~SUSTAINABLE LIVING FOR CHALLENGING TIMES

[4Kismet]

Rooting blueberry cuttings

Glad to share what was shared with me by an Amish neighbor a few years ago. He had about 500 blueberry plants and sold the fruit to the local markets.

I read the almanac to see when I could take cuttings with the greatest chance of success. I took the cuttings early in the morning and as soon as I cut them I stuck them down in a pail that was 3/4 full of water. Some of the cuttings were woody and some were still green stemmed. I'm anxious to see what rooted the best.

When I got home I prepared my rooting pots. I just used regular pots and potting soil but you can also use a plastic wrapped block of peat moss. The key is using horse oats, lol. When horse oats germinate they release a significant amount of rooting hormone which encourages the blueberry cuttings to root. I placed a small handful near the bottom of each pot (on top of a couple of inches of dirt) and then filled the rest of the pot with potting soil. I packed it down just a bit and soaked it with water. Make sure the pot can freely drain off excess water. I then poked the cuttings deep into the pot as I wanted the bottom of the stems close to the horse oat layer. Keep the soil slightly damp. I put about 15 cuttings in each pot and will separate the ones that root later and re-pot them individually.

The funny thing has been the oats rooted and pushed up some of the soil and I came home to find a ring of potting soil around the pot. My cats enjoy the oat greens so they don't go to waste:)