Irga - shrub, fruiting with small berries of dark blue color. The native land of the irgi is considered to be North America, but thanks to its unpretentiousness, the plant grows well in our country. In the wild, it can be found on the edges and mountain slopes, where there is a lot of sunlight. But today it can also be seen on many personal plots.
Features irgi
Shrub belongs to the family of pink. In total, there are 19 varieties of shadberry in nature, and each of them gives edible sweet berries. There are other names for this shrub - vine berry, shady shrub, korinka, northern grapes, etc.
Due to its unique composition, the berries of irgi are often used in traditional medicine. Not only fresh berries, but also frozen or dried fruits are recommended for combating vitamin deficiency and strengthening the body's defenses.
In Russia, you can find 3 varieties of this plant:
- Irga olkholistnaya.The shrub can grow up to 4 meters tall and has several trunks with smooth, gray bark. Shrub blossoms small, white flowers with a pleasant aroma. Berries of shadberry alder are small, sweet and have a purple tint. With good care for season 1, up to 10 kg of berries can be picked from a bush.
- Irga blood red. Usually this kind of shrub grows no more than 3 meters in height. The leaves are oval-shaped and in autumn they change their shade to orange. A distinctive feature of flowers is a fairly large size and elongated shape of the petals.
- Irga Canadian. In this type of shrub flowers form inflorescences with a diameter of about 3 cm. Berries of Canadian irgi are small, sweet and fleshy, painted in a dark pink shade. The leaves of the bush may have a purple or copper shade that changes to dark red in the fall. The maximum yield of this type is about 6 kg of berries from 1 bush.
Growing irgi
This plant is unpretentious. The most important thing is to choose the right place for its planting and prepare the soil.
You can plant it, both in spring and autumn. Although experienced gardeners argue that the bush, planted in the fall, will develop much better. So that the irgi shoots do not have to reach upwards in search of a sufficient amount of light, spending the main force on it, you need to plant a shrub in a well-lit area.
In order to maximize the number of berries, and the next growth did not form, you need to plant shrubs in loam or sandy loam soil. Before planting, it must be dug up and fertilized with a phosphorus-potassium mixture at the rate of 40 g per 1 m². The shrub is planted to a depth of about 10-15 cm.
Breeding irgi
Perhaps several different methods of propagating shadberry: seeds, layering and cuttings.
The seeds of the plant are formed after ripening berries. To plant seeds in the ground should be immediately after their extraction from the juicy pulp. To do this, they are buried in the soil by 1-2 cm, watered and covered with a layer of straw or fallen leaves. Spring shoots need to transplant. It is possible to land the irgu on a permanent place only 3 years after planting the seeds.
For grafting using the top of a well-developed plant with several buds. To do this, cut 15 cm of the top, removing all the leaves from the bottom, leaving the top 2. The cut is soaked in a solution that can enhance root growth. In the ground, the cuttings are planted at an angle of about 4 cm apart.
So that the cutting does not start to rot, sand should be poured from above. Water the seedlings using a fine sieve, thus creating a splashing effect.
Top saplings covered with greenhouse. And after their strengthening, the greenhouse is sometimes removed to allow the plant to breathe. Strengthened sprouts for rearing are planted on a special garden bed, feeding with manure slurry. At a permanent place they can be landed only after 1 year.
Layers form in the spring, after heating the soil. To this end, the shrub with a growth is buried on a specially prepared garden bed. In parallel, you need to pinch the top. After a few weeks, as soon as the shoot grows older, it is replenished with half the earth. When the shoot takes root, it is carefully trimmed and planted in a permanent place.
Care and pruning shadberry
The shrub does not usually require special personal care and can grow by itself. Periodically, it should be fed fertilizer with nitrogen. And in order for the crown of the plant to have an attractive appearance, it must be cut off.
Each bush should have from 10 to 20 branches of different ages. All weak shoots are removed.
If irga begins to grow poorly, it needs a rejuvenating mildness. To do this, every few years should remove most perennial wood.
Harvest irgi
The peculiarity of this plant is that the berries on one hand can grow unevenly, which makes it difficult to collect them. The fruits of the plant are harvested several times over the summer, as they mature.
Eating berries can be eaten raw, compote, jam or jam made from them. They are also suitable for making juice or wine.And dried irguu is often compared with raisins.
To protect irguu from birds, which often destroy part of the crop, experienced gardeners recommend covering the bush with a net.
Useful properties of irgi
In the composition of these sweet and juicy berries are many vitamins, minerals, mineral salts and tannins. Due to this irga has a lot of useful properties:
- saturates the body with beneficial substances, preventing the development of beriberi;
- used for the prevention of various diseases of the cardiovascular system;
- protects against varicose veins;
- increases the elasticity of the vascular walls;
- berry juice has anti-inflammatory and astringent properties, therefore it is indicated for diseases of the digestive system;
- the fruits of the shrub have a sedative effect and are recommended for people exposed to constant stress;
- normalize sleep;
- improve eyesight;
- help with stomatitis and purulent quinsy.
In addition to the berries of irgi, in folk medicine they use leaves, flowers and bark of the bush for the preparation of therapeutic agents.
Contra indications
But, even considering the enormous benefits of these berries, there is a category of people who are contraindicated in the use of shad and medicines based on it. These are those who have individual intolerance and hypotension.
Since the berries have a sedative property, immediately after their use it is recommended not to hurry to get behind the wheel of a car or control mechanisms that require high concentration of attention.
Irga is an unpretentious plant that each of us can grow in our summer cottage. In addition to the decorative effect, the plant will give you a lot of tasty and healthy berries.
