6 BULLETIJSr 974, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTUKE. 



PROPAGATION. 



While grafting or budding is almost indispensable in experimental 

 work with blueberries, bushes propagated by these methods are not 

 suitable for permanent commercial plantations, because such bushes 

 are continually sending up new and undesirable shoots from the 

 stock. Budding, however, is the best known means of producing a 

 large quantity of cutting wood froni a valuable selected blueberry 

 hybrid. It is useful also in testing the quality of a new variety, for 

 a bwdded blueberry when properly handled comes into bearing two 

 years from the time of budding and doubtless will continue to yield 

 for several years, until the budded stem becomes old and decrepit. 



BUDDING. 



The best season for budding the blueberry is from the middle of 

 July to the middle of August. The ordinary method of shield 

 budding,^ with a T-shaped cut and dry and unwaxed raffia wrapping, 

 has proved the most successful of all the methods tried. (PL II.) 

 In selecting budwood, attention should be paid to the following 

 points : A bud forms at the base of each leaf ; at first the scales cov- 

 ering the bud are green; when they are a little older they become 

 straw colored, and later brown. When the buds have reached this 

 brown stage they are of the proper age for use. All three stages 

 may occur at the same time on a single branch, and in such a case 

 the upper part of the branch should be discarded. A bud is more 

 easily handled if the tiny leafstalk is left attached to it. Provision 

 for this is easily made by cutting off the blades, but not the stalks, 

 of the leaves when the branches that are to be used for budwood 

 are removed from the parent bush. Care should be taken to discard 

 the large fat flowering buds that occur toward the ends of the 

 branches. In most blueberry plants, however, these flowering buds 

 do not develop until after the budding season. 



When blueberry buds are to be inserted the same day on which the 

 budwood is cut, the sticks require no other treatment than to be kept 

 in the shade in the folds of a moist clean towel. The budwood is 

 easily ruined, however, by continued subjection to the high tem- 

 peratures prevalent at the midsummer budding season. Any bud- 

 wood that has been cut should therefore be kept on ice at night or 

 at any other time when it is not in actual use. 



In carrying blueberry budwood long distances, excellent results 

 have been secured by the use of a thermos bottle. The bottle, opened, 

 and the budwood, in clean moist wrappings and with additional 

 moist packing material, should be kept on ice for several hours 



s TMs and other methods of budding are described in Farmers' Bulletin 157, " The 

 Propagation of Plants," by L. C. Corbett. 



