How to plant and care for tall blueberries

Soil and planting

If you want the berry bushes to bear fruit perfectly and feel comfortable on the site, you first need to take care of the planting site. Although in nature the tall blueberry is a swamp berry, but the selectively bred and “domesticated” berry does not like soil in which surface water stagnates. Therefore, if you have a similar phenomenon in your area, drainage should be organized. On clay soils, if groundwater is close to the surface, it is better to plant bushes on a small hill.      

A landing site should be chosen protected from cold winds, but open to sunlight. The more sun the berry receives, the sweeter and tastier it will be, and the seedlings will grow healthy.

Sandy soil and peat bogs are favorable for planting bushes. Not everyone can boast of a similar soil composition in the garden, but do not despair. The soil where tall blueberries will grow can be improved:

• If there is loamy soil on the site, the landing pit should be filled with a mixture of sand and peat, taken in proportions of 1: 3.
• If you have a peat bog, but acidic, dilute the soil with sand, 2-3 buckets per square meter will be enough.
• Depleted soils are recommended to be enriched with fertilizers. You will need phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, taken in equal proportions. After enrichment with fertilizers, the earth must be carefully dug up.
• If you have previously applied humus to the soil, then you should not refuse fertilizers, only the proportions of their application will be different – 3 parts of potassium, 2 parts of phosphorus, 1 part of nitrogen. Everything is carefully dug up.

Bushes are planted in the spring before the buds swell or in the fall. The best planting material is 2-year-old seedlings, they do not need any pruning before planting. The container in which the seedlings were delivered to you should be lowered into the water before planting for a sufficient time so that the roots are saturated with moisture. Usually it is about 15 minutes. If there was not enough land, and the roots were very tangled, they should be carefully straightened. Try to save all the earth that crumbles from the roots and place it in a planting hole – there are mushrooms important for the development of the plant.

Pits for landing should be dug with a depth of about 40-50 cm and a diameter of about 1 meter. If you plant several bushes, then keep a distance of 1,3-1,5 meters between them so that the tall blueberries can grow and feel comfortable on the site. The following principle applies here: the later ripening variety, the greater the distance between the bushes. Early ripe varieties can get by with a distance of 1 meter from each other.

We fill up the planting pit for blueberries with the following composition: ½ – mix your land with high-moor peat and add 5-10% pine bark. Some recommend filling the hole with a mixture of only peat (2/3) and last year’s coniferous sawdust (1/3). Both ways are correct. The pit is not completely filled, 5-8 cm should not be enough to the edge. Blueberries are planted in the center of the pit. Try not to trample the ground too much. The bush deepens 3 cm into the ground above the clod of earth from the seedling. The remaining 5-8 cm are filled with mulch – fresh sawdust of pine needles. So you will create ideal conditions for growing tall garden varieties of berries, and the weeds on the mulch will not be at ease, and you will not have to weed the bushes. In addition, mulching seedlings contributes to:

1. Longer retention of moisture in the ground
2. Protecting the plant from temperature extremes day and night, as well as in winter
3. Faster development of shoots and their growth
4. The healthy development of the shrub, as pathogens will not be able to get into the soil to the roots
5. Decayed sawdust becomes additional fertilizer for the plant.

blueberry care

Care for tall bushes can be divided into 3 important stages: fertilizer, watering, pruning. In order for you to get a great harvest from every bush, tall blueberries require good nutrition. She only needs fertilizers based on minerals. No organics in the form of manure, humus, compost and other things! Only nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium. To do this, you can use ammonium sulfate, potassium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, zinc sulfate and superphosphate. 50-60 g of superphosphate, 15-35 g of magnesium and 1-2 g of a mixture of trace elements will be able to ensure the normal development of the plant, this is the norm for one bush. Potassium sulfate will be enough 35-40 g per bush. Superphosphate is poured into the ground to a depth of about 10 cm. Nitrogen fertilizers are not applied immediately, but in 3 doses: 40% – when the buds open, 35% – in May, 25% – in early June.

Watering blueberries is recommended with acidified water: 1 teaspoon of citric acid in a bucket of water or dilute table vinegar to a concentration of 0,2%. If you put sawdust under the bush, then it is not necessary to acidify the water. Blueberries love moisture, it is especially important in August during fruit ripening, just try not to overdo it so as not to cause root rot from excessive moisture.

Pruning tall blueberries is done in early spring or autumn, when the leaves fall off. Only bushes that have reached the age of 6-7 years are rejuvenated. Leave at least 5 annual shoots. If the bush has grown strongly, try to thin it out. There are varieties of blueberries that have taller shoots, so to stimulate their further growth, they are pruned more strongly. You can loosen the soil around the bush, but try to do it especially carefully so as not to damage the roots.

Common Mistakes

When growing tall blueberries, gardeners often complain about poor plant yields or their quick death. This means only one thing – somewhere they made a critical mistake. Here are the most common ones:

• Knowing that forest blueberries grow in a swamp, gardeners are trying to create similar conditions for it – shade and moisture. The plant will survive, but you will not get a harvest from it.
• The acidity of the soil is not checked. Blueberries need 4-5 pH units.
• Bushes are planted exclusively in peat. Peat freezes heavily in winter, it thaws later in spring, the growth of shoots slows down, and they do not have time to be covered with bark by winter, therefore they die.
• In clay areas, gardeners forget to arrange drainage, the root system of the bushes does not receive enough air, but it has an excess of moisture, so it gradually dies off, leading to the death of the bush.
• It may happen that blueberries have taken root, but do not grow well. Its leaves are light green in color. There can be 2 reasons: lack of nitrogen and high acidity of the soil.

Popular varieties

The tall blueberry bush got its name because it can reach a height of 3 meters. This is a very perennial plant. Berries gives large – up to 2 cm in diameter. With good care, you can achieve a crop of 5-9 kg per bush.

The most popular varieties of tall blueberries:

• River. Early variety. The bush reaches a height of 2 m, the berries ripen at the end of July. It gives a lot of fruits – 8-10 kg. Ripe berries do not fall from the bush, they tolerate transportation well.
• Bluegold allows you to enjoy fresh berries already in mid-July. This variety of tall blueberries does not grow too high – a maximum of 1,5 meters. Productivity – 4,5-7kg. The bush looks very compact and decorative.
• The Puri variety will begin to produce maximum yields only after 3 years – 5-7 kg each. The berries are very large – up to 2 cm in diameter, ripen at the end of July.
• Another variety with large berries is Duke. It has good frost resistance, both during flowering and during wintering. When planting, get 6-8 kg per bush.
• The Patriot variety will give you 5-7 kg of amazingly tasty berries every year. Plus it looks very decorative.
• Toro berries you can try in early August, gives regular high yields.
• The Bluecrop variety is one of the most abundant in berries – 6-9 kg of large fruits. Very strong, tasty, with a beautiful color. The most common variety in Europe.
• The Chippewa variety can withstand 38 degrees of frost, it is self-pollinating, it can even be grown in containers.
• Spartan ripens in late summer. He will give you 5-6 kg of berries, they have a special aroma and a pleasant taste with sourness.
• Berkeley has a branched structure, it can easily fit as a hedge. Productivity – 4-8 kg. Very strong peel of berries, well stored, transported. Ripens mid-August. Very unpretentious. Resistant to fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

Video “We grow blueberries on our site”

The recording shows the technology of planting and caring for tall blueberries. After watching the video, you will learn the features of planting container plants in the ground, as well as how to increase fruiting.