How to Grow Blueberries - Growing the Superfruit

Why Should I Grow Blueberries?

• Help improve memory and may help prevent age-related memory loss
• Have a low glycemic index and may also aid in regulating blood sugar levels
• Improve cardiovascular health
• Protect the retina from oxygen damage
• May help prevent cancer

What type of soil do I need for blueberries?

Blueberries grow best with an acid soil pH between 4 and 5.5, so do a soil test before you start. If your soil is alkaline, you’ll either need to do a LOT of soil amending or grow you blueberries in a container.

Blueberries like soil rich in acidic, organic material, like you would find on forest floor or edge of the forest.  Peat moss is commonly recommended, but pine needles, leaves and other tree fallout (that may be available for free) work just as well.

When you prepare your planting area, dig a generous amount of organic matter into your soil. Time and effort up front will make all the difference in plant performance.  Watch out for large amounts of sulfur and other chemical additives, which may lower pH but disrupt the soil microbes.  If you do add sulfur in quantity to lower pH, wait at least three months for it to break down before planting.  (For instance, add in fall for planting in spring.)

How deep should I plant my blueberries, and when should I fertilize them?

Potted plants should be planted at the same depth they are growing in pot.  The same rule applies for bare root plants.  The potted plants I planted blossomed and had fruit the first year.  Bare root plants may take longer.

How much water do blueberry plants need?

Blueberries need around an inch of water per week.  A good layer of mulch will  help keep up the moisture level stable, and cut down on the amount of time spent watering.  I would say the best mulch would be pine needles.  As they decay they will continue to supply nutrients and help maintain the correct pH.

If you can’t get pine needles, bark over landscape material would be my next choice, although I haven’t tried it.  Each spring, I would suggest pulling up the mulch and adding organic material such as compost or castings to keep the ground healthy. (Healthy soil = healthy plants.  Plants in the healthiest soil will produce the healthiest berries)  Remember, these bushes have the potential to provide many years of delicious berries, so they are worth the extra effort.

How To Grow Blueberries

Growing your own blueberries will quickly become your favorite simple pleasure of the summer. The fruit is incredibly sweet and delicious, can be used in so many ways, and boasts a handful of health benefits that makes snacking on them almost a requirement. The plants themselves offer a lot to the garden and landscape wherever they are planted, which acts as a gardening bonus and leaves you with the option to plant along with the rest of your garden.

With a little know-how and knowledge of the needs of blueberry plants, you can be growing a blueberry bush in no time and harvesting blueberries before you know it.

Use this guide on how to grow blueberries to learn about the basics and what you need to provide your new plants.

Preparing the Soil

Its always a good idea to prepare the soil you are going to be adding new plants to according to the type of plants being added. For blueberries this means very moist and acidic soil. This is different than the soil that most other plants need, so you can opt for a dedicated bed for blueberry bushes or designate a corner of an existing bed where you amend the soil as needed. Add sulfur and humus to the soil to bring the pH up and ensure that it stays loose and light, avoid compacting the soil any.

Choosing a Variety

There are so many varieties of blueberries available to grow, and each of them is suited to a different growing region and taste. Shop first for what will grow in your area, checking out native varieties first, and then look among those for the plant that is easiest for a beginner to grow, and produces a harvest that you will be happy with in yield, taste and size. Your best resource is a local nursery where they will have some knowledge about the varieties that grow best in your neighborhood.

Planting Your Blueberries

When you plant you are setting your blueberries up for success, so it is important that everything is done right. Begin by digging a hole two to three feet wider than the container of soil that the blueberry is potted in. Add compost material to the hole and then add your new plant so that it is two inches below the soil line. Cover up the potted soil ball and add a two to three inch layer of mulch around the blueberry bush to deter weeds, insects and retain moisture. Water your blueberry plant well after it has been planted.

Caring for Your Blueberry

In the beginning blueberry plants are very low maintenance, so aside from watering and weeding there is not a lot for you to see do. When the plant buds the first year you do need to remove the buds which will let the plant continue to grow and produce fruit the following year. After three of four seasons of growth, pruning becomes necessary. Prune your blueberry bush at the start of fall of late winter towards the beginning of spring. The way you prune your bush depends on the variety that you have chosen, with some needing to be pruned to the ground and others pruned severely but not as low. Consult the pruning instructions that come with your plant to ensure that you are always pruning properly and not harming the plant. Regular pruning ensures that you will be able to harvest berries each and every year.

Harvesting

Blueberries taste best when they are fully ripe, and this is actually the best time to harvest them. Blueberries will fall off into your hand when they are ripe for the picking so it is best to have a sheet or other piece of fabric placed on the ground to easily collect and carry the berries. A good harvest will probably leave you with more blueberries than you can eat and use before they begin to over ripen so freeze bags of your harvest for up to a year without losing any flavor.

How To Grow Blueberries

Blueberries are a fruit rich in health promoting benefits. So many in fact that it is considered by many to be a "super food". To reinforce this belief research from the university of Michigan Cardiovascular Center has found that blueberries can reduce belly fat and lower the risk of heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

Furthermore, a study published in the 2009 Experimental Biology conference has also found that a diet rich in blueberries results in lowers cholesterol levels, improve glucose control and insulin sensitivity, and lowers the risk of heart disease and diabetes. So knowing this, how can you ot include blueberries as part of your normal diet?

For those of you who love to eat fruit and have yet to discover the flavoursome, goodness of freshy picked blueberries you may be interested to know that growing blueberry plants is relatively simple and inexpensive. And don't forget, you cannot get a better quality fruit than that you have just picked of the plant yourself.

So just how do you grow a blueberry bush?

Growing blueberries is really easy and can produce great results. All you need is a light, free-draining acidic soil. However to get the best out of crop it is well worth adding plenty of rich, organic matter.

Native to North America, they prefer a nice sunny or semi shaded position, but if your soil is not acidic you will still have a couple of options. 

Firstly you can acidify your soil by digging in sulphur chips or dust. However, they will eed to be added three weeks before plating for it to take effect. If this is not an option then dig in plenty of good quality ericaceous compost and water in sequestered iron.

Alternatively you can try growing blueberries in containers using an ericaceous compost mix.

On top tip to remember is that like all acid loving plants, blueberries are best watered with rainwater whenever possible as tap water can make the compost more alkaline over time.

Pruning blueberry plants

Blueberry bushes don't really require a lot of attention. But to ensure that your plant remains productive over many years you will need to prone them each spring around February or March while the plants is still dormant.

Pruning blueberries is really straight forward once you know what you are trying to achieve. The idea is to ensure that your plant always has a good selection of productive young red stems with plenty of fat fruiting buds. These buds are much rounder than the vegetative buds so you can easily tell which stems will produce the most fruit. It's the two year old wood that is most productive. Cut back the just very  oldest stems to ground level each year to encourage new stems to be produced - creating a constant process of rejuvenation.

While you are pruning you should also aim to trim out any dead or damaged stems to help create a healthy open framework. Blueberries tend to send out some low horizontal stems close to the ground and these can also be pruned out too. With regular pruning your high bush blueberry plants should remain productive for many years producing delicious fruit every summer. And with its attractive flowers and glorious autumn foliage your blueberry plant will make a stunning feature in your garden too.