Ben E Lou
Deeply Rooted
I've read in some places that I should allow up to a full year to get a bed ready for blueberries. However, I'd prefer not to wait that long to get 'em in the ground. I'd like to plant them roughly 2 months from now, in mid-February, so here's what I've done and plan to do.
4. Mulch the area with pine straw as soon as all this stupid snow melts. (We got roughly 13 inches earlier this week.)
5. Once soil test results come, pull back pine straw, apply acidifier as recommended and till into soil.
6. Wait for February.
I'm going to grow 6 or 8 rabbiteye plants, as they're recommended by my local extension service for this area, and I *might* add a couple of dwarves to the one that I've already bought in a container. Anything else I should be doing, or anything on the list above that looks wrong?
(I'm in zone 7b--Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, in NW Greensboro.)
- Sent soil to extension service to be tested for pH, and purchased acidifier in advance of getting results. (My soil pH is around 6.0, I'm fairly sure, but I'll wait for the extension service to confirm that.)
- Mowed the area as low as possible, then used my weedeater to remove all remnants of anything in the area.
- There's virtually no grass in the area I want to use--just a bunch of weeds--so I put down some weed and feed that allows planting within three weeks of application. (I used the same on the front yard early this fall and successfully overseeded 3 weeks thereafter.) I figure that'll get rid of the sparse/ugly vegetation that's there.
4. Mulch the area with pine straw as soon as all this stupid snow melts. (We got roughly 13 inches earlier this week.)
5. Once soil test results come, pull back pine straw, apply acidifier as recommended and till into soil.
6. Wait for February.
I'm going to grow 6 or 8 rabbiteye plants, as they're recommended by my local extension service for this area, and I *might* add a couple of dwarves to the one that I've already bought in a container. Anything else I should be doing, or anything on the list above that looks wrong?
(I'm in zone 7b--Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, in NW Greensboro.)