Sloes: Planting, Propagating & Pruning

The berries of the sloe 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 blackthorn.

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

Sloes: origin and characteristics

Sloes are known to us by many different names: They are also called sloe thorn, blackthorn, sour plum, hedge thorn or German acacia. Sloes belong to the genus Prunus and belong to the rose family (Rosaceae). The sloe thorn is native to all of Europe, from the Near East to the Caucasus and North Africa. The shrub can be found up to an altitude of 1500 meters. Today sloes can be found on almost every part of the world. In the wild, the shrub is often found along roadsides, in vineyards, at 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 a height of three to five meters. The bark is very dark, almost black, and cracks with age. The shoots are covered with numerous thorns. The leaves are three to four centimeters long, elliptical in shape and dull dark green. In autumn they turn yellow to slightly reddish.

Sloe blossom: When does the sloe bush blossom?

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

Tip: How to distinguish sloe and hawthorn: Sloes bloom white even before the first leaves appear on the bush. Hawthorn flowers, on the other hand, appear after the foliage. If you see a bare bush with white flowers, it is a sloe.

Sloe berries: How to recognize the fruits of the sloe thorn 

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 ranges from black-purple to black-blue. Wild sloe fruits grow 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, low pruning effort
• 'Purpurea': In contrast to other varieties, it has purple-red foliage
• 'Reto': Refined new breed, forms large fruits, less acidic
• 'Rosea': Does not have white flowers, 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 that

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

When to plant sloes?

• Container plants: In spring and autumn
• Bare root shrubs: In autumn

Where to plant sloes?

• Sunny, warm location
• Nutrient-rich, well-drained soils
• Prefers dry soil, avoid waterlogging at all costs
• Ideal pH: 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 Fertilization with egg shells or wood ash
• Dig a planting hole that is at least twice as large and deep as the root ball
• Cut the main roots of the plant freshly, cut off damaged or rotten root shoots
• Planting distance solitary plant: 3 meters
• Planting distance between hedge plants: 2 metres
• Fill in the planting hole
• casting

Tip: There are often complaints about the rapidly growing, sprawling root system of the sloe. But you can use this to fix slopes, for example. The broad roots of the blackthorn are ideal for this.

breed sloes

The blackthorn can be propagated by several methods.

Four methods are suitable for multiplying sloes:

• sowing
• sticks
• lowering
• Separating the root suckers

For propagation by seeds, the berries are collected in autumn and the seeds are removed from the pulp. Store these in the fridge over the winter. You can then sow the seeds in spring. To propagate with sticks, cut off a woody branch about 20 centimeters long from the bush and remove all thorns and leaves. This is put into potting soil and can root there. The cuttings can then be planted out in the spring. For propagation by sinkers, a sufficiently long branch is bent from the bush to the ground and fixed to the ground with a stone or a piece of wire. After a few weeks, the sinker will have grown its own roots, and it can be separated from the mother plant and planted. To get root suckers, use a sharp spade to cut off a piece of root about 50 centimeters long. This is then dug into the ground at the new location just as deep as it was in the ground before.

Cultivate Blackthorn

The sloe is extremely frugal and requires little care. At this point, only the particularly strong growth power of the roots should be mentioned. If you want to curb this, it is worth creating a root barrier with sloes so that the roots cannot spread unhindered. For example, you can embed a root barrier in the form of concrete rings about 50 centimeters deep in the ground. Alternatively, you can cut off or tear out the root suckers from time to time.

Pour and fertilize blackthorn

Little water does not bother the sloe at all. Therefore, it does not have to be watered even during longer dry periods. So that the soil fully meets its requirements, the blackthorn is happy about a lime application in spring. Alternatively, the pH 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 the spring is already sufficient for the sloe. Use mainly organic fertilizers such as compost or a fertilizer with an organic long-term effect. Our Plantura organic universal fertilizer supplies your sloe with all the important nutrients and releases them slowly and gently to the plant.

Sloe care at a glance:

• Watering not necessary
• Lime in spring and autumn or with eggshells or fertilize wood ash
• One-time fertilization in spring with Plantura organic universal fertilizer or compost

cutting sloes

The sloe thorn is very tolerant of pruning and can therefore be pruned back as required. Whether pruning is necessary depends entirely on what you want to use the shrub for. In order to have the highest possible yield of berries, you should cut back and thin out your shrub every three years. This is how it produces particularly large fruits. The best time for pruning and thinning is in spring after flowering. If you don't value the fruit that much and prefer the sloe as a habitat for bees, birds and Let butterflies grow, then the shrub can grow undisturbed and does not have to be cut back at all will.

Are sloes bee and bird friendly?

Definitely! Hardly any other shrub has a higher ecological value than blackthorn. Numerous mammals, birds and insects find shelter and food in sloe bushes and hedges. Many butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly or the brimstone 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 tits or warblers feed on the sloe berries. Special shrub breeders, such as the red-backed shrike, like to build their nests in hedges or blackthorn bushes and find shelter and food there.

Who finds everything in the sloe bush a home:

• About 18 wild bee species and honey bees
• 70 species of butterflies
• 20 species of birds
• 173 species of insects
• 18 species of mammals

Tip: Ours is similarly attractive to useful insects of all kinds Plantura beneficial insect magnet. This special seed mix of 20 annuals and perennials creates food and habitat for a number of bees, butterflies and birds in your garden.

Sloes not only taste particularly good to birds; we humans can also do all sorts of good things with the 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.