April 7 Column: How to Grow Blueberries
Oh, how I love blueberries! They are so simple to grow. They also provide us with plenty of berries for eating fresh, supplementing our morning yogurt or oatmeal, and for adding to baked goodies. So it makes sense that this week’s column is all about how to grow blueberries. Here’s a link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Blueberries provide a delicious harvest, plus beauty in the landscape.
Or you can read my column below:
Column: Blueberries provide a delicious harvest, plus beauty in the landscape
When you see what a tiny package of fresh blueberries sells for at the grocery store, you’d think they’re difficult to grow. Fortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth provided you meet the plants’ basic needs.
I’ve grown blueberries for about 25 years. Aside from the delicious harvest they provide, I appreciate what they contribute to our landscape. In the spring, the bushes are covered with cream-colored flowers that bumblebees clamor over to get their sweet nectar. Those flowers are followed by green berries that gradually turn blue in July. Come fall, all eyes are on the leaves as they transform from green to a vibrant red.
Blueberry bush requirements
The three primary needs of blueberry bushes are plenty of sunshine (with a bit of afternoon shade), regular watering, and acidic soil. That means a pH value between 4.5 and 5.5. The average soil pH in this region ranges from 7.0 to 7.5. It’s a good idea to conduct a simple pH test using a kit from a garden center first.
While some advocate the use of peat moss to lower the soil pH, it’s not a sustainable practice. That is because peat bogs take thousands of years to develop. I prefer using elemental sulfur, which is available at garden centers. The label directions indicate the amount to use, based on your soil’s pH and the size of your garden bed. There are online application calculators as well.
Every two or three years, apply more sulfur to the bed by sprinkling it onto the surface of the soil. Blueberry plants have very shallow roots so digging it in isn’t an option. You’ll also want to be careful when weeding for the same reason.
Blueberry varieties
Choosing blueberry cultivars is an exciting part of establishing a blueberry bed. The plants are self-fertile. Even so, you will get much better production by selecting more than one cultivar so they can pollinate each other. Before you do that, however, there’s one more consideration. There are early, mid- and late season cultivars. I recommend picking out a couple of each to extend the harvest season as long as possible.
Of the early-season cultivars, Patriot is my favorite because the berries are huge. Earliblue, Blueray and Spartan are other examples that do well in this region. Mid-season cultivars include Bluejay, Bluecrop and Berkeley. Darrow and Elliot are late-season cultivars.
When harvest season arrives, it’s important to be patient and only pick berries when they turn a deep blue. They will be the most flavorful.
Keeping the birds away
You might discover that birds — particularly robins — help themselves to your crop when you’re not looking. I cover our blueberry bed with a large sheet of floating row cover. That’s because the lightweight fabric keeps the birds away but allows sunlight and moisture to get through it. I used to cover the bed with bird netting but berries can get caught in it so easily. The berries would fly everywhere whenever I needed to uncover the bed in order to pick them.
What about pruning blueberry bushes? For the first two years, leave them alone other than to remove broken branches. It is recommended to strip off the blossoms for the first two years. That way, the plants focus on getting established rather than producing fruit. I’ll let you decide if you can be that disciplined.
In early spring of their third year, it’s time to do some pruning. Remove dead or weak branches first, then branches that cross each other. The main pruning goal is to have a balance of one-, two- and three-year-old canes (branches). How do you know the difference?
The one-year-old canes and three-year-old canes are the easiest to identify. The former are smaller in diameter and yellow-green in color while the latter are covered with thick, light brown bark. The two-year-olds have a reddish tinge and are partially covered with brown bark.
One of my favorite things about blueberries is that they need absolutely no preparation in order to eat or preserve them. For freezing, just place the berries into freezer bags and pop them into the freezer to enjoy during the off-season.
What is your reward for the little bit of care the bushes require? Having fresh berries to pop into your mouth while out in the garden. Or adding them to your morning yogurt or oatmeal. And of course, using them for muffins, tarts and pies is a treat.
Video: Pruning Blueberries
In keeping with this week’s blueberry theme, I decided it would be helpful to have the topic for my next “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video be about pruning blueberries: