known as a tonic and diuretic.
Kamchadalka inflorescences consist of two small flowers with yellow petals. The flowering time lasts only one day. The Kamchadalka bush is not sprawling of medium height. The dense crown forms a cone shape. The height of an adult bush is about 1.5 m. Young shoots are short and rather powerful green. The leaf shape is an elongated oval. The color of the leaf blade is pale green.
The video provides an overview of the Kamchadalka honeysuckle variety:
Pollinators
Cultural honeysuckle turned out to be self-fertile. In order for the bush to give birth, pollinators of other varieties are planted nearby. Great for:
- Parabel;
- Cinderella;
- In memory of Gidzyuk;
- X.
A good pollinator variety Roxana, as well as Tomichka. From the gardeners' reviews, good fruiting of Kamchadalka is observed if the Blue Spindle honeysuckle bush grows nearby.
Features of fruiting
Ripening of Kamchadalka berries begins in the third decade of June. The yield from one adult bush does not exceed 1.2–1.8 kg. Occasionally, a well-developed bush can bear up to 3.5 kg of fruit. The harvest of Kamchadalka lends itself to long-term storage. By design, the berries are universal.The fruits are eaten fresh, jam, wine, juice are prepared, and frozen.
A feature of the fruiting of the Kamchadalka variety is the uneven ripening of the berries. Harvesting has to be done 2-3 times. Productivity does not depend on weather conditions. The bush will consistently disfigure in cold, hot and rainy summers.
Problems with growing the Kamchadalka variety are observed only among residents of the southern regions. The warm climate creates favorable conditions for repeated autumn flowering. Berries often have time to ripen before the onset of cold weather, but the quality of bud formation for the next season is greatly deteriorating. The second problem is the winter thaws in the southern regions. Kamchadalka quickly reacts to the appearance of heat by awakening the buds. The severe frosts that hit in a couple of days supercool the laid fruit buds, and the bush in the summer may not be ugly at all.
Advantages and disadvantages
The Kamchadalka honeysuckle variety, on the positive side, is appreciated more by residents of cold regions as an unpretentious and disease-resistant plant that brings delicious berries.
The following points are distinguished from the advantages of Kamchadalka:
- frost resistance;
- large fruits that do not crumble from the bush in a mature state;
- decorative effect of the bush;
- ripe berries do not fade, remaining juicy and fresh.
The disadvantage of the Kamchadalka variety is the average yield, uneven ripening of berries. Fruits come off badly from the stalks. Pollination in inclement weather is of poor quality, due to which the yield decreases. In the reviews, there are tips from gardeners, which talk about the need to plant the X honeysuckle bush almost end-to-end with Kamchadalka.
Growing secrets
Growing honeysuckle on your site is no more difficult than currants, but there are features and they must be taken into account.
Landing dates
You can plant honeysuckle seedlings in spring and autumn. However, early budding is typical for Kamchadalka. The optimal time for disembarkation is still autumn, when the plant is in the calm stage. In the south, Kamchadalka planting begins in the third decade of September and ends in October. Gardeners of the northern regions individually determine the timing. It is optimal to plant a Kamchadalka seedling 2-3 weeks before the onset of frost.
Site and soil selection
The Kamchadalka variety does not tolerate temperature fluctuations well. Honeysuckle is best grown in a temperate climate. The bushes are planted in a bright area, where the sun's rays fall during the day. It is advisable to make protection from the wind by planting a plant near a fence or surrounding it with other berry bushes.
An elevation with dry soil is not suitable for Kamchadalka. The bush may not bloom, but will constantly grow side shoots and foliage. Lowlands are optimal for the Kamchadalka variety, but the height of the groundwater should not exceed 1 m from the earth's surface.
The optimal indicator of soil acidity is from 5.5 to 6.5. If the soil is very acidic, 200 g of chalk or lime per 1 m are introduced 30 days before planting the seedling2 plot.
Planting a bush
Planting of Kamchadalka variety honeysuckle seedlings is performed in the following order:
- The hole is dug at least 5 days before planting the seedling. Since one bush cannot bear fruit, at least three honeysuckles are located nearby. A span of 2 m is made between the holes for each seedling.The depth and width of each hole is 40 cm.
- The bottom of the holes is covered with a drainage layer of fine stone or broken brick.
- Part of the hole is covered with black soil mixed with an equal amount of compost. About 1 kg of wood ash is added to the mixture. From mineral fertilizers, 50 g of superphosphate are mixed. If the soil is sandy, then the holes are dug larger in order to fit a mixture of two buckets of black soil and three buckets of compost. 1 m2 the site even during digging, you can add 5 kg of clay.
- The hole filled with the mixture is poured abundantly with water.
- Before planting honeysuckle, a hill is formed from the soil at the bottom of the hole. The seedling is carefully placed on a hill, the root system is spread along the slopes, and covered with loose soil. The root collar cannot be buried. After backfilling, the honeysuckle seedling is watered with water at room temperature. When the soil settles down, do top-up, one more watering and backfill with mulch.
Immediately after planting, the Kamchadalka honeysuckle seedling is not cut off. The shrub can stagnate in growth and discard inflorescences. Only damaged shoots can be removed.
Care
You can get a good harvest of honeysuckle only by providing the shrub with proper care.
Watering
The first-year Kamchadalka honeysuckle seedling is watered regularly as the soil dries. The bush should take root well. Adult honeysuckle is watered a maximum of three times a month. The only exception can be drought.
Top dressing
Honeysuckle has enough organic matter for good development and fruiting. In the spring, the bush is fed by adding 1 bucket of humus. In autumn, 150 g of wood ash are introduced. From mineral dressings, nitrogen-containing preparations are used in early spring. When the snow melts, the honeysuckle is watered with 1 bucket of water, where 1 tbsp is dissolved. l. urea. Before the beginning of flowering, foliar feeding with the preparation Solution or Aquarin is useful.
Pruning
Cut off the honeysuckle bushes in the fall after the foliage is completely reset. Adult plants are subject to pruning, starting from the sixth year of life. The first step is to remove all root shoots. Thick shoots with numerous flower buds are left on the bush. Only thin, damaged and elongated branches are cut. A second pruning may be needed in the summer if diseased shoots with darkened foliage and dry flowers appear.
Protection against diseases and pests
Frost-resistant honeysuckle Kamchadalka is resistant to diseases. The main pests are aphids, as well as the honeysuckle fly. Spraying with insecticide helps to fight harmful insects. Rarely, the foliage is affected by a fungal infection, as evidenced by dark specks on the foliage. A fungicide will come to the rescue, only you need to choose a drug that will have time to neutralize before the start of harvesting.
The blue honeysuckle berries often attract birds. Protect the crop from feathered guests with nets. The bush is covered as soon as the fruits begin to turn blue.
Reproduction
Honeysuckle is propagated by seedlings. During the purchase, it is optimal to give preference to the bushes of the second year of life. Such a honeysuckle seedling can be identified by the crown height of 30–40 cm and the presence of 2–3 branches.
The branches of a healthy seedling are flexible. Shoots should not be dried, but the bark may peel off. This is normal. For honeysuckle, peeling of the bark is considered a feature of the plant. Live buds must be present on the branches. A good honeysuckle seedling always has a developed root system.
Gardeners independently propagate honeysuckle by layering if adult bushes are already growing on the site. It is enough to sprinkle a part of the twig with moist soil and make an incision in the bark. When the cuttings take root, it is cut off from the mother bush, and a new seedling is obtained.
Conclusion
Honeysuckle Kamchadalka will truly delight you with a bountiful harvest, subject to growing technology. Residents of the southern regions are better off finding other varieties, since the Siberian beauty may not live up to expectations in an unacceptable climate for her.
