8 CIRCULAR NO. 122, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



not already been ascertained by direct examination, the nialiing of such second- 

 ary growth is good evidence that rooting has actually taken ])lace. 



•13. When a shoot is well rooted, with roots 1 to 2 inches in length, it is 

 ready to be potted. If the shoot has not already disconnected itself from the 

 dead cutting, it should be carefully severed with a sharp knife. In the process 

 of tnbering, the behavior of the cuttings is essentially identical with that of real 

 tubers, like those of the potato. The original cutting dies, but the sprouts 

 that arose from it root at the base and form independent plants. 



14. The rooted shoots should be [Kjtted in clean 2-iuch earthenwai'e i)ots in 

 the standard blueberry, soil mixture already described. 



15. The pots should be bedded in moist sand up to the rim in a glass-covered, 

 ventilated box. well lighted, but protectetl from direct sunlight. 



IG. In order to secure rapid growth, the rooted plants should be gradually 

 accustomed to half sunlight and a well-ventilated atmosphere, this adjustment 

 extending over a period of about three to four weeks. 



17. If preferred, the shoots may remain in the original cutting bed until 

 the following spring before potting, the cutting bed being exposed during the 

 winter to freezing temperatures. 



TREATMENT OF YOUNG PLANTS. 



When blueberry plants, either large or small, are grown in porous 

 pots the stirface of the pot should neyer be allowed to become dry, 

 for the rootlets which grow through the soil to the wall of the pot 

 for air are exceedingly fine and easily killed by drying, to the great 

 injury of the plant. This danger may be eliminated by bedding the 

 pots to the rim in a well-drained bed of sand or by setting the pot in 

 another pot of 2 to 4 inches greater diameter, with a packing of 

 moist .sphagnum between and broken crocks at the bottom. 



A burning of the young leaves and growing tips of twigs is often 

 produced by the hot sun from the middle of June to the middle of 

 September. Plants in pots or nursery beds are easily protected from 

 such injury and forced to their maximum gi^owth by a half-shade 

 covering of slats, the slats and the spaces betAveen being of the same 

 width. On cloudy days the shade should be removed. It should not 

 be used in fall or spring. 



During the winter the rooted cuttings or 1-year-old plants should 

 be kept outdoors, exposed to freezing temperatures, their soil mulched 

 with leaves, preferalbly oak leaves. When kept in a warm greenhouse 

 during the Avinter they make no growth before spring. Even then 

 their groAvth is abnormal, often feeble, or sometimes deferred for a 

 whole year. 



FIELD PLANTING. 



Plants from cu.ttings or rooted shoots are ready for permanent field 

 plantino: when thev are 2 oi- .'> vears old and about 1^ to 2 feet high. 

 They are best set out in early spring, before the buds have begun to 

 push. 



[Cir. 122] 



