cultivated blueberry

Outdoors, your highbush blueberry is hardy and gets through winters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland without being buried. Mulch the shallow root zone in autumn with bark mulch or leaves; this retains moisture and protects against severe ground frost. In a container, wrap the pot in horticultural fleece or hessian or put it in a frost-free, shaded spot in a shed or garage.

You propagate highbush blueberries most reliably by cuttings. This preserves variety traits such as fruit size and ripening time. You have two windows: from June to August, cut semi-hardwood softwood cuttings from this year's shoots to 5 to 8 cm long, remove the lower leaves and leave only 2 to 3 at the top. Insert them upright in acidic ericaceous substrate (pH 4 to 5), keep the soil evenly moist and cover the pots with a transparent dome. After about 8 to 10 weeks, roots form (do the tug test). The second option is hardwood cuttings in October/November: shorten lignified, one-year-old shoots to 10 to 15 cm, strip off the leaves and insert them directly in an ericaceous bed or acidic substrate. Frost can push them out; then simply press them in again. Hardwood cuttings need patience and succeed less often than softwood cuttings, so feel free to insert several at once. A simpler alternative is layering: in early summer (June/July), carefully bend a long shoot close to the ground into a small hole (10 to 20 cm deep), weigh it down with a stone or fix it with a hook so it does not spring back, and let the shoot tip stick out. After several months to a year the layer has rooted and can be separated from the mother plant in autumn or the next spring. Important with all methods: blueberries absolutely need acidic substrate; normal garden compost is unsuitable. Sowing is not worthwhile for cultivated varieties: the seeds do germinate, but the seedlings do not come true and take years to the first fruit.