Blueberry

Outdoors, the bilberry is fully hardy and needs no active winter protection; just keep the shallow root zone covered with bark mulch or leaves and water on frost-free days so that the soil does not dry out. In a container, the root ball freezes through more easily. Place the pot against a sheltered house wall on an insulating base, wrap it in horticultural fleece or hessian and cover the soil with leaves.

The most reliable method is propagation from cuttings. In July, cut healthy, semi-ripe new shoots about 10 to 15 cm long, remove the lower leaves and insert them into an acidic, peat-based substrate (e.g. a peat and sand mix or ericaceous compost, acidic pH). Cover the pots with a clear film to keep the humidity high, and place them somewhere bright and cool without direct sun. Keep the substrate evenly moist; rooting takes several months, and the following spring you can set the young plants in the bed. Alternatively, in late autumn or winter cut woody hardwood cuttings from one-year-old shoots and overwinter them cool and protected from frost until they root in spring. For layering, in June or July choose a long, low, still pliable shoot, nick it lightly on the underside, press the spot into a shallow groove in the soil and cover it with soil, letting the tip of the shoot stick out, and fix it with a hook or stone. After about a year, a root system of its own has formed there; then you separate the layer from the mother shrub and replant it. With the wild bilberry you can also divide by root runners (rhizomes): the plant spreads underground by woody rhizomes, from which well-rooted edge pieces with a shoot can be cut off and moved. Go carefully, as the root network reaches deep and the plant depends on its root fungi (mycorrhiza); take plenty of root ball with it. Sowing seeds from ripe fruits is possible, but slow (several years until the first harvest) and does not give plants that come true to variety with cultivars; for the wild form (Vaccinium myrtillus), sow the freshly taken seeds in autumn or spring in acidic, fine-grained seed compost. Important: bilberries need light to germinate. Press the seeds only onto the moist substrate and do NOT cover them with soil. Keep evenly moist and bright.