The sea buckthorn is extremely undemanding, location tolerant and easy to care for - and yet: it has already made many a gardener despair. Why? It has to do with his roots. But what can be so bad about roots?

The basic structure of its roots

The roots of the sea buckthorn need a deep underground. The reason: deep main roots are formed that take up a lot of space. They can penetrate between 1.5 and 3 m in depth. For this reason, it is less advisable to keep sea buckthorn in a planter.

In addition to the deep main roots, there are many side roots. These extend near the surface and reach an average length of 5 m. Under ideal soil conditions, they can assume a horizontal dimension of up to 12 m.

Aggressive and ambitious roots

The downside that comes from the roots for many gardeners has to do with their urge to spread. The roots are ambitious and penetrate through cracks, flagstones, paving stones and others with a high potential for aggression in order to propagate the plant by stolons.

There are benefits too

But the roots of the sea buckthorn also have some advantages. This includes, for example, living in symbiosis with nitrogen-binding nodule bacteria. Because of this, the sea buckthorn can thrive even in locations such as sandy soil with a nutrient content that is not worth mentioning.

Another benefit is that the plant's suckering roots make it ideal for anchoring substrates such as:

  • slopes and embankments
  • riparian zones
  • sand dunes

Last but not least, the roots are salt-tolerant. They have special glands that enable them to defy salt in the ground. This means that the sea buckthorn can grow without problems in coastal regions and on roads that are covered with road salt in winter.

tips and tricks

If you want to plant sea buckthorn, you should think carefully beforehand about where to go. In addition, it should - once planted - be left in place, since its many offshoots are difficult to remove after only 2 to 3 years.

Category:

Vegetable garden