I lucked out one fall when a manager at a hardware store told the cashier all remaining plants were now $1. I picked up the last few blueberry plants. Quite a bargain. I’ve had some success propagating both softwood and hardwood cuttings. I’m also going to try air layering some. The cost of plants definitely fluctuates seasonally.
I did this with a Northland Blueberry plant and a Pink Lemonade. Except I did not use Rooting powder just used about a cup of water and stuck them in it until I seen the small fibrous roots.
Thank you! I put my little cuttings into individual plastic cups (with drilled drainage holes) and then put the lot of them into a fairly clear lidded tote box, in the shade. When I moved here, I found 4 blueberry bushes planted in very dense shade, so I'm hoping to move them, more or less, via cuttings. Fingers crossed. Great video. Where do you keep them over the winter? It can get really cold here (-20C). Should I take them into the house? Bury them hay/shavings?
I am giving your protocol a try; Not to proliferate the species, but rather this. I have whittled down my patch from a dozen or so plants to just four to make room for other “stuff”. Of the four one is a pathetic producer and one provides berries twice the size (and twice as sweet) as the others. So my goal is to clone this plant. If I can get just one, I would consider it a success. I took numerous cuttings (15) of various configurations and planted them in pure peat. I could find no suitable cover so I made one from translucent vinyl and soldered copper wire. They have been sitting under a tree, but do get a coupla hours of direct sunlight, mitigated by the vinyl. The moisture has been maintained evidenced by the condensation inside the cover. After two months (today) I looked at a couple and there seemed to be some ever-so-tiny protrusions that I optimistically hope are roots forming. Most of the leaves that were attached are brown and have fallen off. Should I fertilize? Come the winter months should I leave it to harden - temperatures here are below freezing? Alternately, I have a “grow” area in the basement that we winter the moveable outdoor plants, including a Meyer lemon. It is about 65 degrees F and I maintain the humidity at about 55% with a light source that was sufficient for the task. I lean toward the latter. Thanks for the reply. Bob
I see you’ve answered this already in another post the further down I read. Thanks! And yes a follow up video on how they look once they set roots and transplanting! 😊
Somebody commented that two or more varieties are needed to get pollination. I haven’t seen that to be the case, with my high bush blueberries (3 of, I think, the same variety). But I’ve read that rabbit eye blueberries DO require more than one variety to get production. It’s all a bit puzzling. I learned that tomatillo plants seem to need a second plant (not variety, just a second plant), to get the flowers to pollinate. That’s personal experience and is puzzling, because plants needing a second variety makes some sense, but merely needing a second plant of the same variety is another twist to pollination. Anybody have good resources or links on pollination like this?
If the second plant is close enough to the first plant they will cross pollinate or be cross-pollinated with your pollinators. Seems to provide a better quantity and better yield overall and taste.
Do you need to mist or otherwise add moisture or is a "mostly sealed" containment enough to keep high humidity / moisture in soil? Also should you check every few days and let a little air in or mist?
About using rain water, well here in New Jersey, this year, we haven't had much rain. So I have no choice but to use tap water. Will that not produce a good crop plus it'sy first year growing B.B? Reply please
Hi Pat, rainwater is better, but tap water is better than no water! They should still produce. Depends on ‘hard’ your water is… In the short term it will be okay. Feed them well with a suitable ericaceous feed…
OK so I'm trying to be a plantasuar lol ..... I live on a 3rd floor apt . So I got my whole balcony pretty much taken up. But I do have a green house I'm getting tons of afids! #iseetgeminmdreams or should I say nightmares. What do you do for this problem I'm having to clean plants like every other day! I've had about afid as much as I can take . It's funny because the plants I do have are supposed to deter them n they are living on them. Such as basil for example. I need help with my blueberry bush I bought it from home depot. I see what your saying about crown and all but help. Lol . Do you answer dms or can u post a video on this to get opion on this matter? If so may be u can help with other lovelies 🥹🖕🙏. If not koolIio I'm just crazy plant mom who needs help... I even started my own worm farm with red wigglers in a huge garbage can. So I conpost in that. I'm trying I'd hate to see all my hard work go towards it for nothing . I also heard milk bath I personally dnt drink milk but I hear that the queens of the world bathed I. It lol . So these plants are expensive. But since I've been composting for yrs I dnt even have to add seeds or anything to the soil and something is ded sure to grow. Help! Please 🙏
Its also important to pinch off the top (apical meristem). Due to apical dominance, by removing these auxins, the topmost leaf nodes begin to develop, and they produces their own auxins that suppress the growth of nodes below them on the stem. This is a way of stimulating the auxins to root. It will definitely get you more success. Thanks for your tips.
i don't have fruit bushes in pots or use any fancy soil medium for them but i do find woodchips work real well for acid loving fruit plants, mind you i'm in Yorkshire so we're pretty acidic to start with. I will give them a decent watering with compost tea at the end/start of every season too and top up the soil when i see some sinking. When i make cuttings from my gooseberries i usually just bend a large branch over and half snap it before poking it into the soil and leaving to root, works a treat. I'll do that early on in the season with new growth, like now, so that this time next year i've got a solid plant to do whatever i want with. My blueberries are still pretty new so not tried anything with them yet but would like to do some guerilla gardening with them, not got the space for too many but i live right next to some abandoned railway lines thats ideal for fruit bushes. I saw them in Asda earlier today at a fiver
I use peat moss as a growing medium for my blueberries . It’s perfect acidity for them. They Can be grown in pots or in ground. I use rabbit manure and azalea fertilizer. Avoid any other strong manures as it will burn the roots. They will thrive in this mix. I grow high bush varieties in central Texas with great success using this method.
Thank you so much for this demonstration and information. And there I had thought I'd have to buy more blueberry bushes when all I need to do is take cuttings from the two I've had for years. Very helpful video.
I've been trying for two years and failing. You included things in your video that the others didn't. I'll go try again with these methods. Thanks. It was a great video.
The detailed instruction was good like how/where to cut, reason for removing leaves, rooting method and reasoning, how to cover and why, what type area to leave them in, etc.. Quite notable was finding out that there is a such thing as an organic, nonhormonal rooting powder. Thanks for giving explanations in this video.
ok bare with me this ended up a bit longer than intended but wanted to share this…. As you mentioned you gain very little benefits from using compost until the plant is rooted , which you are better off having low nutrients so the roots will SEARCH and get out there and ready to explode with life once you water it with compost. If you wanna skip my longwinded rambles…. I suggest cocofibre with various ammounts of vermiculite/perlite and peat depending upon the moisture and drainage needs of specific plants for rooting. And use a willow extract if concerned about chemistry, you can make your OWN willow based tea but it needs to be used. One thing I do is I soak my cuttings IN a willow tea I made by BLENDING willow in a BLENDER, then using a french press to get a clean clear tea, this seems to work better than anything else. Also, be damn careful with concentrating seaweed based products, SADLY they can introduce all the micro nutrients you need yes, alongside giant ammounts of alllllll the heavy metals and depending upon your location many other pollutants. one alternative is stinging nettle as long as you are not smoking anything grown in silica enriched soil…. ☠☠☠☠ Im not sure blueberry needs as much as other faster plants like Tomatoes, strawberry, potatoes, pumpkins.. the soil where they grow is not so rich , it is quite low, hence why they have evolved to grow slower. Plants like Tomatoes are growing in busier places where the nutrient cycle is able to cycle faster and dump more nutes into the soil…. Near or in partnership with nitrogen fixing plants…. Imagine seeing a lupine and belladonna in the same place as a blueberry? Nope, you are more likely to see MUSHROOMS, moss, and tree droppings, which contributes to nice soil for tomatoes IF you add some chalk and organic material…. Regarding rooting hormone and nutrient concoctions Most governments allow companies to get away with fraudulent claims on gardening products much like they do with “health supplements” often worse. if it is missing the HORMONE from the ingredients it is NOT HORMONE and if they had some magic substance that doubles as a hormone and does the same thing then this discovery would be published and well documented , it is like using homeopathic remedies , they don’t do a single thing for you but cost the same or more than the things that are evidence based.
Valeu, muito obrigado pelas dicas, Comprei um pé de mertilo e quero fazer mudas com ele na hora da poda, suas dicas vão mim ajudar, quero fazer uma plantação dessa fruta na minha chácara.
My one blue berry bush arrived with half of the bush slightly yellow. I thought it would perk up after being planted. I learned toda that my soul needed a 5-5.5 pH. Something has been eating the plant. I have used diatomaceous powder & Neem oil to no avail. The only blue berry that turned blue disappeared over night. I covered the plant with netting. What else would you suggest? I am ordering supplied to made an acidic dirt. Am I too late to save this plant?
Planting in the right medium should help. If it is a small bush I would wash all the soil from the roots and dip the whole plant in a big bucket of water before replanting to wash off any bugs.
I have a blueberry plant in my back yard. I never flowered or produced fruit because it is dry, often drought conditions, and poor soil and I never took care of it for years and years. I'm surprised it is still alive. I could grow it in a pot. I'll take a cutting and try it.
@@DontCropMeNow50% is better than me. I’ve had at most 20% success rate, across both hard and softwood cuttings. But about 10 "free" plants is better than none.
That video was awesome..I got a kit for growing pink oyster mushrooms..I love shitake and white button mushrooms!!..nothing like fried onion,squash, potatoe,mushroom&tomatoes❤❤❤
Wish I had seen this sooner just cut back my blueberries . Thank you for sharing , guess what I’ll be doing from now on . Just paid £25 for a new blueberry bush . A newbie from Scotland best wishes .
I'm not even halfway through and this is pretty good. Did u explain soft wood vs hard wood cuttings, time of year ect? I just read hardwood cuttings are easier. Softwood needs constant misting and high humidity I just read. Sorry haven't watched the whole thing yet so sorry if any redundancy. I have no idea what I'm doing but gonna give it a shot. Good thing I ask because someone else suggested vinegar water, I asked another person I trust more and they said no. What If they are in bloom already? I have some with flowers and I just got them so I was gonna cut them off so the plant downs fruit the 1st year I have it. They say 1st year but is it my first year or the plants first year? How old are those foot tall plants u get at the store? I'm confused about that
GREAT INFO! I only have one blueberry, it's getting bigger but no blooms. I JUST learned you have to plant at least 2. So when is the best time of year to take these cuttings and eventually transplant? Spring? Summer?
It is better with 2 different varieties. I would recommended to buy another. Then take cuttings if both to increase stock. Spring is best for softwood.
Coming a little late to this party but I loved your video. A question you don't cover is when is the best season to take these cuttings. Should I wait until after we have harvested our berries or should I take some cuttings before the fruit has set? Thanks?
I don’t think you need two or more. I had 3 bushes that I’m fairly certain were the same variety. That said, I’ve heard it helps to increase productivity to have more than one variety.
