Anyone grow blueberries?

[HawkinsHollow]

I am trying to plant as much food at my house as possible. About 3 years ago I planted 6 blueberry plants. After the first year 2 died, I replaced them and then last year 2 more died. We have had 2 pretty dry summers and I attribute that them drying out. I used a nice soil recipe I got offline of pine nuggets, native soil, perlite, etc. The other possibility is my neighbor hit them with the weed eater as they are right along the property line. Anyway, I am about to go buy a couple more blueberry plants to bring me back up to a total of 6.

There are a couple of things I want to do once it cools off a little bit. I want to put down weed barrier and more pine nuggets to keep the weeds/grass down. I know the old wood needs to be pruned for best production, but I need to research that a bit more. Any tips for successful blueberry husbandry.

 

[fishin coyote]

We use pine needles instead of nuggets as a mulch. We also put Espoma bloodmeal, bonemeal and soil acidifier around each plant in the spring and again after fruiting. Keep them watered well for the first few years and they should grow.

 

[Oaktree]

And be patient. Ours took 7-8 years before they became very productive.

 

[KennyG]

Yes, blueberries seem to take a while to get established, although the commercial growers around here are pretty good at getting them going. I've got some from different sources. The best ones are 3 year old plants I got from local growers. I've been applying sulfur to lower the pH and that seems to help.

 

[paulsharvey]

Blue berries need/want moisture, but not wet. One issue could be, as explained to me, plant in the soil you have, if you amend the hole too much, the roots just stay in your hole, and dont expand out.

 

[ponytug]

X10 on getting the soil acidity right for blueberries; my experience is that they really like to have quite acid soil. The ones we tried to grow on a base of crushed limestone soil were tiny, pathetic plants even with years of TLC. We only did amendments in the planting hole and surface around it. In hindsight that was a huge mistake.

All the best, Peter

 

[paulsharvey]

X10 on getting the soil acidity right for blueberries; my experience is that they really like to have quite acid soil. The ones we tried to grow on a base of crushed limestone soil were tiny, pathetic plants even with years of TLC. We only did amendments in the planting hole and surface around it. In hindsight that was a huge mistake.

All the best, Peter

About a 5.5 or so is generally about the right PH. Well drained soils are a must. Atleast for southern highbush varieties.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Great tips guys, thanks!

The guy I just bought a couple blueberry plants from had an interesting planting method. He basically plants them in mounds. Hardly digs down at all maybe 4 inches. Then uses soil conditioner (which is basically rotted pine mulch) and peat moss as a soil mixture. Mixes that in with the native dirt to get the microbes in there and plops the plant on top of the hole and adds more soil mix to mound it. Then uses pine straw on top to keep the weeds down and the soil moist. He says our clayey soils keep the roots too wet and they die of root rot. I am going to give it a shot. Another thing I haven't done yet it trim back the old wood. This winter I need to do a little pruning to bring on new growth.

 

[ponytug]

About a 5.5 or so is generally about the right PH. Well drained soils are a must. Atleast for southern highbush varieties.

Pretty much the same for northern high bush, and the little low ones. I hear more 4-5.5pH. YMMV. The need a lot of iron, and tog etc it the soil has to be acid.

All the best, Peter

 

[garry1p]

I planted a row of 12 plants and had 3 left over that I planted closer to the house at the very end of the vegetable garden. Over the next 3 years all 12 in the row died.

All 3 in the vegetable garden thrived.
Main difference was partial shade and soil made up of dirt, cottonseed hulls and worm castings.