Hippophae rhamnoides subsp. carpatica
Carpathian sea buckthorn
Common names: sea buckthorn, sand berry
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −30 °C
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Spacing
- 200 cm, rows 250 cm
- Water need
- Low
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: Виталий Уайлд · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The Carpathian sea buckthorn is a particularly productive, less thorny selection of the native sea buckthorn. Its bright orange berries are rich in vitamin C and taste intensely sour‑fruity, making them ideal for juice, jam or syrup. The shrub is a nitrogen fixer, stabilises slopes, and is extremely low‑maintenance. Plant one male tree for several females, as only the females bear fruit.
Care instructions
Plant in autumn (October, week 42) or spring (March, week 12) in full sun on sandy, well‑drained soil; it does not tolerate waterlogging. Water only during the first year. Harvest from September (week 37) by cutting whole fruiting branches and removing frozen berries, which is easier than picking the soft berries. Keep the root runners in check with a spade.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestSep–Oct
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, well-drained, lime-loving, lean
Give the sea buckthorn a sandy-gravelly, very free-draining and rather lean soil. It does not tolerate waterlogging or heavy, humus-rich soils. A neutral to slightly chalky subsoil (pH 6 to 8) is ideal; if the soil is acidic, lime it before planting.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
Sea buckthorn needs hardly any nutrients: in spring, it is enough to work a thin layer of mature compost in shallowly around the plant every few years. Deliberately avoid nitrogen-heavy feeding. Through its root symbiosis, sea buckthorn fixes nitrogen from the air itself, and too much of it only encourages foliage instead of fruit.
Overwintering
The Carpathian sea buckthorn is fully hardy and needs no winter protection in the lowlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, no fleece, no covering. Leave the berries hanging on the shrub and prune it only in late winter, before the new growth comes; give young plants a little water in their first winter on frost-free days after a long dry spell.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
- Runners
- From seed
The most reliable way to propagate sea buckthorn is vegetatively, because it is dioecious (separate male and female plants). When grown from seed, the sex becomes apparent only after 3 to 4 years.
Suckers (the easiest method): Sea buckthorn forms vigorous root suckers that emerge from the ground up to six metres from the mother shrub. In spring or autumn, cut off a well-developed sucker with as long a piece of root as possible and plant it directly at the new location. Keep an eye on even moisture during the first weeks.
Layering: In spring, bend a young, flexible shoot from the outer part of the shrub down close to the ground, bury it flat in a hollow and cover it with soil. The shoot tip stays free. Keep it moist; the following spring, when new shoots appear, detach it from the mother shrub and replant it.
Cuttings: In summer (July/August), cut semi-ripe shoots about 15 to 20 cm long. Remove the leaves from the lower third and insert them into a free-draining substrate (e.g. a sand and soil mix). Keep them bright and evenly moist; rooting works, but takes patience. Taking several cuttings improves the success rate. Alternatively, cut hardwood cuttings in late autumn from fully woody shoots of the previous year.
Sowing (with a caveat): Sea buckthorn is a cold-stratification seed. Soak the seeds overnight, then stratify them moist and cool in the fridge (2 to 5 °C) for several weeks (about 6 to 12 weeks) to break dormancy. Then place them on moist seed compost, cover only lightly (needs light to germinate) and bring them to germination at 20 to 25 °C. Note: since the sex is unknown, always raise several plants and later make sure there is at least one male among several females.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
For your garden
Grow Carpathian sea buckthorn yourself
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