Sea buckthorn, can it be pruned into a hedge?

Hiya everyone

I am thinking about getting some Sea Buckthorn (Askola + Pollmix).

I have only read about the plants and have never seen one before so I am hoping to get some info.

1) how thorny are these plants? Would they be thorny enough to stop a sheep from stripping the bark and leaves?

2) would I be able to train/prune these plants into small trees, meaning one main 'trunk'. That way I could use a tree guard and a post for support.

3) would these plants tolerate very hard pruning from a tractor unit hedge cutter? In the same way that hawthorn will.

Jay Mullaky wrote:Hiya everyone

I am thinking about getting some Sea Buckthorn (Askola + Pollmix).

I have only read about the plants and have never seen one before so I am hoping to get some info.

1) how thorny are these plants? Would they be thorny enough to stop a sheep from stripping the bark and leaves?

2) would I be able to train/prune these plants into small trees, meaning one main 'trunk'. That way I could use a tree guard and a post for support.

3) would these plants tolerate very hard pruning from a tractor unit hedge cutter? In the same way that hawthorn will.

1) Not thorny enough, at least, not the ones I have seen, which are mostly small to medium tree sized. They also do not seem to stay thickly foliated near the base. Maybe solvable by pruning.

2) I think so, yes. Many of the double handful I have seen had either one main trunk or several tightly clustered.

3) No idea! They have a reputation for robustness, but many I have seen were not really thriving, so...

It’s too sensitive to shade IMO. I think there would be a lot of branches dying off.