Features of growing lingonberries at their summer cottage

Fans of gardening speak positively about the cultivation of lingonberries, as it requires minimal investment and is a beautiful element of the decor of the garden. The main thing is to create conditions for her that are most similar to her habitat.

Botanical description

Let's see what it looks like lingonberries. It is an evergreen shrub of the cowberry family, reaching a height of about 30 cm.

It has a creeping rhizome, which can grow up to 18 meters and is capable of putting thin, short roots that form mycorrhiza with mushrooms. The leaves are dense and leathery, dark green color from the top side and light green from the bottom, not pointed at the top. The edges of the leaf plate are slightly curved downwards.

Drooping brushes of 10-12 white-pink, bisexual flowers form cowberry inflorescences, which have a light pleasant aroma. Insects pollinate them. A bloom begins in late May or June and lasts about 14 days.

Calyx 4-5-split, the triangular lobes of which have a reddish color. Corolla up to 6 mm long, with 4 lobes, bell-shaped. 1 pistil, about 10 stamens, lower ovary. The pollen is contained in the anthers in the form of a compressed mass, which is gradually loosened and removed in parts through the holes at the ends of the anthers.

The fruit is spherical in shape, red in color up to 8 mm in diameter, it tastes sweet and sour, has many brown seeds of a semi-lunar form, it looks brilliant. Wild lingonberry begins to bear fruit at the age of 14-20, garden - at 5-10 years. Fruits ripen in late summer or early autumn.

Choosing a landing site

Although the cultivation of lingonberries does not have many requirements, suitable conditions must be created in order to obtain good growth and yield in the garden.

Lighting

Wild lingonberries are able to grow in the shade of the trees of the forest, not particularly in need of sunlight. But the garden will not give a good harvest, if it is located on a shaded area.

In this case, it will simply become an ornamental plant. Therefore, to obtain a large number of fruits, shrubs must be planted in well-lit places.

Lingonberry soil

Lingonberry is suitable loose soil, with an acidity of 4.5-5, 5 pH, moist and moderately lit, so for the cultivation in the garden is better to prepare separate, darkened beds. If the soil is quite dense and heavy, remove 20-25 cm of the upper layer. A combination of peat and sand, taken equally, must be poured into the dug-out trench, and if the site is on a former peat bog, then sand the ground to a depth of 13 cm.

Neutral soil should be mixed with needles, which acidify it during self-decomposition. When planting lingonberries do not fertilize with humus and compost. But in each soil mix you can add 10-15 g / sq. m of sulfur and mineral fertilizers. Also in the top layer contribute 20-25 g / sq. m of double superphosphate and 15-20 g / sq. m of potassium sulfate.

Planting a plant

First of all, the plot should be leveled so that there are no pits and depressions. The fact is that if water stagnates in them during frosts in late autumn, this can lead to damage to the peduncles or, in the worst case, to the death of the plant.

Landing time

The most suitable season for planting lingonberries is spring. In the summer and autumn survival rate is much lower.

Technologies and scheme

To land individual shrubs of lingonberry, use the tape method. The width of the tape is 80 cm. The width of the row spacing is 40 cm. The lingonberry grows quite quickly and fills the maximum free space, so sometimes it is necessary to thin it out. Plant 1-3 year old saplings in depressions 7-8 cm. Distance between bushes - 30 cm.

After planting lingonberries for 10 days, it also needs care, especially abundant watering. She also needs mulching with moss, shattered with chips or sawdust of coniferous trees, which will allow to retain moisture longer.

Rules for the care of shrubs

• Do not allow overmoistening.
• Clean the soil from weeds in the warm season.
• Thaw thick young shoots with a pruner.
• If during the flowering of lingonberry temperature drops below -3 ° C, it should be covered with spunbond or agryl.
• The soil around the cranberries need to loosen in the summer season.

Watering and soil care

It is best to use drip irrigation or twice a week to irrigate it manually. The main thing is to observe the "golden mean" between drying and over-wetting.

Water reduces the acidity of the soil over time, so it is possible to organize soil acidification once every three weeks. Growing lingonberries also requires care for the soil. It needs to be loosened in time, rid of weeds, periodically mulched.

Fertilizer

Mineral fertilizers in the fruiting period are applied in small quantities - 1 tbsp. spoon per 10 square meters. m. Top dressing is best organized in spring or early summer. For this you can use superphosphate 30 g / sq. m, ammonium nitrate (30-40 g per 10 liters of water). Also special preparations for heather, such as “Mortar” and “Kemira” are used.

Pruning

When the lingonberry bush reaches the age of seven years, it produces a rejuvenating pruning, leaving a 4 cm long sprout. It will begin to bear fruit again after a year. Pruning should be carried out in early spring, when the movement of juices in plants has not yet begun.

Is shelter required for the winter?

Opinions gardeners boil down to the fact that in most cases, shelter for the winter lingonberries is not required. This berry grew and multiplied in the cold North, so it is obvious that it can withstand the frosts and snowless winters. However, when it blooms, a sharp and significant drop in temperature, for example, when frosts return in early spring, can destroy the future harvest. Therefore, it is possible to cover the lingonberry for the night with lutrasil or other non-woven material.

Harvesting

Cranberry harvest consists not only of berries, but also of leaves. The latter have a high concentration of useful substances, such as arbutin. During collection, they are carefully torn off or cut off, in order to sort out, separate from any garbage, excess twigs, and then chop and arrange on pallets (paper, cloth), where they will be dried. Also, take care of the room where the drying will take place: it must be well ventilated.The leaves need to be shaken from time to time, shaken, they need to be covered from sunlight.

Berries are harvested in dry weather. It is best to use wicker baskets for picking, because the lingonberries are almost not wrinkled in them, thus avoiding the loss of useful raw materials.

After collecting the fruits they need to sort, removing the spoiled, green, dried berries and peeling from the leaves and peduncles. Next should wash the ripe berries several times under running water. Then it is dried in the oven at a temperature not exceeding 60 ° C, or in a warm room with good ventilation for several days. Dried berries are stored in glass jars in a dark place.

To suburban area decorated lush shrubs of lingonberries and that she gave a big harvest, you should take care of lighting and soil. You also need to follow the basic rules of plant care, in time to water it, fertilize, trim and feed.