Propagating blueberries (again)

My experiment in propagating blueberry plants was a failure.

If you remember, in late June I tried my hand at rooting some blueberry cuttings. I mixed some nice soil, snipped some blueberry tips, dipped them in rooting hormone, and planted them.

For awhile, I thought it had worked. But no such luck. Yesterday I finally pulled one up and saw that no roots whatever had grown, and the stem was brown and dead.

I'm getting some nice sprouts from the older plants...

...but I still wanted to try propagating some new plants.

I decided the major reason for my failure was because I wasn't keeping the cuttings moist enough. I planted the cuttings directly into gallon pots. We've had some very hot weather over the last month, and although I water my garden diligently, I suspect the water in the gallon pots promptly sank downward, leaving the shallow cuttings high and dry in the pot.

So I'm trying a different tact. I picked up these little gizmos called Windowsill Greenhouse, which had 12 compressed peat pots in each one.

Just add water...

...and hey presto, they expand.

So this morning, armed with the peat pots, scissors, rooting hormone, and some water, it was back to the blueberry bushes once more.

I snipped an apex (tip).

Right at the base of each leaf is a tiny node. Apparently this is the critical part.

It's the roundish part tucked between the plant stem and the leaf stem.

The last time I tried this, I nipped off the leaves without considering the node. This time I used the scissors to carefully nip off the leaf while leaving the node intact.

I dipped each cutting in water...

...then dipped it in rooting hormone, making sure to cover the node.

I tapped off the excess...

...then tucked each cutting into a peat pot.

Twenty-four cuttings in all.

I also picked the few remaining ripe berries from the older bushes. Total this season for my first harvest: about a gallon of berries, maybe a bit less.

This time I brought the cuttings into the house and put them near a window, where I can keep an eye on them and make sure they stay moist.

Within a couple of hours, some were drooping. I don't think this is unexpected.

We'll see if this works. I'll keep you posted.

Blueberry update

If you remember, I tried an experiment in propagating blueberries two weeks ago. I took twenty-two cuttings, dipped them in rooting hormone, and planted them. I've been careful to keep them moist. So how are they doing?

Well, I was disappointed. Every one of them promptly died.

Or so I thought!

Upon closer inspection, it seems that, although every cutting has dead leaves, most have green stems. This means they're still alive and hopefully forming little roots.

Even some of the ones that looked very dead, stem and all...

...have a bit of green. And I say, where there's green, there's hope.

A couple, on the other hand, were unquestionably dead.

Still, I'm optimistic. I'll continue to keep them moist and see what happens. Meanwhile -- to all you green-thumb types out there, give me some guidance -- should I remove the dead brown leaves from the stems that show green, or should I leave them alone?

I'm pleased to report, however, that my recovering blueberry bushes are doing splendiforously.

These are from the twenty berry bushes I had inadvertently planted in about the worst weed-infested spot on our property back in 2004. I fought those weeds for years and finally gave up in despair. Last year when we built the berry beds, I wondered if any bushes were salvageable, and to my amazement I found sixteen were still alive (barely). So I transplanted them into the new beds and promised the poor little things that I'd make it up to them for all those years of neglect.

They're repaying me this year with beautiful and abundant berries which should be ripe within a couple of weeks. These are some happy blueberry bushes!

Propagating blueberries

I wanted more blueberry bushes. Right now I only have about fifteen or so, and frankly I'd be in the market for a hundred (we love blueberries). But they're so expensive! Young blueberry bushes cost somewhere on the order of $10 each, well outside our budget in any appreciable quantity.

So... I decided to propagate my own.

First thing I did was watch a YouTube video on propagating.

Seemed simple enough, except there was no way I was going to spend money on perlite and peat moss. I decided to make my own potting soil.

I started with some topsoil. We don't have too much left over from the truckload we bought last year, but there was plenty for this project.

What else to add? Composted manure, of course. Got plenty of that.

Somewhere I had a box of azalea fertilizer (which is acidic; blueberries like acid soil) but you think I could find it? NoooOOOooo. So I decided to add some composted sawdust, which is acidic. I trundled the wheelbarrow over to the oversized discard pile outside the shop, which has (ahem) plenty of sawdust mixed in.

I pitchforked a generous amount into the soil.

Then just for the heck of it, I added a sprinkling of granular fertilizer.

I gave everything a good mixing...

...and then I was ready to fill some gallon-sized pots (I keep a stock of these in the greenhouse for just such an occasion).

I filled as many pots as I had soil for, which turned out to be twenty-two.

Now it was  time to start propagating. A few weeks ago in anticipation of this project, I purchased the most critical item: a small container of rooting hormone. It only cost about $5 and (apparently) is essential to the successful propagation of blueberries. In nature these bushes propagate vegetatively (underground), but in nurseries they're progagated with the help of rooting hormone.

Next I snipped about four inches from the tip (apex) of a plant.

I nipped (not tore, but nipped) the lowest leaf from the base, then dipped the cutting in water.

Then I dipped it in the rooting hormone, which is powdery (apparently there are also liquid versions available).

I tapped off the excess hormone...

...then carefully inserted the cutting into the soil.

I repeated this process for all 22 pots.

I scattered the pots among the rest of the blueberries and gave everything a gentle watering.

And that's it! The whole project from start to finish took less than an hour, and most of that was taken up in making the potting soil.

Will this work? No idea. The YouTube video did warn that not all cuttings will propagate successfully. But what the heck, it's an experiment, and it was virtually free. And if all the cuttings grow, I potentially saved myself $220. Can't beat that!