Blueberry Bushes

[tcrackly]

Be sure to augment the soil with coarse sand or some other aggregate. Blueberries can tolerate high moisture but they like lots of drainage. The only real protection for the berries when they come is netting or just getting your share before the birds!

[charlie23]

if the plants are not too big/tall, try trash bags to cover over the plants, and poke some holes in the bags. Use the biggest size you can find.

[bustaduke]

Originally Posted by gr8doglove

Hubby and I love blueberries and want to grow our own. Yesterday we bought two bushes (Duke and Bluecrop.)

Before planting them, we would appreciate any advice/tips posters here can give us. Neither of us has a green thumb so we can use all the help we can get!

You can ask my niece and her friend what she does with her blueberries.

FRESH FARMING


busta

[68vette]

We have a dozen bushes in our yard. If you have clay soil mix in peat moss and some sand to break the soil up. As mentioned blueberries need to have good drainage. You will also want to fertilize with a fertilizer for acid loving plants. They come in organic and nonorganic. The most important step is to do a pH soil test. We go into the woods behind our home and get all the pine needles we need for mulch. Looks good and the bushes love it.
You may get a few berries the first year and each passing year will produce more and more. My mother has several bushes that stand at least 7-8 feet tall and produce more berries than she needs.

[gwynedd1]

For those of view without acidic soil another possible solution is to try another fruit that is no blue berry but is delicious in its own right. If your problems are neutral soil and part shade, then try service berries. Its a nice small fruit in the same season. These make my mouth water.






Tending exotics out of their environment has its place. However one should always have a large amount of easy to grow natives.