Sea Buckthorn

[brian]

Is any one growing this in Alberta? What is the harvesting method for berries or oil extraction?

[piquett]

I know of one group that are growing sea buckthorn and I suspect that there are more. According to a production manual I have, careful hand harvesting of the berries is often done. Sometimes this is set up as a U-pick operation. According to the manual an average picker can do 7kg of berries in one hour with about 15% of berries bursting during harvest even at the best of times. For mechanical harvesting something like a trunk, clamp-on harvester is used when the fruit is frozen on the shrub. This allows 600 kg/hour to be done with crop waste of 10%. Mechanical harvesting can result in unacceptable fruit and bark damage. Some work with the hormone ethylene to promote fruit drop is being investigated. I don't currently have any information on the oil extraction. If you would like a package of information, call my office at (780) 853-8101 and ask for me or email me your request and we'll mail a package out to you.

[piquett]

Dr. Tom Li at the Summerland Research Station, BC (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)has been actively involved with this species. There are a number of companies (both public and private) that are planting orchards in western Canada. Terry makes a good point about the difficulty of harvesting berries. The PFRA people at Indian Head, Saskatchewan are working on a spineless tree to make picking easier. Sea buckthorn was a popular shelterbelt tree. There are many shelterbelts of 20-30 year old trees in the southern prairies.

[margot]

Buckthorne? Are there different varieties? They grow wild here in Ontario. In fact they are considered a weed to be destroyed. (never have time to get around to it though) Never thought the berries could be eaten. I did not find any pictures on the internet to verify that what I think is buckthorne is in fact buckthrone.

[piquett]

For a picture, go to the Canadian Sea buckthorn Enterprizes page at http://www.seabuckthorn.com/. There are also links to other sites.

[johnseba]

Dr. Stan Blade suggested you some companies, may be possible they can help you.