Sloes: planting, propagating & cutting

Sloe berries are very popular with people and birds in the garden. Bees are also happy about the sloe flowers. Here you can find out what you should consider when planting, caring for and propagating the blackthorn.

Sloes (Prunus spinosa) as indigenous wild shrubs have shaped our landscape for a long time. But the blackthorn also cuts a fine figure in the garden: As flowering hedge or solitary tree, it gives us healthy fruit in autumn and also provides habitat and food for numerous insects, birds and butterflies. In this article we will tell you everything about the origin, suitable varieties, planting, care and reproduction of sloe in your own garden.

Sloes: origin and characteristics

Sloes are known by many different names: Sloe thorn, black thorn, sour plum, hedge thorn or German acacia they are also called. Sloes belong to the genus Prunus and belong to the rose family (Rosaceae). The sloe thorn is native to all of Europe, from the Middle East to the Caucasus and North Africa. The shrub can be found up to heights of 1500 meters. Today sloes can be found on almost all parts of the world. The shrub can often be found wild on roadsides, in vineyards, on the edges of forests, wild hedges or slopes.

The deciduous sloe grows as a shrub or multi-stemmed tree. When fully grown, it can reach heights of three to five meters. The bark is very dark, almost black, and becomes cracked with age. The shoots are covered with numerous thorns. The leaves are three to four inches long, elliptical in shape and dull dark green. In autumn they turn yellow to slightly reddish.

Sloe bloom: when does the sloe bush bloom?

The sloe is one of the first shrubs to bloom in spring. With its lush, white flowers, it not only adds splashes of color to the landscape, but also attracts bees and insects. The numerous, small, snow-white flowers appear on the blackthorn from the end of March to April.

Tip: How to distinguish between sloes and hawthorns: Sloes bloom white before the first leaves appear on the bush. Hawthorn flowers, on the other hand, appear after the foliage. So if you see a bare shrub with white flowers, it is a sloe.

Sloe berry: This is how you recognize the fruits of the blackthorn 

The fruits of the sloe appear in late autumn and are reminiscent of very small, spherical plums. The color of the shell is particularly striking: it is black-purple to black-blue. Wild sloe fruits are up to one centimeter in diameter, cultivated forms can have a diameter of up to two centimeters.

Sloe varieties

In addition to wild sloes, there are also some cultivated forms of sloe that promise higher yields.

These sloe varieties are suitable for growing in the garden:

• ‘Godenhaus’: high yield and strong growth
• ‘Merzig’: Large fruits, well suited for schnapps and liqueurs
• ‘Nittel’: Large fruits, weak growth, little cutting effort
• ‘Purpurea’: In contrast to other varieties, it has purple-red foliage
• ‘Reto’: Refined new breed, forms large fruits, less acidic
• ‘Rosea’: Does not bloom white, but pink, also has red foliage
• ‘Trier’: Fruit size and vigor are most similar to the wild form

Planting sloes: you should pay attention to this

In this section we will answer when, where and how to plant sloes.

When to plant sloes

• Container plants: In spring and autumn
• Bare-rooted bushes: In autumn

Where to plant sloes?

• Sunny, warm location
• Nutrient-rich, well-drained soils
• Prefers dry soils, avoid waterlogging at all costs
• Ideal pH value: 6 - 8.5

Tip: The sloe looks particularly good in a hedge in combination with other native wild shrubs, such as the rose hip (Rosa canina) or the juniper (Juniperus).

How do you go about planting sloes?

• Thoroughly loosen the soil
• With Plantura organic universal fertilizer or compost enrich
• Adjust the pH value by liming or Fertilizing with egg shells or Wood ash
• Dig a planting hole that is at least twice as large and deep as the root ball
• Freshly cut the main roots of the plant, cut off damaged or rotten root shoots
• Plant spacing of solitary plant: 3 meters
• Planting distance between the hedge plant: 2 meters
• Fill in the planting hole
• Pouring on

Tip: Often people complain about the strongly growing, overgrown roots of the sloes. You can make use of this, for example, to attach slopes. The broad roots of the blackthorn are ideal for this.

Increase sloes

The blackthorn can be propagated by several methods.

Four methods are suitable for propagating sloes:

• sowing
• Cuttings
• Sinker
• Separation of the root runners

For propagation by seeds, the berries are collected in autumn and the kernels are removed from the pulp. Store them in the refrigerator for the winter. You can then sow the seeds in spring. For propagation through cuttings, cut a woody branch about 20 centimeters long from the bush and free it of all thorns and leaves. This is put into potting soil and can take root there. The cuttings can then be planted out in spring. For propagation by subsidence, a sufficiently long branch is bent from the shrub to the ground and fastened to the ground with a stone or a piece of wire. After a few weeks, the sinker will have its own roots and it can be separated from the mother plant and planted. To get root runners, cut off a piece of root about 50 centimeters long with a sharp spade. This is then dug as deep into the ground at the new location as it was previously in the earth.

Maintain blackthorn

The sloe is extremely frugal and requires little care. Only the particularly strong vigor of the roots should be mentioned at this point. If you want to contain this, it is worthwhile to create a root barrier for sloes so that the roots cannot spread unhindered. To do this, for example, let a root barrier in the form of concrete rings about 50 centimeters deep into the ground. Alternatively, you can cut off or pull out the root runners from time to time.

Water and fertilize blackthorn

A little water doesn't bother the sloe at all. Therefore it does not have to be poured even in longer dry periods. So that the soil fully meets its requirements, the black thorn is happy to receive lime in the spring. Alternatively, the pH value can also be set with a Fertilization with wood ashor Eggshells be adjusted. In the case of lime-poor soils, this should be repeated in autumn.
A single fertilization in spring is sufficient for sloe. Use primarily organic fertilizers such as compost or a fertilizer with organic long-term effects. Our Plantura organic universal fertilizer supplies your sloe with all the important nutrients and releases them slowly and gently to the plant.

Caring for sloes at a glance:

• No need to pour
• Liming or with in spring and autumn Eggshells or Fertilize wood ash
• Single fertilization in spring with Plantura organic universal fertilizer or compost

Cutting sloes

The sloe thorn is very easy to cut and can therefore be pruned back as required. Whether it needs to be pruned depends entirely on what you want to use the shrub for. In order to have the highest possible berry yield, you should prune and thin out your shrub every three years. In this way it produces particularly large fruits. The best time to cut and thin out is in the spring after flowering. If you do not attach great importance to the fruits and especially the sloe as a habitat for bees, birds and Let butterflies grow, then the shrub can grow completely undisturbed and does not have to be cut back at all will.

Are sloes friendly to bees and birds?

Definitely! Hardly any other shrub has a higher ecological value than the blackthorn. Numerous mammals, birds and insects find shelter and food in sloe bushes and hedges. Many butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly or the lemon butterfly, use the blackthorn to lay their eggs there. The caterpillars also find plenty of food in the undergrowth. Numerous species of birds, such as titmice and warblers, feed on the sloe berries. Special shrub-breeders, such as the red-backed shrike, like to build their nests in hedges or sloe bushes and find shelter and food there.

Who will find a home in the sloe bush:

• Approx. 18 species of wild bees and honey bees
• 70 species of butterflies
• 20 species of birds
• 173 species of insects
• 18 species of mammals

Tip: Our is similarly attractive to useful insects of all kinds Plantura beneficial insect magnet. This special seed mix of 20 annual and perennial plants creates food and living space for a number of bees, butterflies and birds in your garden.

Sloes are not only tasty for birds; We humans too can do all sorts of good things with berries. As Harvest sloes properly and use, you can read here.

Even more about native shrubs for birds can be found in our special article.