Distinctive features of hawthorn, agricultural techniques for cultivation, recommendations for transplantation and reproduction, difficulties, interesting facts, species. Hawthorn (Crataegus) is found in tall shrub plants or sometimes small trees. Most often they are deciduous, but there are also semi-evergreen varieties that belong to the Rosaceae family. Its growing area is extended to all regions of the northern hemisphere (which includes North America and the regions of Eurasia), where a temperate climate completely dominates.
The hawthorn has its name thanks to the Greek word "krathaios", which translates as "strong". Naturally, this name reflected either the quality of the wood of the plant (it has surprisingly strong and solid properties) or the ability of the hawthorn to grow for a long time (up to 300 years). Among the people, what names were awarded to the hawthorn - glod, boyarynya, boyarka and the like.
In culture, hawthorn is valued for its decorative beauty when creating hedges or is grown for medicinal fruits, which are often eaten, and the plant is also an excellent honey plant.
In the conditions of natural nature, glud is both sun-loving and shade-tolerant plant, it can grow on soils rich in nutrients or very depleted (mesotroph). It perfectly tolerates both frosts and droughts (it is a microtherm), and has the property of an assembler when it grows constantly in a plant community, but is not the dominant species there.
The hawthorn may have multiple stems or have a little branching. The bark of the trunk is usually painted in a gray tone, but the color of the branches casts both red-brown and dark and light brown colors. Shoots are glabrous, covered with numerous straight thorns, up to 2–6 cm long.
The leaf plates take on an oblong-ovate or clawed shape (there is a shallow division into several lobes, which resembles the leaves of the viburnum). The color ranges from dark emerald to light green. At a young age, the leaves sometimes have pubescence, which disappears over time. The surface is usually smooth.
Hawthorn flowers gather in corymbose inflorescences, which can measure 5 cm in diameter. They are filled with 5-10 pieces of buds. The color of the petals is usually whitish with beautifully protruding anthers, shaded with purple tint. This gives the hawthorn a special decorative effect during flowering. The flowering process is not long at all, it only takes 10-14 days. Flowers begin to bloom at the end of May and already in mid-June they completely bloom.
When the fruit ripens, a spherical berry appears, with a diameter of up to 2-3 cm. The color varies from yellow to a bright red-bloody shade. There may be seeds inside, and the pulp has a mealy structure. Many of the gluten varieties have edible fruits.
Naturally, in folk medicine, preparations are most often made based on hawthorn fruits, but decoctions and tinctures are also made on the basis of flowers. In landscape design, decorative leafy hedges are created from the "boyarynya" thickets, which can perfectly replace a real "impassable" fence. Although there are amateurs who grow the plant in the form of a miniature bonsai tree.
Tips for caring for a hawthorn in a backyard
- Lighting. The year loves bright lighting, although it can grow in partial shade, but it is better to choose a well-lit place for planting. In a strong shade of flowers and fruits, you can not wait.
- Watering. You can only moisten the soil once a month.15 liters of water are added under each plant, but if it is a very hot period, then watering is carried out twice a month.
- Hawthorn fertilizer. The "boyarynya" responds well to feeding with slurry or diluted bird droppings. Such fertilizers are applied in early June, in late autumn they add double superphosphate and potassium salt.
- Transfer and selection of soil. The plant needs heavy soils, but with good drainage. A mixture of the substrate is prepared from leaf flour, river sand, peat soil and humus. A little lime is added to the hole before planting, but the root system should not directly touch it. At the very bottom of the hole, a layer of 15 cm of drainage material (pebbles, broken brick or expanded clay) is laid.
The plant can not be transplanted for 5 years from the time of planting. The depth of the seedling when planting is 70 cm, and the distance between them should not be less than 90–100 cm. The root collar is set flush with the soil. After transplanting, the hawthorn is watered, and the ground is mulched in the near-trunk circle (you can take peat or dry soil, up to about 4 cm). Flowering and fruiting begins at the age of 6.
Recommendations for self-breeding hunger
It is possible to get a new bush with blood-red berries by sowing seeds, planting root cuttings or grafting.
When the fruits are not yet ripe enough, it is possible to get seed. The starvation seeds have a thick coating and therefore, before sowing, it is necessary to stratify for a long period (almost 12 months). The awakening time of the seeds is quite long, but their germination capacity is almost 2 years. However, even so, not all sown seeds will sprout, since most of them are completely empty inside.
Before planting, the seeds are soaked for three days in warm water. Then their surface is wiped with sandpaper or simply rubbed with sand (scarified). Then the seeds are placed for 2 days in a 1% solution of potassium nitrate. Of course, it is better to do this in late autumn. After that, the seeds are sown in a row in a garden bed or flower bed. After 2 years of life, the seedlings reach 60–65 cm in height, and then pruning should be carried out three buds from the root. And during this period, you can perform schooling (planting seedlings to another place). The branches on the sides are cut so that only two shoots remain.
When propagating by root shoots, roots with a thickness of up to 20 mm are selected. They are cut into pieces up to 9-10 cm long and buried in the ground at a slight angle, so that the thick end looks up, its top should rise about 2 cm above the soil. The planting is carried out in a warm sheltered place or a greenhouse. This operation is carried out both in the spring and in the fall.
If you have any sort of hawthorn bush or tree (but it is recommended to choose one-poultry hawthorn), then you can graft a variety of hawthorn on it. Budding is carried out with an "eye". Better to carry out the operation in August.
With the help of cuttings or layering, the glod reproduces very poorly.
Difficulties in cultivating hawthorn
Hawthorn has several diseases, among which are:
- powdery mildew as a result of which the plant weakens greatly, is removed with a salt solution (for 10 liters of water, 1-2 tablespoons of salt);
- rust, the appearance of red spots on the leaves, while there is a general weakening, it is not worth planting next to conifers;
- phomosis, fungal disease;
- leaf spot;
- wood rot.
If problems arise, it is necessary to mulch the soil and general treatment with a 1% solution of colloidal sulfur.
Interesting facts about hawthorn
Much is known about the use of hawthorn in folk medicine. And what is interesting with its energy? Since antiquity, the runes Turisaz and Odal have been associated with this beautiful medicinal plant. Also, hawthorn was considered a tree of the goddess Ishtar, who is responsible for carnal love.
Also, in ancient times, the people believed that this tree was bewitched and if a person encroached on it, then an evil fate, multiple troubles and misfortunes were predicted for him. Therefore, it was customary to tie strips of matter to the branches of the hunger, thus offering gifts to the Goddess, not forgetting to show respect for the tree itself (probably due to an old custom). Also, hawthorn was considered a plant that has protective functions. If you brew tea from the flowers of hunger, then such a remedy will help eliminate anxiety, improve appetite and increase blood circulation. But the ancient Greeks saw in the red hawthorn fruits a symbol of hope and a successful marriage.
However, with the advent of the Middle Ages and its terrible "witch hunt", the tree also got it. He began to be considered an attribute of witchcraft rituals. However, the inquisitors were not so far from the truth, but only flowers and hawthorn fruits were used by women in spells that helped protect and strengthen love. In love magic, various beliefs linked hunger with the desire of women to speed up marriage and strengthen it.
Hawthorn species
- Prickly hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) called common hawthorn. It grows wild in almost all European countries. A shrub-type plant, reaching a height of 4 meters, or a tree with a height of about 5 m. Its crown is in any case oval and dense, the branches are very thorny. Leaf plates are naked with a broad-ovate shape, measuring up to 5 cm in length and about 3-5 cm in width. Inflorescences are corymbose, collected from white flowers, 5-10 units each. Flowering lasts 10-12 days. Ripening fruits have a diameter of 1, 2 cm. Their color is bright red, the color can reach purple, inside the flesh is yellow. The growth rate is low, the plant is shade-tolerant, frost- and drought-resistant variety, unpretentious to the soil, even to stony ones. Tolerates both the haircut and the shaping of its crown. Grown on the site as hedges.
- Siberian hawthorn (Crataegus sanguinea) also referred to as blood red hawthorn. In nature, it is most often found in the territories of Central Asia and on the lands of Western or Eastern Siberia. Likes to settle on forest cannons or in forests growing along river banks on well-moistened soil. The most common of the hawthorn species. It is a small tree or shrub, reaching a height of 4–6 m. The bark on the trunk is brownish, and on the branches its color is purple-brown. Shoots are covered with straight spines up to 2–4 cm long. Ovate leaf plates, shallowly divided into 3–7 lobes. Leaf indicators are measured 6 cm in length and up to 4–5 cm in width. Scalate inflorescences are multiple densely arranged flowers, with white petals and purple anthers. The diameter of the inflorescence fluctuates around 5 cm. The flowering process occurs at the end of May and ends in the middle of June. The fruits of this variety are edible, spherical, with 3-4 seeds inside and pulp of a mealy consistency. Ripening occurs at the end of summer and beginning of autumn. The color of the fruit is blood-red (which is the name of the variety). Fruiting begins at the age of 7. The famous breeder I. V. Michurin used the pollen of this hawthorn to develop a variety of pomegranate mountain ash (Crataegosorbus miczurinii), pollinating the flowers of common mountain ash. The fruits of this plant are purple in color, sweet and sour to taste, devoid of bitterness.
- Altai hawthorn (Crataegus korolwii) in many literary sources referred to as Crataegus russanovii or Crataegus altaica. The native habitat is in the lands of Central and Central Asia. It can grow both singly and in groups, choosing chalk hills, stone deposits or river floodplains. A fairly light-loving plant that is a mesophyte (a representative of the flora that can grow in an environment with sufficient, but not excessive soil moisture). It is able to grow well in conditions of low temperatures (microtherms) and does not require particularly nutritious soils (mesotroph), is a species that is constant in a certain habitat (in the forest stand or in the undergrowth), but does not affect its structure (picker). The protected areas are protected by law. It has a tree-like shape and a height of about 8 meters. The branches are bare, decorated with short spines (up to 2 cm long) or without them. Platinum leafs are colored in a bluish-green tone, the surface is bare, but sometimes rare short hairs are visible on it. Corymbose complex inflorescences are collected from white flowers. The flowering process will take 15–20 days. The fruits ripen in yellow color or with ocher-yellow tones. Their shape is spherical, ripening at the end of summer. Begins to bear fruit at the age of 6.
- Fan-shaped hawthorn (Crataegus flabellata) mainly grows in the northern lands of North America. Likes to settle in shrub thickets and woodlands, where most often there are rocky soils. It is an assembler of forest layers where bushes and shrub communities grow. Mesoxerophyte, that is, it grows on soils with a sufficient or low level of moisture, shade-tolerant species, mesotroph and mesotherm. It has a tree-like shape, a multi-stemmed plant, up to 6 m in height, upright shoots. They are decorated with strong, slightly curved multiple thorns, about 6 cm in length. The leaves are ovoid, measuring 6 cm in length. There is a division into 4–6 lobes, which fan out and are double serrate along the edge. As soon as the leaf appears, it grows pubescent, becoming naked over time. White buds make up an inflorescence of 8-12 units. The fruits ripen in red color with yellow pulp inside. Most often, hedges are created from it, but in natural nature it grows in plantings on the edges. Possesses excellent drought and frost resistance, undemanding to substrates. The flowering process occurs at the end of May and early June, and the fruits ripen at the beginning of autumn days. In culture it has been kept since 1830. The cuttings are very weakly rooted.
- Hawthorn dahurky (Crataegus dahurica) occupy a fairly wide territory - in the southeastern lands of Siberia, the Amur region and Primorye, this also includes the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, in Mongolia and in the regions of northern China. It grows alone, likes to settle on the banks of waterways, forest edges or in the undergrowth of forests (deciduous and mixed types). The culture is used in 1895. It is under protection in protected lands. A light-loving winter-hardy plant that loves to settle on fertile and moist soils. The tree is small in size, reaching 2–6 m in height, but sometimes it is represented by bushes. The bark on the trunks has a gray tint, the branches are painted in red-brown tones, covered with spines 2.5 cm in length. The leaf plates are oblong-ovate or elongated-rhomboid, wedge-shaped at the base. There is a deep blade division. Their color from above is dark emerald, from below it is darker. The flowers are white, with a diameter of about 1.5 cm. The bud contains multiple stamens with purple anthers. It begins to bloom from the second decade of May to mid-June. Fruits ripen bright red, spherical, reaching 0.5–1 cm across. Ripening takes place in August. Foliage unfolds earlier than all types of hawthorn.
- Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum) common in the midwestern states of the United States. It differs from other varieties in that the leaf plates resemble viburnum leaves - they have three lobes.
For more information on the benefits of hawthorn, see this video:
