Propagating Fruit Bushes

[jocundi]

Do you have your favourite method of propagating by bush type?
For me gooseberry are best bent and covered with soil to root, black currant straight in water and service berry from root cuttings.
I am wondering what to do with red/white currant, sea buckthorn and especially haskap berries?

[richardw]

Ive did a heap of gooseberries last winter, the stems came form bushes that grow wild down the bottom part of the island, they had been brought out to NZ by the Chinese gold diggers in the mid 1800's, some did well and should have fruit at the end of this year, fingers crossed.

[MikeH]

Haskap.  For seabuckthorn, I take dormant hardwood cuttings, dip them in Dip 'N Grow (which, as a liquid, can be mixed at different strengths depending on whether it's a softwood or hardwood cutting), stick in a 7" pot filled with ProMixBX which has been mulched with shredded pine bark, and leave outside over the winter. Mulch before you stick the cuttings or you will have difficulty mulching afterwards. When spring comes, the stored energy in the cutting will push buds and, hopefully roots.  Because the pots are black, you must keep them in the shade to avoid heat absorption which will kill any emerging roots.  Be careful not to over-water or you will drown the cuttings.  The mulch will keep the moisture in the pot from the melted snow as will keeping the pots in the shade. When any emerging buds actually start to grow, odds are that you have roots.  Be patient and wait until you see root growth at the drain holes. I can stick 15-20 cuttings in a 7" pot so the roots get very tangled.  I turn the pot upside down and carefully get the entire root ball out intact.  Then I wash the soil off with a hose separately cuttings as I go.  I do this early in the morning to minimize plant shock.  I re-pot each cutting in a 7" pot after first dusting the bare roots with a mycorrhizal fungi product called Myke and keep the plants in semi-shade. When I see root growth at the drain holes, I know that the plant has recovered from the transplant shock and is ready for planting out.


I've done Issai kiwi, grapes, haskap, hazel, seabuckthorn, rootstocks this way.  For softwood cuttings, I use an intermittent misting bed which works extremely well for producing MANY plants.  A 4' x 8' bed will accommodate over 2,000 cuttings.

A smaller scale approach. This is haskap but I've done it with highbush cranberry as well.  Just keep the cuttings, cool, dimly lit and moist.
This is a 8" wide x 12½" long x 5" deep salad greens container (sold by Loblaw/NoFrills). The top seals tightly enough to create a greenhouse.


Make sure to cut back the leaves by half to avoid moisture loss which is what is happening with the cutting in the top left below.

You can also use a high-domed seed tray such as this one from Lee Valley. It'll give more vertical space for the cuttings.

[jocundi]

Thanks so much MikeH! What a dream of a response!

Jenna

[prairiegarden]

I've grown haskap from seed from frozen berries, and goji berry seedlings from dried berries, both worked fine but cuttings would be a lot faster and surer ( and you'd know what you'd get for fruit). Never been able to get blueberry seeds to sprout though. I didn't know the goji would survive the winter..at the time all the info I could find said zone 5 at least, so in a fit of idiocy didn't try . Now I learn there are volunteer goji bushes growing all over the place in Edmonton from decades ago discarded or lost berries.

[steev]

So many people come in contact with plants but just aren't into the whole "grow them" thing; guess they're just not into the whole "might not have a stocked supermarket" thing.

It's OK; harvest them for protein, when TSHTF.

[MikeH]

Apr 7, 2016 23:01:50 GMT -5 prairiegarden said:

I didn't know the goji would survive the winter..at the time all the info I could find said zone 5 at least, so in a fit of idiocy didn't try . Now I learn there are volunteer goji bushes growing all over the place in Edmonton from decades ago discarded or lost berries.

Goji berry plants can survive winter temperatures as low as -40 celcius (-40 F) and summer temperatures as high as 38 celcius (100 F). The goji berry can survive in zones 2-7, out of this range it is too cold or hot. The goji plant can be grown indoors if outdoor conditions are not favorable, but hand pollination will be required to pollinate the flowers.

[reed]

I was gifted a goji plant back in February. It came form inside at a big box store already leafed out. I went ahead and planted and didn't really expect much form it but it took off growing and the new growth hasn't been bothered by recent cold snaps. I was wondering if I need to get another one for pollination? One of my haskaps that I put in last year has a few berries on it.

[prairiegarden]

WOOHOO! went out to explain about where to do what and found a whole whack of volunteer cherry bushes, most of them from the tree with the preferred fruit, and then the guy tilling found two trees hiding in the weeds that had survived repeated mowings last year. Instead of the one being a foot tall, as it was when it was planted, it's only about 3 inches tall, but its got a lot of vivid green leaves and looks determined. It's another dwarf cherry, which one who knows as the labels all got chopped off last year. And the other is the aronia I thought I'd lost last year, it actually is blooming!! so that's a bonus as well. I also found that the lonely asparagus plant is producing a bunch of spears this year, two already got ahead of me - one is 4 feet tall already, but there are enough young uns to make a nice meal.

Not sure of the best way to rejuvenate a raspberry patch, but there are enough volunteers there that I'm hoping to be able to clean out the old row and encouraged them to go home next year. Gave a bunch to the guy doing the tilling.. All in all, I don't know yet how much he is going to charge me for today but I (almost) don't much care, I am so delighted to have someone here to help who is not only willing but interested. and a dozen unexpected cherry seedlings!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I've been growing two rows of fall-bearing raspberries, and have been tilling between them with the tractor. The rows have been overtaken by grass, but the places I have been tilling is free of grass. It seems like I should till the whole patch under in the fall, and first thing in the spring to minimize the grass. The raspberries seem like they will recover fine.

[prairiegarden]

I don't have a tiller so trying to manage things in such a way that I don't need one.. thinking of fertilizing with some alfalfa and worm castings in the row around transplanted seedlings. The volunteers seem to be perfectly happy to go nose to nose with quack grass, one clump I left as an experiment at the very back of garden produces lots of berries ( and suckers!) , but the fruit tends to be slightly smaller.
The ones I have all fruit on year old canes so reluctant to do without for a year. Maybe I'll take down half of them this fall and then half of them next year. That would at least let me get in at the soil, which has probably not had anything given it since the things were planted.