I've never grown blueberries; always contented myself picking the wild ones. But my toddler granddaughter so enjoyed picking raspberries & strawberries in my gardens last summer, that I'd like to add blueberries next spring. Any recommendations as to varieties, locations, any tips?? Thanks!

Something tells me the digging fool knows that blueberries need acidic soil and some sun ... not much more. Great thought! Get started now and you'll have two or three chances to screw up and still have your grandaughter remember the blueberries!

It's also recommended that you pinch off the flowers the first 2 or 3 seasons to promote root growth. The waiting is hard, but it should pay off.

I acidify with pine needles, wood mulch, sulphur and coffee.

Jerry
Hei-Low Farm
zone 3/4

I too am going to try them for the first time. A lady across the road has quite a patch of them, but she relies on them for income, so can't mooch off her! She has promised to teach me some tricks though.

I posted on here a month ago looking for books on the subject. Not a lot out there. The best I have found is published by Storey Publications and it is called "Grow the Best Blueberries" or similar. It is only about 32 pages long, but is the only book I can find devoted to the subject! I plan to order a copy this week. You can get it right from the publisher, or also through Amazon.

I too have heard the pine needle compost stuff. I have a ton of oak leaves and I heard compost made strictly from oak leaves would be good for blueberries. Hope the book can shed some light on it, now is the time to study up!

How much is 'some sun'? Like, can blueberries go in FULL sun, or are they understory plants like they are in the woods? I'd love to put them right across from my raspberry patch, in full sun, to share the other side of the same 'picking lane' of heart-shaped stepping stones I put in for the kids to perch & pick from. Aren't there different varieties & you should have a couple kinds for cross-pollination & best fruit?

Here's a website all about blueberries that might be helpful:

http://ssfruit.cas.psu.edu/chapter9/chapter9a.htm

As far as varieties, Chippewa, Northblue, Northland, Patriot and other cultivars are reliable in Z5. Different cultivars ripen over a period of time so you can have blueberries over a longer period of time.

Scifigirl's link mentioned above is excellent. I put it on my "favorites" browser and I pop it open every couple days and read a few pages so the stuff can start to sink in.

Also, my book from Storey Publications arrived "Grow the Best Blueberries". It is 32 pages long and is very easy to follow. Without actually having tried their methods, my guess is that if followed, a beginner has a superb chance of success. (The information is similar to that contained in scifilgirl's source, maybe a little more basic.) The It was only a couple dollars and they sell it on-line.

I also bought some titles called "Great Blueberry Recipes", "Eggs and Chickens", "Growing and Using Basil" and "Grow the Best Asparagus". The whole order, with shipping was about $12.

Good luck with your blueberries.
I have six highbush and one lowbush varieties. My biggest problem was the BIRDS! They wait until the berries are perfectly ripe and then have a feast. I finally solved the problem with netting. Because my patch is small it was easy to cover them. I had a great crop last season.

I live in SE Pennsylvania, zone 6. I grow my blueberries (Blue Ray,Blue Crop, and Ivanhoe) in full sun near my arbovitae. I first put down pine-bark mulch for its acidic qualities. I bought netting from Jung Seeds Co. I found out that the netting is not always readily visible by birds after seeing feathers stuck in it. I felt so bad. I then tied ribbons of garden tape (the green stuff for tomatoes) to make it more visible and haven't had a bird accident yet. I hope my 3 year old doesn't eat them before they're ripe again this year! LOL! He lifted the net and started eating.

The biggest mistake most people make with blueberries is failing to acidify the soil enough. Get a soil test and acidify as it recommends for blueberries. The best acidifier is soil sulfur, not aluminum sulphate, which apparently is not good for blueberries. Even here where the soil is pretty acid naturally, I had to drop it. Once you add the acidifier, you can maintain it with pine needles and a quality fertlizer like Holly Tone. But you can't reach the correct ph without soil sulphur. Once you get that right, it's easy. The Storey publication book is good, though not organic based. But the general info is very helpful--pruning, etc.

I've also been told to water a lot once the bush sets fruit. Someone told this to me so I can't vouch for it. Where I live is very dry in the summer. My (Berkeley) blueberries are just so-so...they're too far away from the hose and lugging buckets of water isn't something that I do often enough (obviously). I have to use lots of netting to keep the birds and deer away.

Also a first timer! I live near Hammonton, NJ - one of the largest blueberry producers in the USA. Just have a couple questions regarding soil mix and pH:

1) Mixing sand (mason's sand), peat moss, chopped oak leaves and pineneedles, and horse manure in my raised beds (we have clay soil). Does this sound OK? I am growing strictly organic, so don't want to use Miracle Gro, etc. Is sulphur considered "organic"?

Thanks!

I get granulated sulphur from EB Stone, which is a west coast company and they're strictly organic, I believe (but I could be wrong.) You should have no worries about using sulphur, just make sure to follow the pacakge directions, because you CAN overapply.

I fertilize my lowbush plants with cottonseed meal throughout the year and "water" it in with diluted compost tea. One of the bushes almost died before it got soaked with the tea. Now it's recovering, but half the size of the others. I did kill a couple of plants before I got the water and soil correct. I figure they'll be waiting for me in heaven with a full crop when I see them again!

-nita

PS They're in full sun

Some of my best memories of my childhood come from picking wild blueberries in the Northwoods of Minnesota with my grandparents. NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING you can grow in your garden compares to the flavor of the wild ones. I have done okay with one of my lowbush varieties (Northblue), and the other appears to be on death's door (Northland). When I talk to my dad and grandparents about where they grow and what they like, they say that will appear on the edge of the woods on the perimeter of clearings. That means they like some sun and some shade. Up north in Minnesota what soil there is on top of the granite is very sandy and very acidic. I remember my grandparents digging up a few bushes in the woods and trying to transplant them at home - didn't work. And they were seasoned gardeners. Even the tame varieties are finniky. Good luck, and even if you have success at home, take your granddaughter berry picking in the woods, come home and make some pie and she will remember it forever.