Starting Blueberry patch

[TwinWillows]

After a lot of research we've taken the leap & started our blueberry patch. We did our soil tests last year & amended the soil w/sulfur to lower the PH as needed & killed all the grass & weeds in the rows where we're going to plant. This spring we picked up oru first load of bushes & are getting them in the ground. Here are some photos of the process starting w/the first load of 275 2yr old potted bushes.

 

[TwinWillows]

Here's the tractor w/forks & disc. The forks are super for moving the wet bales of peat moss around (they get wet sitting out in the weather) & the disc is for tilling in the sulfur used to lower the PH. I used a 8' rr tie as add'l weight but it's still too light. Looking for more weight soon.

 

[TwinWillows]

We have most of the spring bushes planted & mulched w/sawdust & started w/irrigation. Now trying to prepare the additional area needed for planting our fall bushes. Tried the disc first. In the distance on the left you can see it just rode on top of the sod. So I broke out my old Oliver 2 bottom plow & turned it over.

 

[TwinWillows]

Here's a close up of the old Oliver plow. The frame does not look like much paint wise but the plow parts are solid w/sharp edges & no thin areas. The coulters are pretty bad off but still turn. Not a bad find for only $125 bucks.

 

[TwinWillows]

Here's a view behind the tractor of the area plowed. This was my first time ever using a plow so I was pretty happy w/how straight the rows ended up.

 

[KentT]

Wow! Nice, straight furrows. If you fill up that area, that's going to be a LOT of blueberry bushes...

What variety are you planting? Are you going to do U-pick or sell them commercially, or what?

 

[TwinWillows]

Thanks for the kind words - I was pleasantly surprised as this was the first time ever running a plow. We put in: Misty, Elliott, Jersey, Bluecrop. Plan on primarily u-pick w/some prepick. We believe it should work well w/our peach orchard operation (172 trees @ this time).

 

[forgeblast]

what type of irrigation are u putting in? Also what are you going to use to stop birds from eating all the berries?
The reason i asked was i planted 55 blue berry bushes last year, only 1year old ( i should have went with the 2 year old).
We had an very dry summer, so i lost about 5-8 bushes. But the ones that are still going are looking strong.
Forgeblast

 

[TwinWillows]

The permanent irrigation is not yet fully designed. I'm working w/the local UKY experimental station to develop what's needed. For now we're using simple soaker hoses that we picked up from the local hardware store.

You don't let the bushes flower/fruit for the first 1 or 2 yrs after planting (plant a 2 yr bush). This will let the bush put the energy into rooting & growing strong so that when you let them fruit they'll really put out.

It's @ that time you need to have bird netting up - there's also a spray on product that's being tested, hopefully by then they'll have this spray "perfected" so you don't have to deal w/the netting pain.

You probably already know that PH control is extremely important - both before & after planting. PM me if you have any questions & I'll try & answer them or send you to a source.

 

[jinman]

Your plow looks a whole lot better than mine. You did a very nice job of plowing. It's amazing how such a simple tool can be so useful. Also, it's not the plow's appearance, but the appearance of the ground after plowing that matters and your ground looks great. Nice job! Did you plow in LO-Rabbit or LO-Turtle; 2WD or 4WD?

 

[TwinWillows]

Thanks for the comment! That old plow surprised me cutting & turning as well as it did.

My soil is pretty heavy & the sod in this area thick. I found that about 2200 rpm, low range, turtle & 4WD w/the loader & bucket on let me cut through most of it at max plow depth. W/that setting I did not stall much & either backing of the pedal or slightly raising the plow freed things up. Probaly over cautious but I didn't go higher on the RPM's as the engine is not yet over 60 hrs & is breaking in.

 

[scott_vt]

Twin Willows,
Very nice so far and very informative, thankyou for the pics and info. I assume you used your disk after the plowing then used the sulphur and sawdust and disked that in?

I put in a few last year and am curious what happens this year. Will be following your thread.

scotty

Id also like to add that I know absolutely nothing about blueberries other than I like eating them /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[TwinWillows]

Scott: Yes, I used the disc to till in the sulfur. The sawdust is laid down after planting to help hold the moisture in the ground & is not tilled in.

It's my plan to keep this updated w/more info as we go. I agree that they sure do taste good!

 

[forgeblast]

I have tested my soil every year, just to make sure i am in the right ph zone. we get so much acid rain, that we dont need to worry about adding that to the soil.
Last year i stopped all the flowers, i ll do it this year too. I hope that they shoot up this year, they are still kind of small.

 

[SPIKER]

nice post, read it back when, and was wondering how you stopped the flowering? (sneake up behind em and yeal BOO really loud /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) ?

I would be interested in find ing out more about blueberries, we have a lot of blackberries and rasberries & a good bit of eldiberries too, all mostly wild ones. but some are cultivated I guess as I found a blackberrie potting / plant lable this past week when I was doing some tilling myslef. guess prior owners may have planted many of them ? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I do keep a good bit of these trimmed for production but have know idea what type of soil I ahve, most of the land is setup as a tree farm nursery.

mark m

 

[flusher]

Mighty impressive project. Good luck.

I don't know squat about berry bushes, so I decided to plant some and learn by doing (and making mistakes). See attachment for my setup.

The berry patch is in the foreground along the driveway. Planted 9 bare-root bushes last week (2 blueberry, 3 red raspberry, 2 blackberry and 2 bababerry, which is a drought tolerant red raspberry).

Used my B7510HST and 4-ft box blade to scrape the area and then rototilled and worked in a compost/cattle manure mix. Watered the blueberry area with azalea feed since I had a bunch of that stuff lying around and azaleas are acid lovers too. My azalea bush near the front porch is blooming like crazy.

Built the standard 42"-high T-trellis per lotsa advice on the Web. Will string the wires when the canes get tall enough.

The tan things are grow tubes, called "Clipper Tubes" ($1.10 each from Orchard Valley Supply). They are scienterrifically designed to filter the sunlight to make the plants happy and grow fast. The grape growers in the Napa Valley to the West of me use these for their new vines.

You can see the two grape trellises in the background. Planted 12 bare-root vines about a month ago (9 Concord, 3 Catawba). Used the box blade to scrape the turf and then dug 2-ft deep holes and filled them with compost/manure mix and some native soil. Hope all the rain here in the North Valley hasn't caused root rot. Oh well, it's easy to plant new vines if that happens.

The grape trellises are called vertical shoot positioning (VSP) trellises. Used a lot in the Napa Valley. They're overkill for my little orchard, but it was fun building them and stringing the wires.

The shed in the background was one of last year's projects. It's a salt box design, 10'x12', and holds all the gardening stuff. Used the B7510 a lot on that job hauling materials and sections of the wall frames from the garage to the jobsite.