Lingonberries are now a rare guest in our gardens. People prefer to go to the forest for this berry. But it is very simple to plant it on your site. This plant is unpretentious and perfectly tolerates frosts. Knowing and observing the rules of planting, even a novice gardener will be able to grow lingonberries.
Lingonberry in the garden
Lingonberry has useful properties, grown as a garden plant, and its ability to look attractive all year long allows the use of small bushes as a landscape decoration. Thanks to these qualities, small plants with red berries can be called universal.
Through the efforts of breeders, more than 20 varieties of lingonberries with excellent performance appeared.
Glossy foliage and bright lingonberry berries will decorate your garden
You can just plant bushes as a border plant or create a stunning living carpet. Show your imagination, especially since the plant is very picky about agricultural technology. Although there are still some rules, without which attempts to grow lingonberries on the site will not succeed.
How to independently prepare the soil for planting
The correct soil composition is the key to the successful cultivation of garden lingonberries. For a plant, the fertility of the substrate is not so important as its acidity. The berry does not tolerate heavy loam, but prefers loose light loam, sandstone and peaty soils. An ideal option is sandy soil.
If the soil is slightly acidic or neutral, it will have to be acidified regularly by adding powdered sulfur at a rate of 10-15 g / m2. You can use acidified water - dilute 100 g of citric acid in 3 l of liquid or mix 20 ml of apple cider vinegar with 1 l of water. For watering 1 m2 need to use 10 l of solution.
Water and Citric Acid Can Acidify Soil
Not on every site you can find soil suitable for lingonberries. But there is a way out - to prepare the soil mixture yourself. There may be several components, but the main ingredient present in different mixtures is horse peat, the pH of which is 3-4.
Horse peat - the main component of the soil for lingonberry
The simplest composition for planting garden lingonberries is prepared from the following components:
- high peat - 3 parts;
- coarse river sand - 1 part.
You can prepare another mixture, more diverse in terms of the set of ingredients:
- high peat - 2 parts;
- coarse river sand - 1 part;
- sawdust - 1 part;
- fallen needles - 1 part.
Planting lingonberries
The planting process includes several stages, the correct implementation of which will depend on how quickly the plant takes root.
Site selection and preparatory work
For the cultivation of garden lingonberries, you can take any place, the main thing is that it is even, dry and well-lit (light partial shade is still allowed). You can plant the plant under the trees, in the shade, but then productivity will decrease, and lingonberries will delight only with elegant green foliage. Sites in the draft should be excluded, however, air stagnation should also not be.
For planting garden lingonberries, select a lit, but draft-free place
Flooded lowlands or areas where groundwater lies at a level of 40-60 cm to the surface are not suitable for planting. Excess moisture in combination with a lack of oxygen will lead to the death of the root system. In areas with waterlogged soil, you need to prepare high beds: first lay drainage (gravel or broken brick), and fill with prepared soil mixture from above.
You can use sawn peat. From the peat blocks lay out the contours of the beds, and the inside is filled with soil.
If the soil on the site is too wet, you need to prepare high ridges for lingonberries
Free the chosen place from vegetation and prepare beds. Lingonberry roots are located at a depth of no more than 10 cm, so dig a recess on the bayonet of a shovel (about 30 cm) or a little deeper. Width - 1-1.5 m.
Distance between plants:
- if the plantings are single-row, then the distance between plants is maintained about 20 cm, and in the row-spacings - 45 cm;
- tape plantings, which include from 2 to 3 rows, suggest wider row spacing - up to 60 cm. The distance between the ridge ribbons is 20-30 cm, and bushes are planted after 15-20 cm from each other;
- to create a living carpet, you can plant the bushes in a checkerboard pattern, observing a distance between them of 30-40 cm.
Video: planting lingonberries and blueberries
Landing time
Container plants are planted on prepared beds throughout the growing season. They quickly take root and easily take root in a new place. Lingonberry bushes should be transported to the bed carefully so as not to destroy the earthen lump.
Seedlings with a closed root system can be planted during any growing season
Many gardeners recognized spring as the best time for planting. But you need to plant the plant before the start of the growing season - in April or early May. Although it is also possible to engage in planting in the fall, but during this period it is better to use grown and stronger planting material.
Planting lingonberries seedlings
To plant seedlings with an open root system on a bed is not very difficult. In order for the bushes to take root well, wrap the roots with moist sphagnum moss during transportation, otherwise the root system will dry out. If you can’t plant the seedling you purchased right away, hold it until it is planted in a cool place at a temperature not exceeding 50FROM.
Step-by-step process:
- Dig a small hole in the prepared soil, slightly larger than the lingonberry root system.
- Dip the bush in the recess, freely spread the roots.
- Fill with a substrate.
- Pour the bush liberally and mulch it with a layer of 3-4 cm, but try not to fall asleep the plant itself. Mulch will help create a favorable temperature regime and retain moisture. You can use peat, sawdust, husk of pine nuts, pine bark. Such material looks decorative and acidifies the soil.
Sandy soils mulch peat and pine sawdust perfectly. For peat soils, it is better to use fine gravel or coarse sand.
After planting, cranberries need to be mulched
Bushes planted in spring must be protected from possible return frosts. Above the landings, a shelter is constructed from non-woven material stretched over metal arcs. They clean it only after complete rooting (after about 2 weeks).
Seasoned gardeners do not recommend using plastic film.
To lingonberry successfully rooted, you can build a shelter over it
Varietal lingonberries are most often sold with a closed root system. Such plants are fully adapted and easily take root. During planting, they are carefully removed from the container, and then operate according to the scheme described above. If planting occurs in early summer, then plants need to be protected from the bright sun. To do this, a rigid wire frame is installed over the beds and a translucent material is pulled onto it. After 2 weeks, when the rooting process is completed, the shelter is gradually removed, accustoming young plants to the sun.
Planting Lingonberry Seeds
This method will bring more trouble. During the fruiting period, a plant grown from seeds enters only in the 4th-5th year. But, given the high cost of planting material and its shortage, the chores will fully justify themselves.
Seeds extracted from the fruit can be sown in late autumn directly in the garden, but always in a suitable substrate. During the winter period they undergo the process of natural stratification, and in spring they emerge.
Stratification - keeping the seeds at a low temperature, because without preliminary cooling, the seed can rot.
If you do not have time with an autumn landing, then stratification is carried out at home, placing the collected material for 4 months in a refrigerator at a temperature of 4aboutC. All this time the seeds should be in wet sand.
Lingonberry seeds must be stratified before spring planting
Features of planting seeds:
- Hardened seeds are sown in a moist peat-sand substrate, which is poured into shallow containers.
- Germination temperature must be maintained within 20aboutFROM.
- Seeds germinate in the light, so you do not need to sprinkle them with earth.
- The substrate must be kept moist.
- Shoots appear after 2-3 weeks.
- The grown seedlings can be planted in open ground in the summer without destroying the earthen coma during planting.
How to plant lingonberries from the forest
Planting material can be taken in the forest. To do this, with a sharp knife, separate several bushes from the main rhizome. Together with the plants, grab the soil substrate in which the lingonberry grows. After planting for 2 weeks, while rooting occurs, shade the bushes with covering material and mulch the soil under them to avoid overdrying.
Lingonberry bush brought from the forest can be rooted in the garden.
Video: planting lingonberries and blueberries brought from the forest
Planting lingonberries in the suburbs
For cultivation in a temperate continental climate, many varieties of lingonberries are suitable. Among them is the domestic Rubin. Of foreign varieties, the following are successful:
- Sanna;
- Coral;
- Erntkrone;
- Erntezegen;
- Linnaeus;
- Sushi;
- Ida;
- Red Ammerland
- Amazonia.
Under favorable conditions, plants are able to grow rapidly, and repairing varieties yield twice a year.
Lingonberry bushes will be a real highlight in the garden near Moscow
Live lingonberry carpet is a memorable sight. But you can admire the beauty of the plant on your site. Planting bushes of garden lingonberries in the garden, you will not only create a unique corner, but also get a harvest of healthy berries.
