How many blueberry bushes

[peteyfoozer]

How many blueberry bushes would I need to plant to harvest a few gallon bags each year?

 

[lesa]

I can't answer that question specifically, but I will tell you what I found... If you do not have the right nutrients in your soil, planting blueberries will not work. I wasn't interested in amending our soil that much. I would rather plant things that want to grow -not force it. I use the "blueberry garden" to plant my squash in now. I love blueberries and drive a short distance away to pick them. If you have the right soil, it would be great to have your own. I will be interested to hear what others have to say on the subject. Good luck and Happy Gardening!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Acidic soil is what blueberries love...i am trying to force mine into growing by ammending the soil every year...but i'm also realizing what a pain it is. I agree with lisa, if you've got the right conditions go for it! I dont know why i am trying to grow them either considering that i can go out in the woods 10 minutes from my house and pick all the huckleberries i want!! Anyway, i remember my great-grandfather had um, about 6 or 8 large bushes...once they got established, he had LOADS of berries. You could probably get what you want in 3-4 bushes??

 

[bobm]

Petey ... go to-- fallcreeknursery.com --they are a commercial blueberry wholesale nursery in Oregon. That site will tell you everything that you will ever want to know ( from soil prep, commercial fields to backyard, descriptions of bush type, berry size, etc) about blueberries.

 

[Carol Dee]

bobm thanks for the site. DH just bought 6 blueberry bushes. Looking good so far.

 

[JimWWhite]

We have seventeen bushes. One is almost 8 years old. The others are all three years old. We just got in the ripest ones from all of them yesterday and the take was 4 gallon ziplock bags on the nose. And the bushes are only just starting to produce. We'll probably get another 4 gallons before they play out in the next couple of weeks or so but in another two or three years we'll be getting almost a gallon from each bush. I did fill up one bag from the 8 year old bush. A lady that Teresa knows has five bushes that are probably nearly seven feet tall or more and she gets at least 10 gallon bags from them. Until this year we've been buying from her. I took five gallons from her the other day on consignment and sold them at work for $10/gallon. She's an older lady who lost her husband last year so I didn't take anything for myself except a big bowl of blueberry cobbler and a dollop of vanilla ice cream she came out with.

 

[catjac1975]

We planted 20, 35 years ago. When you plant those little twigs they do not look like much. Of course they are way too many now to keep up with picking But we have plenty to freeze, eat , and share. I recommend getting the largest size berries, get a lot of varieties which staggers the harvest. The large berries fill up the bowl faster. In Maine they plant low growing berries. You use a special rake to harvest them which is supposed to be fast to do. I like the tall to never bend when picking.

 

[Smart Red]

We are growing blueberries. We planted them about 25 years ago - about 15 years before we learned that blueberries won't grow here in Rock County. While this year we have very few due to last year's drought, we usually pick 3 gallons for the freezer in addition to what is eaten by the grands and used during the harvesting season.

Before planting, we dug out all the soil in our turn-around and amended it with pine needles, coffee grounds, ground oak leaves, peat, anything we could find that would add acid to the soil before we planted the blueberries. For many years we also added aluminum sulfate or garden sulfur.

After all these years we get about a gallon per plant after the eating out of hand is discounted.

I once read that experiments have shown that acid loving plants that are properly given what they need when planted in alkaline soil will, over time, change the soil around them causing it to become more acidic. The same results for alkaline loving plants put in acidic soil and treated to raise the acidity. In time the plant 'makes' the surrounding soil more alkaline.

 

[the1honeycomb]

I planted 7 plants in my yard, 3 years ago, they are slow growing because my DH " can't recognize them even thought they are out in the middle of the yard! They are not taking the trim to the ground laying down (haha ) short but productive some day I may get a gallon of berries!!

Good luck with your berries!! I pick from down the road. I think the old guy down there may be incahoots with my DH!!

 

[thistlebloom]