Blueberry "Northern Highbush" (Vaccinium corymbosum) *Multiple Varietals and Sizes Available*
Blueberry "Northern Highbush" (Vaccinium corymbosum) *Multiple Varietals and Sizes Available*
Blueberries bring a unique combination of delicious fruit and striking, year round ornamental beauty to the garden and landscape.
Blue-green leaves change to red in fall. White flowers produce small, sweet dark blue fruits. Fruits can be eaten raw or cooked. Plants are fire and drought tolerant.
Though technically self-fertile, you get better pollination and fruit set with 2 or more within the same flowering period. In the Pacific NW, you can harvest from early July through mid-September, if you buy some each season. Plant 10 bushes if you have children.
They're relatively easy to grow and require minimal care. By following just a few basic steps, your blueberry plants will thrive for many decades and provide you with abundant fruit every year.
They do take some extra soil prep and take a few years to get established and pumping out, though they make fruit on each years new growth. We think they are worth it.
Here is a planting guide from our blueberry planting guide on our main website
Site Selection and Soil Preparation
Sun: Select a sunny location with at least 6 hours of sun each day.
Soil: Blueberries prefer well-drained soil that is free of weeds and is well-worked. It's best to locate your blueberry plants in an area where irrigation is readily available as best results will be achieved by keeping the root zone moist throughout the growing season. They won’t like a super windy location, so plant a windbreak if there is not one already.
Blueberries prefer acidic soils, in pH range in the 4.5-5.5 range. A fail-safe way to grow blueberries in almost any soil is to incorporate peat moss into the planting medium. For planting directly in the ground, work up a planting area approximately 2½ feet in diameter and 1 foot deep for each plant. Remove 1/3 to ½ of the soil. Add an equal amount of pre-moistened peat moss and mix well. (One 4 cubic foot compressed bale will usually be sufficient for 4-5 plants.) For raised beds mix equal volumes peat moss with bark (not cedar or redwood), compost or planting mix. Talk to your local garden center. They’re experts in your area and can best advise you on soil amendments.
Water: Where the soil is not ideal or marginally-drained, raised beds are an excellent option. Blueberries also do well in patio containers and offer a great way for apartment and condo dwellers and those with little or no yard to enjoy blueberries.
Spacing: Blueberries can be planted as close as 2 - 2½ feet apart to form solid hedgerows or spaced up to 6 feet apart and grown individually. If planted in rows, allow 8 to 10 feet between the rows depending on equipment used for mowing or cultivating.
Planting: In most areas, it’s ideal to plant in the fall or spring although in many regions you can plant year round.
If you purchased containerized blueberry plants, remove from pot and lightly roughen up the outside surface of the root ball. Mound the plant’s top soil about 1/2 inch higher than the existing ground and firm around root ball. Then mound soil up along sides of exposed root mass and water in well.
Mulching: Blueberries do best with 2-4 inches of mulch over the roots to conserve moisture, prevent weeds and add organic matter. Bark mulch, acid compost, sawdust and grass clippings all work well. Repeat every other year. Do not use bark or sawdust from cedar or redwood trees.
Pruning: It's a good idea to allow blueberries to get established before allowing them to bear fruit. If you start with smaller plants, simply remove most of the flower blooms as they appear. In future years, blueberry plants should be heavily pruned each year to avoid over-fruiting which results in small fruit or poor growth.
Here are some simple pruning tips:
Remove low growth around the base.
Remove the dead wood, leaving bright colored lateral branches. Cut out any short, discolored branches. Continue pruning until you have removed 1/3 to ½ of the wood out your plants each year. Remember, this will promote growth and berry production so prune away!
Fertilizing: Once established, blueberries like acid fertilizers such as rhododendron or azalea formulations. (Ask your local garden center for recommendations.) Take care when fertilizing, since blueberries are very sensitive to over-fertilization. Follow label instructions.
It's ideal to fertilize once in early spring and again in late spring. Be sure to always water thoroughly after fertilizing. For organic fertilizers, blood meal and cottonseed meal work well. Avoid using manures as they can damage the plants.
The plants have woody canes and fruit on one-year-old shoots. Shoots of the current year’s growth develop buds that will produce fruit next summer. Older shoots harden and won’t produce fruit again unless pruned.
Sun: Blueberries like full sun. They will tolerate partial shade, especially late in the day.
Soil: Blueberry plants need acidic soil to thrive; the ideal soil pH for blueberries is between 4.5 and 4.8.
Water: Water blueberry plants during the day. Keep the soil moist but not soggy. Give them at least 1" per week during growing season and up to 4" per week during fruit ripening. Keep the soil moist to a depth of 1".
Zones: 3 to 7.
Blueberry Basics
These native fruits have been here for tens of thousands of years but were largely ignored by the first Europeans in America, although Native Americans used some--mostly for pemmican, which included mashed blueberries and animal fat. In the 1900s, Dr. Coville of the USDA, working with New Jersey resident Elizabeth White, made selections from the wild and crosses that formed the basis of varieties available today. Breeding programs now exist around the world and have expanded the range of commercial growing regions and popularity of this fruit greatly.
Like rhododendrons, these Ericaceous family members prefer to grow in areas with very acidic soils with a good layer of peat-like organic matter over very well drained soil. In swampy areas, they’re on hummocks, so roots aren’t submerged.
Blueberries roots don’t penetrate clay soils well. They have a very fibrous root system and survive without root hairs by associating with a mycorrhizal fungus that helps extract nutrients from soils.
The plants have woody canes and fruit on one-year-old shoots. Shoots of the current year’s growth develop buds that will produce fruit next summer. Older shoots harden and won’t produce fruit again unless pruned.
Blueberries also have value as landscape plants. Some catalogs rate varieties for their yellow-orange to deep red fall color.
Some commercial plantings in Maine have existed for over 50 years. “If you do a good job of planting and pruning, they will be around a lot longer than you are,” said Handley.
Site Selection
Plants need a well-drained, preferably sandy soil and won’t do well with a hardpan that holds a lot of water in spring.
While normally an understory crop, shade strongly limits production, produces uneven plant growth, and fruits will be small and will ripen unevenly.
Wind can cause winter injury, so plant a windbreak. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (nrcs.usda.org) can provide guidelines and may offer incentive programs for planting windbreaks.
A gentle slope with good elevation will help drain water and air, protecting plants from bud-damaging spring frosts. Since frost tends to settle in low areas and winds are worst on hilltops, Handley recommended planting on the slopes. A nearby water source helps.
Eliminate perennial weeds with cover crops, crop rotation or fallow periods, ideally for a couple of years before planting. Blueberries have good potential as an organic crop, because few pests bother them, and they do well on many Maine soils, but perennial weeds must be controlled.
If the soil pH is 6.0 or above, add sulfur to attain a pH of 4.8 to 5.2 (see Table 1) – but not much lower. Adding sulfur year after year, said Handley, can create a pH of 4.0 or 4.2 – too acidic to supply some nutrients to blueberries.
Maintain organic matter at 2% to 4% or even higher, and don’t add unneeded nutrients. Adding chicken manure annually, for example, can oversupply phosphorus. Watch the Mg-Ca-K balance; excess soil K (e.g., from dairy manure) reduces Mg availability, and Mg is very important in blueberries. This common deficiency in blueberries can be countered by adding Epsom salts to the soil.
