Blueberry Bushes
Everyone loves blueberries , it's been asked many times how you can grow your own blueberries to enjoy this sweet treat during summer months. They can be frozen for later in the year use.
Blueberry gardening is a unique combination of delicious fruit and striking ornamental beauty to the garden and landscape. Blueberry bushes requires very little care, and seldom bothered by pests. If a few basic steps are followed your blueberry bushes can thrive and last a lifetime.
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Blueberry bush varieties are distinguished by their climate suitability and ripening season. Be sure to choose the ones right for your area. You may want to select varieties that ripen at different times or feature large fruit, or small berries good for baking. Blueberry bushes with brilliant fall color or different growth habits offer the gardener lots of choices to use throughout the landscape. When blueberry gardening allow at least two plants per family member.
Select a sunny location in well drained soil free of weeds and well worked, locate in an area where irrigation water is available as the best results in blueberry bushes will be obtained by keeping the root zone moist throughout the growing season. Where the soil is poor or marginally drained, raised beds three to four feet wide and eight to twelve inches high work well for blueberry gardening. A fail safe way for blueberry bushes in almost any soil is to incorporate peat moss into the soil. For planting directly into the ground. Work a planting area about two and one half feet in diameter and one foot deep, remove one third to one half of the soil. Add an equal amount of moistened peat moss and mix well. For raised beds mix equal volumes peat moss with acid compost or planting mix. Blueberry bushes thrive in acidic soils
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In blueberry gardening, blueberry bushes can be placed as close as two and one half feet apart to form solid hedgerows or spread up to six feet apart and grown as individual specimens. If planted in rows leave eight to twelve feet between rolls for mowing or cultivating.
Blueberry bush stock, that comes in containers, remove from the containers and lightly roughen up the outside surface of the root ball. Set the top soil line of the plant about one to two inches higher than the existing ground and firm around root ball. Mound soil up along sides of exposed roots mass, watering well. For bare rooted plants, spread roots out wide and shallow, cover with half inch of soil firm soil around roots and water well.
Blueberry bushes again will do best with two to four inches of mulch cover over the roots to conserve moisture, and prevent weed growth, and add organic matter. Bark mulch, acid compost, sawdust, grass clipping all work well. Replace every year.
In blueberry gardening it is important that blueberry bushes get established before allowing them to bear fruit. There after, they should heavily pruned each year to avoid over fruiting which results in small and poor fruit growth. Remove all blooms as they appear the first year, and in years after follow these steps. Remove low growth around the base, if it don't grow up it gets pruned out.Remove dead wood, and non vigorous twiggy wood. Select for bright colored wood with long laterals. Remove blotchy short growth.
Blueberry bushes require acid fertilizers. For newly planted stock, use two tablespoons of ten-twenty-twenty in late spring of fertilizer for each plant or once the plants are established. Later years use one ounce of fertilizer for each year from planting up to a total of eight ounces per plant, apply in early spring again in late spring for best results. Always water after fertilizing.
