Tips on Growing Sea buckthorn in the Northeastern US

My first harvest

Mature plant has a lot of berries

If you are looking for an attractive edible plant for a dry site, then I would like to suggest the Sea buckthorn bush. The berries of this bush are just loaded with vitamins and healthy minerals. These bushes are easy to grow, and you could collect a large harvest even with minimal effort.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) belongs to the family Elaeagnaceae. Members of this family have root nodules which house nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which is why Sea buckthorns can thrive in poor soils.

The thorny bush has beautiful, slender, silver leaves and its bearing branches on female plants are completely covered with bright, yellow-orange, small berries at the end of summer and in early fall.

Sea buckthorn is dioecious plant, meaning some of the plants are males and some are females.

Sea buckthorn female flower consists of young leaves, calyx and carpel

Sea buckthorn male flower consists of young leaves, sepals and stamens 

Sea buckthorn male leaves/flower buds are bigger than female buds

This plant has its origin in Asia: modern day China and Eastern Russia. Nowadays, it is cultivated from Pacific region of Russia and China to Northern Europe. Many cultivars are adapted to different European and Asian climates.

Berries of this plant have many beneficial properties. They are high in vitamin C, E and B group, carotenoids and folic acids. They also contain a unique combination of calcium, iron, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, and manganese.  The oil from the berries has healing, anti-inflammatory, and bacteriostatic property. People in ancient China and native population of Siberia used the oil to treat the wounds and stomach diseases. In old times, Sea buckthorn oil was considered to be a panacea in Russian Siberian population. The oil has soothing properties for certain mucosal surfaces. In Eastern Europe, Sea buckthorn oil is used by women to treat minor female specific discomforts. Ancient Greeks boiled leaves and bark of Sea buckthorn and gave the brew to the horses to make their main and hide look lustrous.

The juices and jams from the Sea buckthorn berries are very tasty and have wonderful distinctive aroma which reminiscent of pineapple. The berries can be preserved without boiling simply by submerging them in hot syrup.

Before planting

Sea buckthorn plant is very hardy, and it can grow in USDA Zones 9-3. Choosing the right cultivar for your climate will make it easier to care for the plant in your area and deal with any possible diseases it may have. The US plant nurseries sell a great variety of Sea buckthorn cultivars. Some cultivars come from central Russia where climate is dry, which results in hot summers and very cold in winters. Another cultivars come from Germany with maritime and mild cool climate. Altaian cultivars (from Russia) are more susceptible to verticillium wilt than German cultivars.. For the northeastern US, I would choose German cultivars. I grow Askola which is a German cultivar. Remember that Sea buckthorn needs male and female plants for berry production. You will need one male for every 5 to 8 females. I have 3 males for 8 females, just to be on the safe side. I noticed that male plants grow slower than female plants,    and on the whole they are smaller in size.

Planting site

Sea buckthorn plants prefer well drained, light sandy soils, and they can tolerate a wide range of pH. This plant likes open sunny spots. Some cultivars are quite salt tolerant which makes them a good plant for the hedge.

It does not do well on waterlogged soils. As I have already mention above, Sea buckthorn can grow on very poor soils, but for the best yield, it is better to have a rich garden loom in the planting site. This plant in natural habitats grows along the sandy river banks and, therefore, prefers ready access to water. It also grows along the sandy coastline in Europe. It is worth mentioning that this plant’s mode of pollination predates the appearance of pollinating insects. The  pollination is done by wind. To ensure maximum pollination, it is advised to plant males in such a position to females that the predominant winds in the area at blow in the direction from males to females. If for some reason you can’t plant your bushes this way, you can create the wind in certain direction during pollination period using a leaf blower.  However, make sure not to blow too hard on the male bushes: step 3 yards away and use your best judgment, you do not want to create a hurricane force wind.

Planting

It is better to plant Sea buckthorn in the spring rather than in the fall because the non-established plant with poor root system can “wake up” during warm spell in winter and then suffer with the following frost severe damages and even plant’s death.

1. Prepare the planting hole 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide, and then fill it with a mix of 1 part of commercially packaged sand and 5 parts of commercially packaged garden soil. I use commercially packaged soil and sand to avoid any soil-borne fungi which can enter through the damaged roots during transplanting. As mentioned above, verticillium wilt could be a problem for this plant.

2. Plant the bushes such that the soil level would be the same as in the container and all the roots are covered. Most US plant nurseries sell Sea buckthorn plants in small containers.

3. Mulch and water adequately, and continue to water regularly because Sea Buckthorn plants are water-loving.  

For best yield Sea buckthorn needs regular organic fertilizer or phosphates. I usually put some sand under the bushes together with fertilizers to keep soil sandy. I fertilize every year in the Fall. I spread  fertilizer uniformly in the Sea buckthorn patch because the roots of this plant grow as long as few yards away from the plant and could be anywhere in the patch. I use 3-4 bags of Scotts Premium Humus and Manure for 8 plants and 2 small bags of sand (to keep the soil sandy) over it. Cultivation of the soil should be done carefully because the roots are shallow and located right under the surface.

Pruning is usually done during harvest time.  As I harvest, together with the berries I cut either the whole branch (if it is very old) or half of a branch. Pruning is important because it ensures big and even berries and makes collecting them easier.

The berries are very juicy when they are fully ripe which is a problem for picking them with fingers (the only way so far to collect them). To avoid the problem of berries bursting when you are picking them, it is better to collect them when they are still relatively hard and then let them ripen by spreading them on a sheet of paper, preferably in a dark room. It will take only a few days. Askola berries are not easy to shake off the bush even if they are fully ripened, but berries of some other cultivars can be collected by simply shaking the bush.

Diseases

In the northeastern US, there are some fungal diseases which affect Sea buckthorn leaves, especially after warm and humid spring with a lot of rain. Some leaves can turn yellow and fall off the bush, but never to a very great extent. There is no registered fungicide which would work well on Sea buckthorn, and even in Russia (where there is a large commercial growing of this plant) the choice is very limited. I tried different fungicides and found that only myclobutanil as in Spectracide Immunox multipurpose fungicide slows yellowing of the leaves down if used as preventive fungicide in the spring. I use the dosage advised for the currant bushes, and spray twice in June. Other than the yellowing of the leaves, I did not notice any diseases in our area, but Sea buckthorn is known to be affected by verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt, for which there is  unfortunately no cure. I did not have any of these problems. On the whole, Sea buckthorn is a very healthy and easy to grow plant.

Another disease which could be devastating to the harvest is berry rot, which is caused by a zygote-infecting fungus in the spring. To prevent this disease, it is necessary to spray the bushes with forming zygotes right after pollination with copper fungicide. I noticed that the additional two sprays of the berries with myclobutanil during the summer reduce the amount of berry rot, but I would still lose ⅓ of my berries if the summer is particularly humid. Some Russian sources report that in some bad years there could be up to 80 % berry loss in the wild and up to 60% loss in private gardens. In my garden in the northeastern US the loss seems to be about 30% even during really humid summers.  Sea buckthorn is extremely productive, so if one loses about ⅓ of the harvest, there are still a lot of berries per bush. Use of Captan reduces berry rot, but the leaves may turn yellow and fall off the bush. However, Captan does not significantly affect the bush growth.

Pests

There are not many pests in our area. Deer and rabbit like to browse on young branches. I use Repel All by Bonide, and it works really well. Another noticeable pest is Japanese beetle. There are a lot of products on the market against this beetle, and any of them will do. I prefer to use organic pyrethrin and beetle traps.

Damage inflicted by Japanese beetles 

Conclusion

Sea buckthorn is a relatively easy-to-grow plant with high productivity. If one is willing to invest some effort in creating the right conditions and maintenance for this plat, one would be rewarded with high yields of juicy, sweet-sour berries loaded with vitamins and minerals. Small plantation of 8 mature females will be more than enough for one family to make juices and preserves to last till next season.

Sea buckthorn flowers in late May