Anybody here grow blueberries?

[Grampa Greenjeans]

Blueberries are super easy to grow. Way back when I worked for my Grandfather's orchard he had an acre of blueberries. He swapped the planting areas with raspberries as the soil test came back low ph for one of the areas. They did very well. I would heavily mulch them with sawdust from a sawmill. Ran trickle irrigation thru it. Sprayed with a soluble fertilizer as the mulch robbed the nitrogen.

I have 10 plants at home here in Georgia. I get sawdust from a local sawmill. I fertilized them with triple 12 before adding more sawdust. Have about 5 or 6 varieties. I have forgot which ones are which, but I just planted 2 Premier which I think I already have a couple more. I also add Epsom Salts to add flavor and make nutrients available. Last year I picked 8 gallons of them.

I dig a $20 hole, more like a wide v shaped hole which I incorporate some compost into the heavy clay soil. Then mulch to hold in moisture and keep weeds away. Also so I see it when mowing.

I figure the top ones are for the birds, the bottom for my chickens, and the ones in the middle are for me.

 

[Vanalpaca]

Blueberries are super easy to grow. Way back when I worked for my Grandfather's orchard he had an acre of blueberries. He swapped the planting areas with raspberries as the soil test came back low ph for one of the areas. They did very well. I would heavily mulch them with sawdust from a sawmill. Ran trickle irrigation thru it. Sprayed with a soluble fertilizer as the mulch robbed the nitrogen.

I have 10 plants at home here in Georgia. I get sawdust from a local sawmill. I fertilized them with triple 12 before adding more sawdust. Have about 5 or 6 varieties. I have forgot which ones are which, but I just planted 2 Premier which I think I already have a couple more. I also add Epsom Salts to add flavor and make nutrients available. Last year I picked 8 gallons of them.

I dig a $20 hole, more like a wide v shaped hole which I incorporate some compost into the heavy clay soil. Then mulch to hold in moisture and keep weeds away. Also so I see it when mowing.

I figure the top ones are for the birds, the bottom for my chickens, and the ones in the middle are for me.

We live next to a lime plant that is now closed down (past 10 years). It killed off all the bees and we used to go out and find a fine dusting of lime on the cars. Crops loved it. But now I want to grow blueberries. I got 2 varieties, Bluecrop and Blueray and put them in 1 gallon pots. The red leaves tell me the soil is not acid enough. I put ammonia sulfate granules in the dirt, and 1/2 peat moss, 1/2 my garden loam. They survived summer. They were small rooted plants. The BUNNIES ate them down overwinter. Now they have come back. Mostly green, some red leaf. So I need suggestions for potting them up to 4.5 gallon nursery pots! 50/50 peat and my sandy garden loam? I could scour the property for fall leaves but they are mostly gone. I have pine needles, short ones. I have wood chips (the pine shavings you get at the feed store for animal litter). I had some silver miracle grow around here somewhere. I also have a large amount of 1 year and 2 year composted cow muck from the barn... SUGGESTIONS to get them growing fast and thriving???

 

[Marie2020]

We live next to a lime plant that is now closed down (past 10 years). It killed off all the bees and we used to go out and find a fine dusting of lime on the cars. Crops loved it. But now I want to grow blueberries. I got 2 varieties, Bluecrop and Blueray and put them in 1 gallon pots. The red leaves tell me the soil is not acid enough. I put ammonia sulfate granules in the dirt, and 1/2 peat moss, 1/2 my garden loam. They survived summer. They were small rooted plants. The BUNNIES ate them down overwinter. Now they have come back. Mostly green, some red leaf. So I need suggestions for potting them up to 4.5 gallon nursery pots! 50/50 peat and my sandy garden loam? I could scour the property for fall leaves but they are mostly gone. I have pine needles, short ones. I have wood chips (the pine shavings you get at the feed store for animal litter). I had some silver miracle grow around here somewhere. I also have a large amount of 1 year and 2 year composted cow muck from the barn... SUGGESTIONS to get them growing fast and thriving???

I have three hanging on for their lives. Two in pots and one surviver in the the ground. I need to move them all in one place.

 

[flowerbug]

the hard part with potted blueberries is keeping the soil evenly moist (i.e. watered enough but not too much or too little).

 

[Vanalpaca]

I don't have variety suggestions. You might contact your local extension office, they probably have recommendations for your area. I can't remember what I planted in Northwest Arkansas. My records stayed with the new owner.

Have you checked the pH of where you are going to plant them? Blueberries like a low pH, around 5.0 to 5.2. So my suggestion is to get started now preparing where you are going to plant them. I dug in a lot of organic matter, peat moss and compost, and used elemental sulfur to get the pH moving down. I mulched them with sawdust saved from non-treated wood. Keeping the grass out of them was an effort. Weeds were easy, they puled right up. But the Bermuda was a pain if I didn't keep on top of it.

Blueberries have a shallow root system. They like a well drained area or they can drown. But since they are shallow rooted, they can dry out too. In Arkansas I was watering them a lot even after they were well established. They are kind of high maintenance but man were fresh blueberries good!

how long from planting to the shrubs taking off and getting big enough to produce fruit? Mine are BlueCrop and BlueRay and supposed to be up to 6 foot bushes... Planted in 2 gallon pots last summer as small rooted cuttings, chewed back by rabbits in the fall, came back this spring quite well. Now I need to get them to GROW...

 

[Ridgerunner]

how long from planting to the shrubs taking off and getting big enough to produce fruit?

Mine produced some the first year. You often read to not let blueberries, strawberries, apples, asparagus, or other things produce the first year to two, give them time to grow for better production in later years. Maybe if you grow them commercially but I grow them for my benefit and ignore that suggestion. I've had strawberries not live through their first summer during a really dry hot heat wave so if I had refused to harvest when they first produced I would have had nothing. I've had an apple tree get diseased and not produce anything worthwhile after a couple of years. So I ignore the suggestion to wait to harvest the first year for anything and enjoy it while I can.

You probably will not get a lot the first year but by the third year my blueberries were producing great.

 

[Vanalpaca]

Mine produced some the first year. You often read to not let blueberries, strawberries, apples, asparagus, or other things produce the first year to two, give them time to grow for better production in later years. Maybe if you grow them commercially but I grow them for my benefit and ignore that suggestion. I've had strawberries not live through their first summer during a really dry hot heat wave so if I had refused to harvest when they first produced I would have had nothing. I've had an apple tree get diseased and not produce anything worthwhile after a couple of years. So I ignore the suggestion to wait to harvest the first year for anything and enjoy it while I can.

You probably will not get a lot the first year but by the third year my blueberries were producing great.

I put potting them up on my list of things to do!! I have 6 of each of 2 varieties and they are less than 12 inches tall. Mature size 6 feet...

 

[Anniekay]

I have 8 blueberry plants planted in the yard. I have very acid, sandy soil and they are doing well this year. The first year there weren't very many berries on, the second year they were getting too shaded so, not many berries. Last year in September we had a hurricane com through which took out the trees that were shading it so I now have a pretty decent crop coming along. Not blue yet, just turning pink

. I don't fuss with them I just water them when we are lacking rainfall, give them Hollytone fertilizer in early spring and that's it.