Produced by
Patti Moreno
Contributor to:
Growing Blueberries
My mouth is watering thinking about all of the delicious things I can make with blueberries; Pie, Grunt, Jelly, muffins, Pancakes, Smoothies, Bars and cereal...And they’re good for you!
New England (zones 4-7) is the best area for blueberries to thrive. What’s great about these healthful anti-oxidant-rich berry is that they are durable and versatile and can grow in lots of other zones, as well. You can plant blueberries in the spring, but they’re also excellent to plant in the fall. Planting blueberries doesn’t take much work. Find a place to plant your blueberries where they will receive full sun at least 6-8 hours a day. If you are in more of an urban environment they grow well in clay or rocky soil, too!
I recommend that you plant multiple blueberry varieties for a staggered harvest, 5 feet apart. What I did is planted larger bushes in front and planted smaller bushes behind them. The most important thing to remember about blueberries is that they need to be weeded.
Weeding is not the grunt work that many gardeners complain about. For me, it is an almost meditative time to be alone with my plants and my thoughts. And, it gives me a chance to talk to my plants and thank them for their beauty and abundance. (Believe me – you say those things to your plant and you will see remarkable results!)
After that, all you have to do is add compost and a soil acidifier to keep the soil at a ph level between 4-4.5. Blueberry plants do love and require acidic soil. I have pine trees on my property and whenever the pine needles fall from the pine trees, I put them around my blueberry plants which supplement the soil to make it more acidic.
After you have planted your blueberries all you have to do is heavily mulch the blueberries and water well for the next few weeks so the roots can establish themselves. Consider adding a net to keep your crop from the birds. They’ll grow between 4 and 7ft and make a great hedge.
Maintaining your Blueberries is easy:
- Every year you’ll need to fertilize your blueberries in the spring and late summer.
- Clip any dead or diseased branches stems and stalks.
- Trim the height so that you will be able to easily harvest the blueberries but be careful not to cut more than half of the new growth.
- Varieties of Blueberries
- Bluecrop
- Early Blue
- Jersey. I also grow the wild variety
- Wild
- North Country Blueberry (It grows between 1&1/2’ -3’ in height making it perfect for containers or as a border hedge.)
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