Replant the parent plant and transplant the individual sections as described below. Snip away a few sections of roots with a stem attached. You should see lots of areas where the roots connect to the above-ground stems. Once you’ve unearthed your treasure, knock or wash away as much dirt as you can and examine the roots. The roots aren’t deep, so you want to dig out wide rather than going down too far. Just dig up your plant, leaving about a three-inch margin around the perimeter. Separating a runner from the parent plant is an easy, quick way to make new plants. Lingonberries spread via underground rhizomes. The next day, give it two hours in its new spot.Īdd an hour each subsequent day until you’ve done this for seven days then transplant as described below. Then, put it back in its original protected area. Take that healthy new plant and harden it off gradually by placing it in the area where you intend to grow it, for an hour on the first day. If not, your cutting didn’t take and you’ll need to try again next year. Keep the soil moist and let Mother Nature work her magic.īy early fall, you should see new growth. Water the soil well and place the container in an area with bright, indirect light indoors or dappled shade outdoors. Place the cutting in the medium a third of the way deep. The wood should be flexible, not hard and rigid.Ĭut it off at a 45-degree angle and remove any leaves from the bottom third.įill a four-inch container with water-retentive potting soil. In early spring, look for a four-inch piece of young growth. It’s particularly easy with lingonberries. If you’ve ever rooted a softwood cutting before, then you know how this works. Most are propagated commercially through stem cuttings, so we’ll talk about that first. Whether you buy a transplant or dig up a bit of a friend’s plant, lingonberries are easy to propagate at home. In Europe, they’ve been in cultivation since at least the Middle Ages. Indigenous people in the parts of the world known today as the US and Canada where these plants are native relied on the dried berries as a winter food source. The rest are cultivated in Scandinavia and Russia. Lingonberries aren’t exactly a popular plant in cultivation, with under 100 acres in production worldwide as of 2006.Ībout a quarter of all commercially grown plants are in the Pacific Northwest, with some grown in Maine, Vermont, and Wisconsin. If a hard freeze happens when the berries are young or the flowers are on the plant, it can kill them. It won’t survive in areas with sweltering hot summers, but -40☏ won’t faze it – for the most part. This is a cold-loving plant, as you can tell by its native habitat. However, if you leave them on the plant after a freeze, they will soften and develop more sugar. The berries that follow are small and red with a pronounced acidic bite. The flowers on the North American variety are about half the size of the European variety. So, if the only experience you have with lingonberries is in jam, prepare to be immersed in their magical world. The only caveat is that you need to live in a cool region to grow them. I’ve found these plants to be pretty much untroubled by pests and disease, adept at spreading around without becoming invasive, and extremely productive without needing much in the way of maintenance. When I find a food crop to stick into a shady spot, I’m all over it. I, like a lot of people, have limited full sun exposure in my yard. When I learned that they grow well in some shade, I was totally sold. While they’re often compared to cranberries, lingonberries have more natural sugar and a slight sweetness to balance the tart flavor. They’re complex, tangy, and perfectly balanced somewhere between sweet and sour. Lingonberries weren’t just some cranberry substitute that needs pounds of sugar to become edible. They served pork with a lingonberry relish that was tart, a bit sweet, and spiced with goodies like allspice, juniper, and thyme.Īnd that’s when I got it. Then we had dinner at a fancy Michelin-star restaurant on the coast of Copenhagen. It tasted pretty much like any other berry jam to me. I was in Sweden to interview an executive for said retailer and they stuffed us visiting journalists full of meatballs, toast skagen (skagenrora), and lingonberry jam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products.
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