Honeysuckle is a popular berry among gardeners. It is especially appreciated for its healing properties and early ripeness. Currently, breeders have bred a large number of varieties with excellent qualities: excellent yield, resistance to adverse climatic conditions and diseases. One such cultivar is Cinderella.
A Brief History of Variety Creation
This honeysuckle variety got its name by chance, scientists called it for the hard work with which Cinderella produces its fragrant and delicious berries. This variety belongs to the species Kamchatka honeysuckle, which is considered the most winter-hardy and unpretentious of all berry crops.
Cinderella was obtained as a result of free pollination of Kamchatka honeysuckle at the Siberian Research Institute of Horticulture named after Lisavenko in Barnaul. The authors of the variety are Z.I. Archer, I.P. Kalinina and Z.P. Zholobova. Cinderella’s honeysuckle has been in the state variety test since 1983, and was included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation in 1991 and recommended for cultivation in Western and Eastern Siberia, as well as in the Urals.
Botanical portrait
The honeysuckle of the Cinderella variety is a dwarf shrub with thin curved branches and small leaves of a light green hue. The variety is characterized by early maturity. Already in the 3rd year, he begins to bear fruit. Cinderella's productivity is relatively low, only 1.7 kg per bush, but this disadvantage is offset by the harmonious taste of berries with a slight acidity and a pleasant strawberry aroma, as well as excellent winter hardiness and resistance to common ailments.
Cinderella's berries are large, their length reaches 1.5 cm, and their weight is 1-1.4 g. The shape of the fruit is elongated, and the thin skin is almost black in color and has a bluish coating.
The variety is self-infertile. In order for Cinderella to present you with her fruits, several pollinating varieties must be planted on the site. As stated by the authors, any varieties of Kamchatka honeysuckle are suitable for pollination, but experienced gardeners believe that the best neighbors for Cinderella will be the varieties:
- Leningrad giant;
- Blue spindle;
- Amphora;
- Kamchadalka;
- Tomichka.
Photo gallery: pollinator varieties for honeysuckle Cinderella
- Honeysuckle Leningrad giant - one of the largest fruit varieties
- Honeysuckle Blue spindle - an early ripe variety, an excellent pollinator for Cinderella
- Honeysuckle Amphora - winter-hardy and productive variety
- Kamchadalka honeysuckle is one of the most common varieties of Siberian breeding
- Tomichka is a wonderful honeysuckle variety suitable for pollination of many cultivars, including Cinderella
Table: Variety Advantages and Disadvantages
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Video: Honeysuckle Cinderella
How to choose the best place for honeysuckle on the site and plant it in accordance with all the rules
Honeysuckle prefers loose, nutritious and water-intensive soil with a neutral reaction. Pick a sunny area for planting a seedling, here the plant will lay more fruit buds.
Although Cinderella can grow in a shaded area, the yield will be lower.
When choosing a seedling, give preference to two- or three-year-olds with a closed root system (in the container). The distance between the honeysuckle bushes should be left about 1.5-2 m, they grow very quickly.
Planting can be done both in spring and autumn. To do this, prepare in advance the pits for planting a seedling:
- We dig a hole with a width and depth of about 40 cm. At the same time, put the top layer on one side and the bottom on the other.
- The top layer of the earth is mixed with 1 bucket of compost or humus, 1 liter of wood ash. Pour the nutrient mixture into the pit.
- Moisturize the resulting substrate.
The process of planting a seedling
After preparatory measures, you can proceed with the landing of honeysuckle.
- We take out a sapling from a capacity together with an earthen lump. If the honeysuckle has an open root system, then carefully straighten the roots and soak for 30 minutes in water with the addition of Epin.
- In the middle of the fossa we make a hole equal to the volume of the root system, and we plant honeysuckle into it.
- We add nutrient soil and again we spill the plantings well with warm water.
When planting, it must be taken into account that the seedling cannot be buried.
Video: how to plant honeysuckle
How to care for honeysuckle
To honeysuckle Cinderella gave a good harvest, she, like other garden crops, needs careful care.
Watering and feeding
In the first year after planting, young bushes of honeysuckle require special attention. In a dry summer, the plant must be moistened once a week by pouring 2 buckets of water under one bush. After watering, it is recommended to loosen the soil. This must be done very carefully, since the root system of the culture is superficial.
The fertilizer that you added to the hole during planting is enough for the plant for 2 years, but in the third year after planting, you need to start feeding the crop. Before flowering and immediately after harvesting, honeysuckle bushes are watered with a solution of nitrogen fertilizer based on chicken droppings (concentration of 1 tbsp. Per bucket of water). Feeding insist for 2 days. Fertilizer is applied on moist soil in the evening hours.
In the second half of summer, honeysuckle is recommended to be fed with soft humic fertilizer (the solution is made according to the instructions) or infusion of wood ash. Do it this way: 100-150 g of dry ash are gradually poured into a bucket of water and thoroughly mixed until it is almost completely dissolved. The solution is applied to the ground or sprayed with bushes.
Sanitary and anti-aging pruning
It is desirable to form a Cinderella, then the honeysuckle bushes will be more productive and prettier. The first pruning of young specimens is carried out immediately after landing at a permanent place. All weak branches are cut, leaving 3-5 strong shoots on the bush, which are also shortened by a third of the length. After that, it will be enough to carry out sanitary pruning, cutting out all damaged and dry shoots.
Usually, after 7 years of cultivation, honeysuckle yields begin to decline, so that this does not happen, it is necessary to carry out anti-aging pruning in the fall, cutting out all the old branches. They should not be pitied, bushes in the spring very quickly build up green mass, flowering and fruiting of the crop are restored.
Honeysuckle harvest
The main harvest of honeysuckle is in early June. This is the very first berry ripening on garden plots. Cinderella must be collected in two passes, as her berries ripen unevenly. Since the fruits are prone to shedding, during the collection you can spread cotton under the bush.
Honeysuckle Cinderella is universal, its fruits are dried (and then tea is brewed with them), frozen, jam, jam, compote are prepared. The culture is healing not only berries, its leaves, bark and twigs also contain a large number of vitamins and trace elements, they are used to treat and prevent many diseases.
Gardeners reviews on honeysuckle Cinderella
This variety is not sprawling, compact, does not take up much space, undersized (height up to 1 meter), productive. It grows with us next to Velvet, Fire Opal, Blue spindle. They pollinate each other well. Of the four varieties, it is the most delicious. Honeysuckle berries are very well preserved during freezing. In winter, when defrosting, add a little sugar or honey - delicious!
NadezhdaNV//forum.vinograd.info/showthread.php?t=7369
I have Valentine and Cinderella. There is no bitterness, I really like their taste - a little different, but equally pleasant, but the size of berries does not go in any comparison with Morena!
elimus//www.websad.ru/archdis.php?code=131378
I don’t know how other varieties are bitter, but Cinderella and the Blue Spindle have a small bitterness in me, this is noticeable when you make jam, because I love a little bitterness, then I like it.
Mandrake//www.forumhouse.ru/threads/17135/
If you really want not bittersweet, but tasty and even sweet - look for the varieties Nymph, Morena, Leningrad giant, Cinderella, Blue spindle. And do not look at the size of the berries - this is not always an indicator of their pleasant taste.
Helga//www.forumhouse.ru/threads/17135/
Gardeners growing Cinderella's honeysuckle note its refined taste and pleasant strawberry aroma. Although the variety is not considered the most productive, it is worth planting on the site to enjoy delicious berries at the very beginning of summer.