Honeysuckle is divided into decorative and edible. Violet is a cultivar with healthy and tasty fruits of blue-violet color. She is unpretentious in care, has good immunity. The following is a description of the honeysuckle cultivar Violet, information about growing crops in the garden.
Honeysuckle cultivar Violet - what it looks like, to which family it belongs
Honeysuckle Violet - a culture with shoots of medium height. After spring flowering, edible fruits are formed. The culture belongs to the family Honeysuckle (lat. Lonícera).
Honeysuckle Violet
Description
Honeysuckle shoots reach a height of 1.5 m. Leaf blades are green, oblong. The flowers are medium sized, painted in a pale green palette.
Fruits are oblong, tuberous. Their weight is 1.2-1.5 grams, length - 2.8-3 centimeters. The skin is blue-violet. The surface of the fruit is covered with a wax coating. The pulp is fibrous, tastes sweet, with a slight acidity.
Additional Information. In folk medicine, the whole aerial part of the culture is used to treat.
Violet shoots reach a height of 1.5 meters
Appearance story
This variety was bred by the breeders of the Pavlovsk experimental station. They pollinated Roxolan seed material. Then, experts from the Krasnoutsk experimental station located in Ukraine were engaged in its testing.
Habitat
In 1995, the variety received approval, and is recommended for cultivation in all regions of Russia. In Ukraine, Violet honeysuckle will best develop in the northern regions.
For reference! Japanese honeysuckle is used for landscaping. She has large inflorescences of white-yellow color. Habitat - Japan, China, Korea.
Kind of violets Japanese honeysuckle
The well-known breeder Elena Lebetskaya brought forth a senpolia with similar flowers. By analogy, it was given the name: violet LE Japanese honeysuckle (japan zhimolost).
Violet LE Japanese honeysuckle
Honeysuckle Care Features
Care of the crop consists in timely watering, mulching, periodic top dressing, autumn pruning.
Watering
A small tree is watered as necessary. The topsoil must have time to dry. If a large amount of precipitation falls during the summer, additional watering is not required.
Note! To preserve moisture, the soil is mulched with sawdust, peat, mowed grass.
Spraying
A plant can infect a disease and pest. For prevention in the spring it is sprayed with special drugs - most often used Bordeaux liquid.
Humidity
The thickened crown is poorly ventilated, droplets of moisture are stored in it for a long time. High humidity can contribute to the appearance of fungal diseases. Therefore, the crown needs to be thinned out and irrigated to the root.
Priming
Honeysuckle develops best under the name Violet on light, fertile soils with a neutral reaction. In heavy clay soil, moisture will stagnate.
For reference! If the soil is acidic, lime or wood ash is added to it.
Top dressing
Fertilize the soil begin in the 3rd year after planting. The frequency of application is as follows:
- for the development of green mass in early spring, nitrogen-containing substances are used;
- in May, bird droppings or dung are introduced;
- in September, the bushes are fed with potassium and phosphorus.
Important! Nutrients are added to pre-moistened soil.
Pruning
For sanitary purposes, dry, broken, diseased branches are cut in autumn. In addition, shoots growing inside are removed. They can not be shortened, otherwise this year the gardener will not wait for the harvest.
Periodically rejuvenating pruning is performed: 5-6 shoots are left in an adult bush, the rest are cut off under the root.
Autumn pruning
When and how honeysuckle blooms
Honeysuckle cultivar Violet is characterized by early flowering and ripening of fruits.
- Flower shape
On the shoots of Violets, 2-centimeter five-petal flowers are formed. During the formation period, they are painted with a pale green palette. During complete dissolution, the color changes to white.
- Flowering period
The plant blooms in May. In late spring or early summer, oblong blue-violet fruits are formed.
Honeysuckle fruits
Tasters rated the taste of the fragrant Violet berries at 4.7 out of 5 points.
The shape of the fruit resembles a jug. Their surface is slightly tuberous, the skin is thin but dense. The color of the berries is blue-violet, the taste is sweet-sour, with a pleasant aroma.
What are berries useful for and how are they used?
The fruit contains a large amount of nutrients. They help increase immunity, strengthen the walls of blood vessels, lower blood pressure, and remove salts of heavy metals.
Berries are consumed fresh, jams, stewed fruits, jelly are boiled from them. Fruits are added to salads, mousses and cocktails are prepared from them. In addition, the berries are dried, frozen.
Note! Honeysuckle has laxative properties, so it is not recommended to consume more than 100 grams of berries per day.
Harvesting
Honeysuckle fruit ripening occurs unevenly. The berries below start to sing earlier. Therefore, harvesting is done gradually. The procedure is carried out in dry weather.
Honeysuckle fruits Violet have useful properties
Features of growing honeysuckle
Violet begins to bear fruit honeysuckle, so it should be planted in the ground in the fall. The site is selected carefully, since the culture is able to grow in one place up to 25 years.
Planting bushes
Saplings are purchased in a plant nursery or in a garden center. They should be 2 years of age, 30-40 centimeters high. Healthy bushes on the surface of shoots do not have dents or spots, roots live on a cut.
Honeysuckle prefers to grow in a well-lit place. In this case, the berries will be sweet, aromatic. The procedure for planting bushes is as follows:
- pit holes measuring 50 × 50 × 50 centimeters;
- fill them with a nutrient mixture;
- in the middle of the holes establish plants, straighten the roots;
- fall asleep with earth, lightly tamp;
- water abundantly.
Important! The root neck of seedlings when planting is buried no more than 3 centimeters.
Honeysuckle is planted in open ground in autumn
Pollination
Honeysuckle called Violet does not apply to self-fertile varieties. Therefore, nearby it is necessary to plant pollinating plants.
The best varieties of honeysuckle for this: Amphora, Viola, Blue spindle.
Possible problems in growing
The culture has good immunity, but with errors in care can be affected by various diseases and pests.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
The positive characteristics of the variety include the following characteristics:
- unpretentiousness in leaving;
- frost resistance;
- early fruiting;
- good immunity of the bushes;
- excellent taste of the fruit;
- weak crumbling.
The negative qualities include the need for planting a number of pollinating varieties.
Disease
With heavy rainfall or frequent watering, honeysuckle can become infected with fungal diseases. In this case, spots and whitish deposits appear on shoots and leaves. Fungicides are used to combat pathogenic microorganisms.
Powdery mildew on honeysuckle
Pests
Honeysuckle can be attacked by: scale insects, aphids, spider mites. They suck out cellular juice from foliage, weakening bushes. Insecticides are used against harmful insects. To prevent their appearance, plants are sprayed in the spring with Actara, Decis.
Note! Processing with chemicals is done before the plants bloom.
Other problems
Fruits on plants form on the 3rd year after planting. If, after the indicated time, fruiting has not begun, this means that pollinating varieties have not been planted near the honeysuckle, or they are not suitable for pollinating the crop.
Violet is a honeysuckle variety with tasty, edible fruits. The plant is unpretentious in care, differs in frost resistance. With good care, the gardener from the bush can collect about 1.8 kilograms of blue-violet healthy berries.
