Blueberries

[dogs]

Anyone have a tips on growing blueberries successfully?

[FlatBottom]

I personally haven't grown any blueberries, but my neighbor does and I guess the key is to have acidic soil. He uses pine needles and some kind of powder to get this. He also says they need to get some decent light.

[huntingmaxima]

This is my second year growing them, htey need acidic soil. i guess this will be the year to find out anything or to tell if I have any luck with them. I bought mine off hsolist. Try U of MN Extension web page. They will tell you what type is good for our area.

[Wormdrowner]

Dogs,

Takes some work getting started, but well worth it. My last blueberry plants were getting old and woody so I started anew last year. Blueberries don't require great soil conditions, but they do require an acidic soil, between 4.0 and 4.5. Walmart or a garden center should have a kit to test the soil alkalinity, fairly cheap, under 10.00 and can be used many times to check alkalinity/Ph of soil throughout the year. You should plant two varieties for cross pollination. I planted Chippewa variety last spring and they are doing great, not sure of the other one I have. I believe Chippewa was developed at the U of M. I used peat moss mixed with the soil to retain moisture, pine needles also help to increase alkalinity, and you can mulch also with them, when it rains they will leech into your soil. I water twice weekly with Miracle Grow "Miracid", just follow directions. For the first two years you want to pick off all flowers/buds so the plants strenght goes into developing root system and plant growth. You won't get any berries for those first two years, but it will be well worth it in the end. If your leaves start turning yellow it means that you need to get your soil more acidic. Plant about 4-5 feet apart. Make sure to put wire cages around them also, the deer and rabbits will destroy them. When you finally get berries make sure you also get some bird netting because they like them as much as we do. Lots of work but well worh it. I put in eight plants and that seems to be sufficient for everyday use for cereals, pancakes etc.

Good luck

[dogs]

Wormdrowner: Did you put them in a sandy mix soil? And do you do anything about covering in winter?

[Wormdrowner]

Sandy soil drains quickly, incoporating peat will help to retain moisture, mulching with 3-5 inches of pine needles will help to retain moisture also and keeps weed down. I didn't cover mine this year and they are starting to bud out already, they look like they came through winter with no damage. I have 3' diameter cages around them, if you worried about winter kill you could fill the cages with straw in the fall to protect.

[dogs]

Thanks to all.