We all know that cranberries are a very useful berry . But what exactly is its usefulness, how to properly harvest cranberries and where it grows, know not all. Let's clarify these points.
Cranberries are a real storehouse of vitamins. It is useful both fresh and dried. Cranberries are used in the food industry, in cooking and in folk medicine. From it you get very tasty morsels , kissels, teas. Cranberries contain a large amount of vitamin C, as well as rare trace elements of lutein, selenium, manganese. It is used to prevent colds, treatment of scurvy and cough, as a natural antipyretic.
Cranberry is large and small-fruited. The latter is grown on an industrial scale in Canada, the US, the Scandinavian countries. Berries of small-fruited cranberries grow in the tundra and forest-tundra, near the polar circle. There is another sort of cranberry, called ordinary: it is found throughout the middle band.
Cranberries grow not only in the swamp, but also in all lowlands with high humidity: in damp sphagnum coniferous forests, along the banks of swamped lakes, etc. And now find out exactly where to go for cranberries.
Where does cranberries grow in Russia?
Cranberries, collected by themselves in an ecologically clean area, are much more useful than bought in a store. It grows practically throughout the territory of Russia, except for the Kuban, the Caucasus and the southern part of the Volga region. Even in the Far East and the Arctic Circle, you can find this unique berry!
Interestingly, cranberries are mainly a "wild" plant. It is very sensitive to the ecological situation: under any adverse factors, the berry simply disappears from places disturbed by people's economic activities.
Where does cranberry grow in Ukraine?
Carpathians, Prykarpattya and Polissya are the main zones of cranberry growth in the wild nature of Ukraine. However, it is not so much left as before - the plant is dying out. The reason for this was a wrong, illiterate harvest of berries. If you go for cranberries on a swamp or peat bog, do not be lazy to get acquainted with the basic rules of collecting this capricious berries:
- Ideally, you need to collect cranberries one at a time, selecting the most mature and largest berries. But you can use a special scoop for collecting cranberries.
- All collected berries should be sorted by removing debris and damaged fruits.
- There are several ways to store cranberries: frozen or wet, or in a cool dry place.
Where does cranberries grow in Belarus?
Mounted marshes of Belarus are a paradise for lovers of cranberries. Because there is an impenetrable swamp in the Vitebsk and Minsk regions, you can collect a lot of cranberries here. In the Gantsevichi district of the Brest region it is grown for sale by an artificial method, in checks. Collecting cranberries on a swamp or in forests can be in three seasons:
- in September, when the berry is not yet fully ripe and firm (it ripens at home);
- late autumn, when the cranberry is mature, tasty and most useful;
- in the spring, from under the snow they are not collecting such an acidic berry.
If you go for cranberries to you very far, think about planting this plant in your own garden. If you are able to provide the conditions necessary for growth and fruiting (high humidity, a lot of light), this will not be difficult. Cranberries grow quickly, and only a few seedlings, rooted in the current season, in a year you will have a whole cranberry garden. And this berry is completely unpretentious in growing. We only note that the cranberry is growing on acidic soils, so before planting it is desirable to make peat, sphagnum, oak leaf compost, manure, sulfur or ferrous sulphate in the future bed.