Back in ancient times, people discovered sea buckthorn as a medicinal plant. This amazing berry contains a large amount of vitamins and biologically active substances necessary for the human body. It can be used in different types of preparation: in the form of jam, in the form of marmalade, in the form of juice and in the form of butter. And recently, freezing berries in freezers has become very fashionable and popular. This makes it possible to consume fresh sea buckthorn at any time of the year.

Today we will learn how to collect sea buckthorn. This process really requires a special approach and more detailed consideration. If you start picking sea buckthorn berries without a certain amount of knowledge, you are unlikely to quickly get a positive result. It must be said, moreover, you risk not getting any positive result at all, but being left with bloody hands and an irresistible desire to cut down the tree at the very root and never grow it again.

So, let's begin to study the question posed.

You need to start collecting sea buckthorn from the top of the branch, and gradually move towards the trunk. Please note that ripe berries are very easy to burst in your hands and the juice splashes in all directions. And in order not to suffer later with removing stains from clothes, before you start harvesting the sea buckthorn harvest, you need to put on an old robe or apron.

If you are going to transport sea buckthorn home from your dacha, it is better for you to cut the branches from the tree along with the fruits and put them in a box. This way you will be more likely to save the fruits and deliver them to their destination intact. Berries taken from branches are difficult to preserve during transportation.

Experienced gardeners use a special device to collect sea buckthorn berries. This device is a loop of thin but very strong rope, wire or fishing line. The loop is attached to the base of the branch and with a light but impetuous movement of the hand you can “cut” all the berries from it. First, you need to place a wide container under the branch into which the fruits will fall. This method is good especially in cases where the berries are in dense thickets that are difficult to reach with your hands.

When harvesting sea buckthorn, many people use small scissors or a blade. The most inventive amateur gardeners use a comb to comb berries from tree branches.

There is a way to collect sea buckthorn, which is considered the most accurate. With it, all the berries remain intact, do not crush during picking, and do not scatter to the sides. This method involves the presence of a plastic bag to which a tin tube is attached. You bring the tube to the base of the berry, use your finger to guide the fruit into the tube and the berry, rolling down it, ends up in the bag. When the bag is full, you can harvest the bucket and start filling it again.

The most correct way to collect sea buckthorn fruits is considered to be the winter or late autumn method. This is done as follows. When the first frosts hit and you saw that all the sea buckthorn berries were frozen, take a large tarpaulin and spread it under the sea buckthorn tree. Then take a stick and start striking lightly at the trunk or branches of the tree. In this case, the berries will fall off easily. When all the fruits have fallen, you can easily pour them from the tarpaulin into the container in which you will store or transport the sea buckthorn.

Having thus collected a valuable harvest, you will provide yourself and your family with a tasty, very healthy product for the whole year, until the next harvest.

Sea buckthorn is a valuable vitamin berry that grows almost throughout the entire territory of our country. It ripens closer to autumn, but, fortunately, does not require urgent harvesting. This can be done carefully and without haste.

When to collect sea buckthorn: what determines the timing

The timing of sea buckthorn berries depends on both the variety and the climate of the region. In addition, the time at which the crop is harvested depends on its purpose.

Purpose of berries

Sea buckthorn is a universal berry, and depending on what is going to be done with it, the harvest is harvested in a slightly unripe or completely ready state. For making jam or storing for fresh use, the berries are collected when they have not yet turned bright orange, but have a dark yellow color. At this moment, they have a hard skin that does not burst when collected, there is not much juice, it will not flow. This is usually observed at the very end of summer.

Most varieties of sea buckthorn go through the yellow berry stage, when they are already ripe, but have not yet softened.

If you want to extract juice or make sea buckthorn oil, you need to wait until the berries are completely ripe and soft. It will be more difficult to collect them, but the juice will contain more nutrients. This happens towards the end of September, and in some areas even towards the beginning of October.

Read also about what else you can plant in your dacha in the summer in our article -

If the berries have acquired a bright orange color, this means that they are already soft and have collected the maximum amount of juice.

weather condition

Sea buckthorn should be collected in dry weather. The berries stay on the branches for a long time and firmly, so there is no need to rush to pick them. Many gardeners specifically wait for frost, because after this the berries become tastier, and most importantly, their attachment to the branches weakens.

More precisely, after the first light frost, the berries become tasty, but still hold on firmly. At this time, the most productive branches can be cut off with pruning shears and the berries can be easily picked at home: moderate pruning does not harm the plant. And when severe frosts occur, frozen berries can be shaken onto a lined cloth and collected.

After frost, berries are quite easy to pick, but when exposed to heat they will soften, which must be taken into account in the future.

Growing region

Since sea buckthorn berries can be collected at any time, even in winter, there is no clear division of dates by region, especially since different varieties ripen at different times. If we talk only about the readiness of berries for picking, then the approximate time frame looks like this:

middle zone, including the Moscow region - late summer - early autumn;
Siberia, the Urals, the north of the European part of the Russian Federation - end of September;
southern regions: the berries can ripen at the end of July, there is no need to wait for frost here, they are collected as needed.

Harvesting sea buckthorn is difficult, so each gardener chooses the timing depending on the weather and the purpose of the harvest. The berries can be collected both at the end of summer and at the beginning of winter, and they practically do not spoil on the branches.

When summer comes to an end it is time to harvest. During this period, sea buckthorn also ripens. Everyone knows about the benefits of the orange berries of the tree, so at the beginning of autumn they make sea buckthorn preparations for the winter - compotes, jams, preserves, etc. Harvesting this tree is not an easy task, but we will tell you how to easily harvest sea buckthorn.

Harvest time

If you decide to make sea buckthorn compote, you can start collecting at the end of August. It is at this time that the fruits contain ascorbic acid, which is beneficial for the body. But early sea buckthorn is not suitable for jam and preserves. You need to wait 2-3 weeks, let it overripe a little so that the berries become soft and easily separate from the stone.

How to easily collect sea buckthorn from branches?

Sea buckthorn juice is quite caustic. It has a bad effect on the skin and makes it dry. If it gets on your clothes, you are unlikely to be able to wash the stain off. That is why before harvesting you need to change into special clothes and also put on gloves so as not to harm the skin of your hands. The process of picking berries is very labor-intensive and painstaking. Gardeners have long come up with several ways to make it easier; let’s look at them in more detail.

A valuable garden crop, sea buckthorn, when ripe, turns into a real storehouse of vitamins. If you look at the composition of the berries, you can find vitamins A, C, E, PP, B, as well as iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, valuable amino acids, pectins and the “happiness hormone” serotonin.

The cultivation of this crop is widespread throughout Russia. For a long time, sea buckthorn has been used to prepare tinctures, compotes, preserves, and jelly. When sea buckthorn ripens, its fruits become bright orange, juicy, with a sweet and sour taste and a pleasant aroma. Depending on the variety and the region in which the crop is grown, ripening occurs in different months. But on average, from flowering to the appearance of ripe berries takes from 90 to 100 days.

At the same time, fruits can only be found on “female” plants. Like all dioecious plants, sea buckthorn is pollinated by wind and insects. Male flowers have a huge amount of pollen, but never form ovaries. Such a tree can be recognized by its larger size, but most often you have to wait until the fruiting period. Sea buckthorn, when ripe, has branches completely strewn with berries, hence its unusual name.

The fruits have different colors and shapes. Most often, the berries are cylindrical, spherical or oblong. The weight of one berry is from 0.5 to 1 gram. In this case, the color varies from light yellow to bright red. The value of these fruits is great when fresh. They are recommended for use for gastritis, various heart diseases, vitamin deficiency, metabolic disorders, and ulcers. Oil based on this valuable plant is used externally to treat skin diseases, rapid healing of wounds and burns.

The sea buckthorn harvest lasts throughout the fall. Ripe fruits begin to be collected in August and continue in September. Varieties that have a very short stalk are much more difficult to harvest. Sea buckthorn, when ripe, becomes very soft. The berry crumples in your hand, causing juice to leak out, causing skin irritation. If you consider that at this time the weather becomes cool, you can imagine how difficult and unpleasant it is to pick these berries.

Therefore, it is much easier to pick off unripe fruits or grow varieties with a long stalk. You should know that unripe sea buckthorn has not yet accumulated biologically valuable substances in full. You can cope with the collection using certain techniques. That's why most gardeners wait until mid-September until the berries are fully ripe. Sometimes they use fishing lines or wire in the form of a slingshot, hang an inverted open umbrella on a branch and cut the fruits into it.

Sea buckthorn, when ripe, has many lateral fruiting shoots, they are completely strewn with berries. These shoots can be safely cut off without damaging the tree, and you can safely pick berries at home. After picking, the fruits are usually not washed, as they become wrinkled and lose some of their beneficial juice. If you need to clean the skin of dust, it is better to do this before picking the berries - water the bush with a hose or wash the cut branches in the shower, let it dry, and then start harvesting.

Summer has come to an end, autumn is just around the corner, and it's time to take care of vitamins for the winter. Put cucumbers and zucchini aside and turn your attention to sea buckthorn - one of the healthiest berries. Sea buckthorn ripens from late August to early October. We will talk about when to collect sea buckthorn and what devices are available for collecting this difficult berry in this article.

When to collect sea buckthorn?

Ripe sea buckthorn is a small, orange berry densely planted on a branch. Sea buckthorn ripens by the end of August (it may ripen a little earlier or a little later, depending on the climate). The berry is ripe, but you shouldn’t immediately throw all your energy into collecting sea buckthorn; first you need to decide - why are we collecting it? It is important to remember that the time to harvest sea buckthorn depends on the future use. If you want to eat the berry fresh or make jam or compote from it, then you should collect sea buckthorn at the very beginning of its botanical maturity (late August - early September). During this period, the berry is most full of ascorbic acid, is still quite hard and does not produce juice. If you want to make jam, marmalade or sea buckthorn oil, then you should wait a couple of weeks until the berry is filled with juice and becomes softer.

Sea buckthorn is a berry that develops your imagination.

For those who are faced with harvesting sea buckthorn for the first time, this task may seem difficult compared to other berries. A short stalk, thorns on the branches - all this can become a serious obstacle to picking berries. Firstly, the thorns prick quite painfully, and the stalk is tightly connected to the delicate skin, so that the soft berries are easily crushed in your hands, releasing juice that stings the skin and can leave irritation on it. In addition, the berries grow on the branches in such huge quantities that picking each berry separately can turn into many days of work. If you cut off entire “bunches”, if handled improperly, this can significantly damage the plant. But don't despair! Skilled gardeners have long come up with several ways to safely and quickly collect sea buckthorn.
Before you start collecting sea buckthorn, it is worth remembering two rules:
-Sea buckthorn juice released from the berries is very corrosive and can ruin your clothes. Wear an apron.
-You should pick berries from the top of the branch to the bottom.

Methods and various devices for collecting sea buckthorn.

Simplest. The simplest and “roughest” way is to carefully cut branches with berries from the tree and freeze them. In this case, frozen berries easily come off the branch. The disadvantage of this method is that it is only suitable if you initially planned to store the berries frozen, and not squeeze juice out of them or make jam.

Traditional. This collection method is common to all berries and is very widely used. This is done by hand and small scissors (tongs). This method is bad because it takes a lot of time. Many people prefer to cut off whole branches and then sort the berries at home. The method is good, but it has drawbacks. Firstly, this can damage the tree (branches need to be cut very carefully, but this is not always possible; you cannot cut off all the branches with berries at once), secondly, at home you will still have to cut berries berry by berry, which will take no less time than "live" collection. Despite the significant disadvantages, the manual picking method has a serious advantage - if you are careful enough, you will always be sure that you have not damaged either the berry or the tree. In addition, in contrast to the use of various devices for collecting sea buckthorn, collecting by hand, with due patience, gives the greatest harvest.

Using “folk” inventions. There are a whole lot of different devices for collecting sea buckthorn. All of them are designed to make the process of picking berries easier and, most importantly, make it faster. Very often, gardeners use various combs to “comb” berries onto an open umbrella or bag; instead of combs, you can use a knife.
But most often the so-called "cobra". To make this device you will need thin steel wire and a piece of wood for the handle. The wire must be bent into a loop and attached to the handle (the easiest way would be to make two holes in the handle with an awl and thread the wire into them). The attachment point must be wrapped with copper wire and insulating tape on top. The top of the loop must be bent so that it looks like the tip of a burning candle, and the side must be bent so that it looks like a snake. Now the “cobra” is ready to attack the sea buckthorn! Using wire is very convenient to cut off the stalks. This device will help you get berries located in the most inaccessible places. One sharp movement of the loop - and the berry is in your basket.

The second most popular device for collecting sea buckthorn is "tube". You need to take any tin can, cut a blank out of it and make a tube 100 mm long and 3-4 mm in diameter larger than the sea buckthorn berries you are collecting. Wrap the resulting tube with electrical tape, just short of the edges, and secure it in a plastic bag; for strength, wrap everything with electrical tape again. Now comes the fun part! We take a tin tube with a bag attached to it, bring the upper edge of the tube to the stalk, and press lightly. Voila! The berry smoothly rolls down the tube into the bag.
Of course, there are many more devices, and you shouldn’t stop at just one. Show your imagination and make something of your own!

Collect sea buckthorn juice directly. If you don’t want to bother yourself with preparing various devices, or if you don’t need berries at all, but sea buckthorn juice, then you should resort to this method. The secret is simple. The first thing to remember is that sea buckthorn juice can damage the skin of your hands! Be sure to wear clean cotton or cooking gloves. You need to place a container for juice under the branch with berries; With a clean hand, slowly draw it down from the base of the branch, squeezing the berries so that the juice flows out of them. That's all! In an hour of such work, you can collect 3-4 liters of sea buckthorn juice.

As many different beneficial properties of sea buckthorn as there are, there are just as many methods for collecting it: from simple garden shears to complex collection devices. Whatever method of picking berries you choose, you can be sure of one thing - the process will be exciting and fun, and as a result you will get several kilograms of a tasty and very healthy product.

However, the exact timing of harvest may vary depending on the weather, soil and climatic conditions in the region where the berry crop is grown. The first sign of the beginning of the harvest is the acquisition of intense and characteristic coloring by the berries. Fully ripened berries are tight, but are distinguished by fairly easy tearing. It is at this stage that the berries contain an optimally high amount of vitamin C. If the purpose of using the berries is to obtain sea buckthorn oil, then it is recommended to wait until the harvest is overripe on the tree.

How to collect sea buckthorn (video)

Quick collection methods

Before harvesting, you should remember that sea buckthorn juice can ruin clothes, so you should use raincoats. The berries are collected from the top of the branches to the bottom. To carry out this event not only quickly, but also efficiently, it is recommended to use special devices. Today, gardeners practice the following methods of harvesting sea buckthorn:

The easiest way is to carefully cut branches with berries from the plant and then freeze them, making it easy to harvest. The disadvantage of this method is that frozen berries are unsuitable for making juice or jam.
The classic method of manual collection is widely used. Despite the fact that in this case the berries are suitable for any type of processing, this method is too labor-intensive and time-consuming.

If at the time of ripening of sea buckthorn there is frost in the morning, then to collect the berries you should spread a thick cloth under the tree, onto which frozen berries will fall off as a result of blows on the branches. As a rule, in our country, manual harvesting is used, as well as the use of various devices that facilitate and speed up harvesting.

Convenient devices

In small areas, it is advisable to collect sea buckthorn manually or using tongs. which do not damage the berries and the plant. However, a few, but quite accessible and effective folk inventions make it possible to make the harvest of sea buckthorn not only quick and easy, but also of very high quality, with minimal loss of the marketable value of the berry.

Various combs, designed for “combing” ripe berries onto a fabric spread under the berry crop.
Wire "cobra", made of thin but quite strong steel, with the addition of a comfortable wooden handle (the wire should be bent in a loop and then secured to the handle). Such a simple device easily cuts off the stalks even in areas of the crown that are difficult to reach by hand.
Popular tin tube 10 cm long and 3-4 mm in diameter larger than the size of the berry. Such a tube must be wrapped with regular insulating tape and secured to a plastic bag. As a result of the cutting movement, the berry is cut off from the stalk and moved through a tube into the bag.
A special collection method is used when it is necessary to obtain sea buckthorn juice. In this case, you should place a fairly wide container under the branches with berries, and then, running your hand along the branch from the base down, you should squeeze the berries. As a result, juice flows out of the ripe berry and fills the container. It takes about an hour to collect three liters of juice.

Conditions and terms of crop storage

Most often, the collected berries are placed in bags and placed in the freezer, where they retain all their beneficial properties for six months. In the future, the berries can be used for some types of processing.

Another fairly common way to store sea buckthorn is to place freshly picked and unwashed berries in jars. The berries should be poured with cooled boiled water, covered with lids and stored in the refrigerator. You can make berry puree or jelly, jam or jam from fresh sea buckthorn.

Dried sea buckthorn has recently gained popularity. Berries can be dried by pre-treating them with a soda solution and rinsing with running water. They should be spread out in an even layer and dried in direct sunlight for about three to four weeks. Artificial drying is also allowed - in an oven or a special dryer. The berries prepared in this way must be placed in a wooden or cardboard container, the bottom of which should be covered with thick sheets of paper.

Aftercare for sea buckthorn

After harvesting, sea buckthorn trees need to carry out such measures as removing weeds and leaves in the trunk circles, followed by shallow loosening of the soil. When loosening, care should be taken, since the root system of the berry crop belongs to the category of superficial.

Sea buckthorn: features and care (video)

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Timing for harvesting sea buckthorn, how to collect sea buckthorn

Vera Gavryutenkova, Kaluga: “Every year I am faced with the problem of harvesting sea buckthorn: the berries are either too strong or burst at the slightest touch. What to do? When to start harvesting.

Why determine the timing of sea buckthorn harvesting?

Correctly determine the timing of sea buckthorn collection It is important not only to facilitate this labor-intensive work, but also to preserve as much as possible the beneficial substances inherent in this healing berry.

Harvest dates depend on the variety grown.

Early varieties they are already starting to collect in the first ten days of August, although, for example, the Chuyskaya sea buckthorn variety exhibits its best taste and vitamin qualities only towards the end of August.

To collect late varieties just starting in the second half of September. However, the exact timing largely depends on the weather conditions of the season and the sea buckthorn growing area.

The harvest begins when the color of the berries is most intense and characteristic of a particular variety. Ripe fruits are tight and tear off easily. At this time they have the highest vitamin C content.

Many housewives make jam, juice, jelly, etc. from sea buckthorn. However, to prepare sea buckthorn oil, it is better to keep the berries on the tree for another 2 weeks. In this case, some of the berries may soften, the vitamin C content will decrease slightly, but the oil yield will be higher.

Harvesting sea buckthorn, methods

If by the time sea buckthorn ripens If frost hits in the morning, you can harvest the crop as follows. Spread a thick cloth under the tree, wrap the end of the stick with a rag and hit the branches with it: the frozen berries will fall off easily.

This method of collecting sea buckthorn is also the most popular. Blind branches are cut off on bushes and trees, that is, those that do not continue to grow and are densely strewn with berries. These branches are brought indoors and, slowly, harvested in comfortable conditions.

It is better to remove berries in the direction from the base of the branch to its top to avoid painful injections. As a rule, there are approximately half of the branches suitable for cutting on a tree. Leaves and young twigs should not be thrown away; it is better to dry them and use them in winter to make vitamin tea.

Sea buckthorn, care after collection

After finishing the sea buckthorn harvest, be sure to take care of the plants: very carefully loosen the soil under the trees to a depth of no more than 5 cm, water well and mulch.

When pruning, be sure to clean large wounds on the trunk and branches and lubricate them with garden varnish.

Sea buckthorn is a healthy and tasty berry, so that harvesting will bring satisfaction, and preparations will delight you at any time of the year, you need to know when to collect sea buckthorn. It is also worth remembering that the timing of its ripening depends on the area of growth, climatic, weather conditions and even on the plant variety.

Berries of early varieties are harvested in early August, late ones - from mid-September.

From ancient Greek, sea buckthorn literally translates as “brilliant horse.” In ancient Greece, its leaves were fed to sick, weak horses, because at that time they were especially valuable animals. From such food the horses became well-fed and strong. Their fur acquired shine and gloss.

Its name is quite understandable; the berries literally stick to the trunk and branches. It is a tall, multi-stemmed, dioecious shrub on which the leaves appear after the flowers, which are pollinated only by the wind. It can grow in one place for fifty years. In order for the plant to delight with fruits, it is necessary to plant a female and a male tree at a distance of up to ten meters. There are no fruits on a male plant, but if planted in the center of a female group, then one of them will be enough to pollinate eight females.

In the southern regions, sea buckthorn is grown on a large scale; breeders strive to constantly develop new species with large berries. According to experienced gardeners, it is better to use seed propagation for planting on the site; it is an easy and excellent planting material. The tree grows strong, resistant to the unfavorable vagaries of nature, and produces high yields.

What is the value of sea buckthorn?

Sea buckthorn is a unique product that is a relative of the olive tree. Due to the presence of several minerals, vitamins, and acids in the fruit, it has universal properties:

berries and raw juice help heal wounds and treat ulcers

the oil is used as a disinfectant, antimicrobial agent for the treatment of various skin lesions

fruits are natural antibiotics that prevent fungal diseases and the appearance of harmful microbes

beta-carotene in combination with vitamin C improves immunity

Vitamin E is used as an effective antioxidant

essential fatty acids (and this is the same vitamin F), prevent the development of vascular atherosclerosis, normalize the functioning of the cardiovascular system

Provitamin A, vitamins C, E, F, when irradiated, are able to support cells and tissues of the body, protecting it from the appearance of new tumors and mutations. By enhancing each other's effect, they work in a comprehensive manner

Beneficial, medicinal substances found in fruits and sea buckthorn oil, when irradiated, participate in the process of regeneration of the walls, mucous membranes of the intestines, and stomach. They are also successfully used in gynecology and cosmetology as an effective protective and restorative agent.

But despite its positive properties, sea buckthorn also has contraindications. The fruits can harm those who suffer from inflammatory processes in the liver, gall bladder, or who are prone to allergies, so in the production of the oil, many allergens are removed from its composition.

The period of harvesting useful berries

How to understand that sea buckthorn is ripe and what are ripe fruits? Its berries are small in size, rich orange in color, and sit tightly on the branch. If you lightly squeeze the fruit and it gives in to compression, you can begin harvesting. And the characteristic bright color also indicates that they have reached botanical ripeness. And to obtain oil, they are collected during the period of full technical ripeness, when the fruits have sufficiently accumulated biologically active substances. They fully ripen two weeks after they begin to acquire their characteristic color.

Sea buckthorn ripens differently in different latitudes, but the optimal period is late August - early September. Before picking it, you should determine the purpose of using the berries. For fresh consumption and for compotes, they are collected during the period of botanical ripeness. At this time, they are rich in ascorbic acid, solid, and do not release juice. To prepare jam, marmalade, jam, butter, you will have to wait two weeks. The berries will become juicy and soft.

What's the best way to pick healthy berries?

Harvesting sea buckthorn in comparison with other shrubs may seem problematic at first glance. The berries sit tightly on a short stalk, which in turn holds tightly to the soft skin of the fruit. If it is soft, it immediately wrinkles in your hands, and the secreted juice stings the skin unpleasantly, leaving it irritated. The branches are strewn with thorns, which seriously hurt, causing unpleasant pain, and there are a huge amount of berries on them. Collecting each one separately will take a lot of time. If you cut off whole bunches, you can harm the plant, so you have to look for a way out.

As they say, there are no hopeless situations. Our gardeners have long been using safe and quick methods to collect such healthy berries, while following the rules. First, the berries should be separated from top to bottom. Secondly, it is better to wear an apron or robe for such an event, because juice will definitely be released from the berries, which will ruin the clothes due to the fact that the stains are not washed off.

Options for sea buckthorn collection methods that you can use:

Tough, but simple and quick - branches with fruits are carefully cut from the tree and frozen. In this form, the berries are easily torn off without much difficulty and this is an advantage of this method. The disadvantage is that it is convenient only if the berries are stored frozen, and it will no longer be possible to make jam or extract juice from them

Conventional - by hand, using special scissors, used for almost all berries. Its main disadvantage is that the process also takes a lot of time. There are other disadvantages - you can ruin the plant by carelessly using the tool, cutting off every single branch. Then at home, in more comfortable conditions, you can separate the berries berry by berry. But there are also advantages of this method - if you take the work responsibly and carefully (leave at least five centimeters of branches near the trunk), the plant will remain healthy, the berries will not be damaged, and the harvest will be maximum and of high quality. Next season, new shoots will definitely appear in the places where the correct cut was made.

If the method of pruning branches is used to collect sea buckthorn, the tree needs temporary breaks. To guarantee new harvests, it is better to abandon this method.

The orange beauty differs from other berries in that when picked ripe, it is completely impossible to wash. To do this, it is most convenient to use a hose, and wet berries on the tree will dry faster and better.

At the time when sea buckthorn ripens, to collect its fruits, it’s time to stock up on simple, convenient devices for such an event:

Small net

It is made from tin and a polyethylene bag. A piece of tin is rolled into a tube ten centimeters long. Its diameter should be slightly larger than the size of the berries. The bag is attached at one end with tape or tape. By walking and pressing the branch with a tube, the berries end up in the bag

A loop

Because of its shape, it is called “cobra” among gardeners. The wire is bent into the shape of a candle wick and attached to a wooden handle. In this way you can separate hard-to-reach bunches on high branches

Slingshot

In appearance, this is an ordinary children's slingshot, but instead of an elastic band, a tightly stretched fishing line or wire is used. If you run such a string along a branch, the berries fall into the trays, spread out cloth or oilcloth.

The process of collecting juice is not particularly difficult. Some gardeners squeeze it with gloved hands from berries located directly on the tree, then filter it.

There is also the most common, easiest and fastest way to collect sea buckthorn. You should wait until the first frosts, spread the litter around the tree and simply shake the branches. The crumbled berries are well sorted from spoiled specimens, and debris and leaves are removed. This option is most suitable for large-scale plantings during the season of abundant sea buckthorn harvest, but it is suitable for long-term storage only of frozen berries.

Sea buckthorn leaves were not left without attention. It is popular in cooking and is used as a seasoning for fish and meat dishes. It is especially valued for its medicinal properties if the gastrointestinal tract is disrupted, with atherosclerosis, hypertension. The largest amount of useful substances accumulates in them before the bush begins to flower (the month of June). Leaves can also be collected while picking berries.

The sea buckthorn harvest can be preserved in any way - prepare delicious preparations, chop fresh berries and mix with sugar, freeze branches or individual berries, dry, soak. There are plenty of options to enjoy healthy, aromatic berries, and at the same time improve your health.

Sea buckthorn is considered a crop with regular and abundant fruiting. Therefore, harvesting is significantly difficult for many gardeners even with only four or five bushes. The fruits ripen in late August. Many people know how to pick sea buckthorn, but not everyone knows that their use depends on the time of picking the berries.

general information

If the crop is intended to be consumed fresh or to be made into jam or compote, then harvesting should take place at the very beginning of its ripeness - in late August - early September. During this period, the berries have the most ascorbic acid, moreover, they are still quite hard and do not produce juice. If you plan to make jam, butter or marmalade, then it is better to postpone harvesting sea buckthorn for a couple of weeks so that it becomes juicy and soft.

Since ancient times, this medicinal plant has been considered a storehouse of biologically active substances and vitamins.

How gather sea buckthorn

Ripe fruits are orange berries, very densely planted on branches, of a fairly small size. They are so closely spaced that they look like they form an ear of corn, protected by hard spines. In addition, the fruits have very delicate skin.

Those who often come across this crop know firsthand how labor-intensive it is to collect sea buckthorn. When picking fruit from most varieties, especially overripe ones, the stalk very easily comes off with a piece of skin. At the same time, abundant juice flows out of the berries, which over time begins to corrode your hands.

Traditional collection methods

The simplest and “roughest” option for harvesting sea buckthorn is to carefully cut branches with berries from the tree and freeze them. In this case, frozen fruits are easily torn off and do not lose precious juice. The disadvantage of this method is that it is only suitable when you initially plan to store sea buckthorn frozen, and not squeeze juice out of it or make jam.

The most common, common to all varieties of berries, is harvesting by hand and small scissors - tweezers. This method, although popular, has its drawback: it is very time-consuming.

Some people prefer to cut entire branches from the bush and then pick the berries from them at home. The method, although good, also has disadvantages. Firstly, this can harm the tree, because the branches must be cut very, very carefully, which is not always possible. Secondly, if you adhere to this method, then you need to cut off all the branches from the bush, because sea buckthorn is literally strewn with fruits during the harvest period. But this absolutely cannot be done, otherwise the plant will die. And finally, at home you still have to cut the berries one by one, and this takes no less time than when picking “live”.

Secrets of harvesting

How to collect sea buckthorn? As a rule, each gardener has his own technique. Some use an enamel basin, hanging it for convenience on the neck at the optimal height for pouring fruits collected by hand. Others make a regular slingshot with a string of fishing line or wire. The branch is held with the left hand, and the homemade device for collecting sea buckthorn is held in the right. With the help of a tightly stretched string, the fruits seem to be combed off. And as a result, juicy sea buckthorn is poured into a specially prepared and suspended tray. Gardeners will learn when to harvest in order to prepare food for the winter using the calendar. But how to do this - no specialist can give an exact recommendation on this. How to collect sea buckthorn, the devices used for this - each person has his own rules and methods.

But one thing is absolutely certain: the harvested crop must be urgently processed so as not to lose precious juice. Therefore, most often sea buckthorn is not even washed. And if the bush in the garden plot is very dusty, then you can thoroughly wash it with water from a hose and let it dry during the day. And the next day you can start harvesting.

Folk tricks

There are plenty of homemade devices for collecting sea buckthorn. All of them are aimed at making the harvesting process easier, and most importantly, making it quick. In addition to combs used for “combing” onto a tray, bag or even umbrella placed underneath, knives are also used. But the most popular folk tale is considered to be “cobra”. To make it you need a piece of wood for the handle and thin steel wire. The latter needs to be bent and made into a loop. And then use an awl to attach it to the handle, threading it through the holes made in the wood. The top of the loop should be curved so that it resembles the tip of a burning candle. And from the side it should look like a snake. This “cobra” perfectly “attacks” sea buckthorn, conveniently cutting off the stalks and extracting fruits located in inaccessible places.

The second most popular device that helps with such a complex process is the “tube” - another invention of folk craftsmen. For it, you need to cut a blank from any tin can, make a tube out of it, one hundred millimeters long and with a diameter slightly larger than the berries themselves that this device will collect. The tube must be wrapped with electrical tape, just short of its edges, and secured in a plastic bag. And then the fun begins. A tin tube with a plastic bag attached to it is brought with its upper edge to the stalk and lightly presses on it. And a miracle: the berry itself smoothly rolls into cellophane.

Juice collection

Those who don’t want to bother making various devices or don’t want to pick berries because they only use sea buckthorn juice can resort to a very old method. But you need to remember that sea buckthorn juice is harmful to the skin of your hands, so having clean cotton or culinary gloves is simply necessary. Place a convenient container under the branch with the fruits, then with clean hands you need to slowly move it down from the base of the branch, squeezing the fruits so that the juice flows out of them. In an hour, you can thus collect up to four liters of healthy sea buckthorn juice, which is a real pharmacy in your garden plot.