Some basic planting guidelines you can follow to best succeed in growing a healthy and vigorous sea buckthorn shrub.
First, the selected area should receive 6-8 hours of full sunlight daily. The soil must be well-draining, with a stable ph; a 6-7 ph range is ideal.
-Soak roots in water for about 2 hrs before planting
-Dig holes large enough to fit all the roots and the rooting part of the stem: roughly 12 “W x 12” deep.
-Mix some bone meal and good compost with the soil in the hole and add the plant
-Plant the entire bottom portion of the plants (see the above picture, for example – the black line shows the boundary where to plant).
-Fill the hole around the roots with the bone meal-compost-soil mixture.
-Pack the soil well around the stem.
-Water thoroughly. Continue watering every two days for two months.
-Add a good wood chip mulch as a weed barrier 3″ thick x 16″ D.
Each spring for the next three years, you can pull back the wood chips, add a compost top dressing, and return & add the wood chips over the top to maintain a cover of 3″ thickness. The nutrients will leach through over time. Once the shrubs have reached a mature height, mulch is no longer necessary, but adding a shovel full of compost each spring will keep your shrubs looking healthy and vital.
Remember to maintain reasonable control over the sucker plants by cutting out horizontal rhizomes beneath the turf’s surface or mowing around the shrub’s base.
