Sea Berry Growing Guide

It is no secret that we are huge fans of the Sea Berry here at One Green World. Its uses are many , but its presence in the North American landscape is relatively small. This didn’t sit right with us, so we decided it was time to shine a bit of beta-Carotene drenched light on all that is so special and perhaps even magical about this plant and its fruit. Follow along in this Sea Berry Growing Guide to learn a bit of history and gain a better understanding of this wonderful plant.

 

 

ABOUT SEA BERRIES

The Sea Berry, also known as Sea Buckthorn, is native to Europe and Asia. It grows along riverbanks, seashores, sandy dunes and mountain slopes from sea level all the way up to 12,000 feet. All parts of the plant have a long history of use in China and Russia where it has been wild harvested for centuries. It has even made its way into a few myths and legends due to its many nutritious and medicinal qualities.

Why Grow Sea Berries?

There are very few large-scale Sea Berry productions in North America. Sea Berry products, aside from in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, are fairly hard to find. Like so many of the finest fruits, if you want Sea Berries you’ll have to grow your own plants. Thankfully it is one of the easiest plants to grow, is incredibly vigorous, and is pest and disease free!

How did sea berries get their name?

The Latin name for its genus, Hippophae, translates to shiny horse in reference to its use in horse fodder. The leaves have such a high oil content that they were often mixed into horse food to produce a shiny coats. To this day they are still used in horse feeds and supplements. Some legends speak of farmers letting their old, decrepit horses out to roam the hills, thinking this far more humane than killing them. After a few days grazing on the wild Sea Berry plants that grew naturally on the hillsides, the horses would return to their owners and be mistaken for young, healthy colts with their newly shiny coats and returned vigor.

It is also said that the mythic horse Pegasus feasted upon Sea Berries and it was these magical berries that gave him wings to fly. That’s about 4,000 years before energy drink companies were claiming the power of flight through their products, making Sea Berries the original energy drink! Obviously, we believe that Sea Berry juice is far superior to any other “energy” drink on the market today. This plant is colloquially known as Sea Berry or Sea Buckthorn due to its tendency to grow in coastal climates in its native habitat.

Modern Cultivation of Sea Berries

Cultivation of the Sea Berry has only come along relatively recently, beginning in Russia in the 1940’s. Scientists first began to research and discover what had long been known as folk medicine traditions. Some of the first commercially harvested Sea Berries in Russia were used in The Great Space Race! They are believed to be helpful in protecting humans from radiation. In preparation to leave Earth’s atmosphere, Yuri Gagarin was given an extraordinarily large dose of Sea Berries as well as a Sea Berry skin cream to protect against any potential radiation, thus making the Sea Berry the first cosmic berry!

Sea Berries were almost completely unknown to North American growers until introduced to Canada in the 1930’s by Dr. L. Skinner at the Morden Research Station in Manitoba. They were later planted out on the Canadian prairies by the Shelterbelt Center of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. These hedgerows provided much of the genetic material to early North American Sea Berry researchers. Canadians continue to plant out large shelterbelts of Sea Berries for stabilizing erodible soils. Major developments in named fruiting cultivars have come to us from Europe and Asia, specifically in Russia.

How Sea Berries Made it to OGW

And this is where our very own hometown hero Jim Gilbert enters the Sea Berry scene. Jim, who is fluent in Russian, has taken many trips to Europe and Russia over the years. During his trips, he collected the finest available Sea Berry cultivars known to the world. He also brought them back here to make them available to North American growers! Many farmers around the country have since grown out seedlings of these varieties in attempts to improve upon them, but breeding programs in North America are still very much in their infancy.

SITE SELECTION

Sunlight Requirements

When selecting your planting site, the first thing to consider is that Sea Berries are very shade intolerant. As a pioneer species that is adapted to colonizing disturbed areas it requires full day sunlight to reach maximum productivity. It is possible to grow Sea Berries in half day sun, but anything below six hours of direct sunlight and productivity begins to decline drastically. While sea berries love full sun, they can struggle in prolonged high humidity and prefer more arid climates.

Chill Hours

Sea berry typically requires between 600 to 1,000 chill hours to break dormancy and produce fruit effectively. Chill hours refer to the number of hours that temperatures are between 32°F and 45°F during the winter months.

Soil Conditions

Good drainage is essential as well, otherwise plants will die from root rot. If your soil is too acidic or richly organic? Mix limestone sand into your planting hole, which will keep things well drained and alkaline. They prefer a sandy loam, but even growers with heavy clay soils have successfully grown Sea Berries if they are planted on a slope that drains well.

Coastal growers will also benefit from Sea Berry’s tolerance of saline soils. They often grow on coastal dunes and slopes where the ocean spray makes it impossible for larger saline-intolerant species to grow up and shade out the Sea Berries. This adaptation is also especially relevant for urban growers who might receive salt build up in their soils from road salt used in winter road maintenance.

As a nitrogen fixing species it can tolerate some of the poorest nutrient deficient soils. We have thoroughly tested this, planting in gravelly parking strips, post construction backfill, rocky outcropping where nearly no soil has formed, coarse sandy soils, etc. and the Sea Berry plant thrives where most other species wouldn’t stand a chance.

Sea Berry plants will actually improve soil conditions over time. It has a broad pH tolerance, from 5.5 to 8.0, although it should be noted that the symbiotic root nodule-dwelling Frankia bacteria that are responsible for the Sea Berry’s ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen prefer a pH of 5.5-7.0. Plants will survive temperatures from -45 degrees Fahrenheit to 105 degrees Fahrenheit but typically set better crops below 90 degrees, and they are relatively drought tolerant.

Common Nutrient Deficiencies for Sea Berries

Although they can tolerate nearly any well-draining soil conditions, there are a few nutrient deficiencies you may run into when growing them at home. Any yellowing of the leaves may indicate a deficiency in nitrogen or potassium. Marginal chlorosis, shortened stem internodes and death of the terminal bud may be due to a phosphorus deficiency and delayed opening of the flowers and leaf buds in spring or small chlorotic leaves may indicate a Zinc deficiency. These deficiencies are rare but worth noting.

FAQ: Can Sea Berries become invasive? Sea Berries have not shown to be invasive within the contiguous United States due to their intolerance of shade and inability to propagate via seed in most climates.

The ability of Sea Berries to thrive in poor soil conditions and colonize rapidly might raise a red flag for those concerned with invasive species. It is true that Sea Berry plants will sometimes sucker from the root system so be sure your maintenance plan accounts for this. Mowing the suckers down is sufficient to keep them fully contained.

Another strategy is to come in with a sharp spade once a year and cut any runners from the roots. Sea Berry has not demonstrated the ability to spread rapidly by seed. The extreme shade intolerance also makes it unlikely to be a problematic species, especially in regard to woodland ecosystems.

POLLINATION

Seaberries require both Male and Female plants for fruit set. Plant at least one male per every 3-6 females. Place the male upwind if you have a prevailing wind direction, and no further than 50 feet.

PRUNING

This may be the most confusing aspect of growing Sea Berries for many home orchardists as well as production farmers. Typically, these plants are so productive that even a sloppy pruning will still give you an abundance of fruit. However, proper pruning techniques will give you a more manageable shrub as well as long term productivity and larger crops.

General fruit tree pruning techniques can be applied to Sea Berry plants. Remove dead wood, downward facing branches, overlapping or crowded branches. The goal is light penetration throughout the entire canopy, just as it would be with any other fruit tree.

The goals for Sea Berry pruning are:

• Improve branching habit
• Maintain an optimum number of new and young fruiting branches
• Remove old, weak & non-productive branches
• Increase light penetration
• Maintain an annual bearing habit.

Shaping Your Sea Berry

With young plants, remove the terminal bud as well as any superfluous lower branches. Removing the terminal bud will create a more bush like habit.

Keeping trees at a height of 6-9 feet greatly reduces the shaded interior of the plant. This keeps them at a much more manageable height for pruning and harvesting. In general downward facing branches are the least productive and can be removed. Upward facing branches are typically vigorous vegetative growth, and can also be removed. Horizontal branches are the most productive and heavily laden with fruit. Plants are pruned in late winter or early spring before buds begin to open.

Fruiting Wood

Eighty percent of berries are born on second year wood, so maximizing the amount of second year wood on a year-to-year basis is the goal. One of the issues with this is that one of the most common and effective ways of harvesting Sea Berries, especially on a smaller scale, is to cut off the entire fruit-laden branch and freeze it before popping the frozen berries off. This is due to the lack of an abscission layer in the berries making them very difficult for hand picking. So again, you need to be sure that you are maintaining a healthy amount of second year branches each year to maintain a high level of fruit production.

HARVESTING

As previously mentioned, the harvest of Sea Berries can be somewhat tricky. This may be one of the biggest reasons why there aren’t more large-scale Sea Berry farms. The lack of an abscission layer and the small size of the berry, as well as its tendency to “pop” when picked make harvesting difficult. Sea Berry plants are also somewhat thorny, and this adds to the difficulty of hand harvesting.

Small Scale Berry Harvesting

On the small scale the most efficient harvest method we have found is to cut off the entire fruit laden branch and freeze it. Freezing turns the berries from little water balloons that often explode into solid berries that can easily be popped of the branch. Berries can then be stored frozen for the long term and thawed out as needed. Utilize fruit for juices, jams, sorbets, smoothies, or more!

Oil and Dried Leaf Harvesting

Though we often focus on the berry, Sea Berry plants are also valued throughout the world for their oil, often used in medicinal and beauty products. The soil can be pressed from the seeds and leaves, the leaves often being easier to harvest. The leaves can also be dried and use for teas.

ORCHARD DESIGN

Typically, Sea Berry farms are oriented on north-south rows to maximize sunlight penetration to every plant in the orchard. It is important to note that Sea Berries are a dioecious species! This means they produce their male and female flowers on separate plants. For larger plantings one male planted every fifth plant and repeated every fourth row has proven to be one of the most productive male to female patterns. Flowers are wind pollinated so it is worth noting the direction of your spring winds when laying out your plantings.

Within the rows plants are typically spaced 3 to 5 feet apart with 16-20 feet between each row. Home orchardists can use wider spacing between plants if a more ornamental or spreading form is desired.

Young plantings require irrigation, especially where summer rainfall is low. In Mediterranean or desert climates the plants may always need irrigation for optimum fruit production.

NUTRITIONAL AND MEDICINAL VALUE OF SEA BERRIES

The nutritional and medicinal qualities of the Sea Berry plant have long been valued throughout many parts of the world. The many properties and components of this amazing plant we could fill an entire book, but we will touch on a few of its wonderful qualities here.

Carotenoids

The Sea Berry fruit is famously known for its incredibly high concentration of carotenoids that give the berries their deep orange color. Carotenoids boost the body’s immune system and carotenoids in Sea Berries are especially easy for our bodies to absorb because of the oil content that is present in the fruits.

Omega Faty Acids

Sea Berries are also a great source of omega fatty acids, including palmitic fatty acids, palmitoleic (omega 7), oleic (omega 9), linoleic (omega 6), and linolenic (omega 3) fatty acids.

Vitamins

Concentration of vitamin C in Sea Berries is much higher than those found in oranges, strawberries, or kiwis and concentration of vitamin E is higher than those found in wheat, maize, or soybean.

Other vitamins include vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B9, B12, D, and the trace minerals potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, iodine, iron, chromium, selenium, and zinc. A 2010 report by Food Research International stated that Sea Berries contain 18 out of 22 known amino acids!

Cosmetics

In the cosmetics industry the oil has long been valued for its use in decreasing wrinkles, as an antimicrobial, antiseptic, and for its ability to regenerate tissue. Many medicine traditions have also used the oil as a pain reliever and for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Reports show Sea Berries consumption may improve the bodies abilities to inhibit tumor development and eradicate free radicals. Sea Berry consumption also improves cardiovascular activity and immune system functioning.

For more detailed information on Sea Berry’s nutritional and medicinal components check out some of the amazing articles and websites listed in the resource section below.

Other Resources:

Li & Beveridge. Sea BUckthorn Production and Utilization. NRC Research Press. (2003).

Li, TSC. “Sea Buckthorn: New Crop Opportunity.” Hort.purdue.edu (1999) http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/pdf/v4-335.pdf

Sabir SM, et al. “Elemental and nutritional analysis of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides ssp. turkestanica) Berries of Pakistani origin.” PubMed.gov (2005)

Bal LM, et al. “Sea buckthorn berries: A potential source of valuable nutrients for nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals.” Food Research International (2010)

Goel, HC, Bala M. “Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) as a Radio-Protector.” Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (n.d.)