Articles
EXPERIMENTS OF POSSIBILITIES FOR THE SPREADING OF VACCINIUM SPECIES IN AUSTRIA
As an expert in horticulture from the Carinthian Department of Agriculture in Austria, I had the opportunity of getting to know the cultivation of blueberries on a large scale on the occasion of an educational trip to the USA in 1953. Among many other problems of professional nature which were new to me at that time it was this cultivation that deeply impressed me and even at that time I was of the same opinion as today, namely that there are favourable possibilities for spreading blueberries in Austria, too.
Experiments have proved that blueberry plants grow well in mineral soils provided that the acidity is sufficient and they are well supplied with organic substance.
The aptitude of blueberries also for mineral soils is therefore one of the aims of the experiments made.
Starting with material from the USA and Western Germany the toilsome way was begun to carry through the propagation of the blueberry in our climatic regions in a systematic way.
It was only then possible to start the propagation when there was already a larger number of plants available.
After all the basis for the spreading of the blueberry in Austria depends on the propagation and the production of sufficient and inexpensive plant material.
At the same time the propagation of cuttings was also begun.
After careful study of American booklets the propagation of wood cuttings was started.
Originally this method of propagation was not very successful in our country.
The reasons for this were the different behaviours of all the single varieties, often of the same origin, and the differences in the materials being cultivated – the decisive problem, however, was the soil temperature.
Only the installation of a ground-heating was able to bring a change.
One could immediately notice the first successful