Growing Blueberries

Planting, Growing, Pruning, and Harvesting Blueberries

Blueberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow.

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The modern blueberry is a 20th-century invention. Before the 1900s, the only way to enjoy these North American natives was to find them in the wild. Then, scientists started to unlock the secrets of cultivating blueberries, and we’re glad they did!

Plump, juicy berries are now easy to grow in your backyard on bushes that are resistant to most pests and diseases, and can produce for up to 20 years. A relative of rhododendron and azalea, blueberry bushes aren’t just a great edible plant but also an attractive addition to your overall landscape, offering scarlet fall foliage and creamy-white, bell-shaped spring flowers. Learn more about why you should grow blueberries in your home garden.

Note: Blueberries are a favorite snack of hungry birds, so it’s recommended that you protect blueberry bushes ahead of time with netting or other methods.

There are four types of blueberries: highbush, lowbush, hybrid half-high and rabbiteye. The most commonly planted blueberry is the highbush. Most blueberry breeding has focused on this species, so there are many varieties that range widely in cold hardiness and fruit season, size, and flavor. Read more about blueberry varieties below.

Planting

How to Plant Blueberry Bushes

Select a sunny, sheltered spot. While blueberries are tolerant of shade, better crops are obtained in the sun.
Blueberries thrive in soil that is acidic. The soil pH should ideally be between 4 and 5. Soil can be acidified by mixing a small amount of granulated sulfur into the soil several months before planting. Peat moss, as well as pine bark or needles, are also good additions that will help acidify your soil.
The blueberry is a shallow-rooted plant. Therefore, it requires a soil that holds moisture, but also drains well and doesn’t stay wet.
Mix organic matter into the soil before you set your blueberry bushes. (See more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.)
Bushes should be planted as early in the spring as possible. If available, 1- to 3-year-old plants are a good choice. Be sure to go to a reputable nursery.
Dig holes about 20 inches deep and 18 inches wide (about twice as wide and twice as deep as the roots of the plant).
Space bushes about 5 feet apart in a row, with at least 8 feet between rows. Prepare a planting mixture of 2 parts loam and one part oak leaf mold, peat moss, aged sawdust, or compost, and place a layer of this mixture in the bottom of the hole.
Set the bush in the hole with its roots spread out. Don’t plant the bush any deeper than it grew in the pot. Pack the hole tightly with soil.
Apply fertilizer one month after planting, not at the time of planting. Apply ½ ounce of a 10-10-10 fertilizer in a band around the plant 6 to 12 inches from the crown.

Can You Grow Blueberries in a Container?

Yes! In fact, blueberries grown in containers are easier to protect from birds and other critters, more disease resistant, easy to harvest, and easy to move if needed.

Here’s how to do it:

Use a large container with drainage holes.
Use a potting mix designed for acid-loving plants such as azaleas or rhododendrons, or mix sandy soil with peat moss and compost.
Plant the bush in the container and water well.
Add mulch on top of the soil.
Place the pot in a sunny spot.
Keep soil moist.
In northern regions, overwinter the blueberry container in a protected area or cover the container with straw or wrap it in burlap.

Varieties for Containers

‘Top Hat’: Bred by the University of Michigan for small spaces and containers.
‘Pink Lemonade’: Pink blueberries contain genetics from rabbiteye blueberries (a standard in the hot South). These pink berries can be planted in nearly every climate.
‘Pink Champagne’: Another pink variety full of antioxidants and sweeter than blue blueberries.

'Pink Lemonade' blueberries
‘Pink Lemonade’ blueberries

Care

How to Care for Blueberry Bushes

Mulch to keep shallow blueberry root systems moist, which is essential. Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer of woodchips, saw dust, or pine needles around the bush after planting. Read more about mulching.
Blueberries need 1 to 2 inches of water per week.
Drape netting over ripening blueberries, so that the birds won’t make away with the entire crop.
One year after planting, apply 1 ounce of 10-10-10 fertilizer per bush in the spring at blooming time, and increase the rate by 1 ounce each year thereafter to a maximum of 8 ounces for mature bushes.
Do not allow the bush to produce fruit for the first year or two after planting.
Pinch back any blossoms developing on newly set plants to allow the energy to go to growth.

How to Prune Blueberry Bushes

For the first 4 years after planting, there is no need to prune blueberry bushes. From then on, pruning is needed to stimulate growth of the new shoots that will bear fruit the following season.
Prune plants in late winter or early spring before new growth begins.
Cut out dead, broken, short, weak, and spindly shoots.
On highbush varieties, begin with large cuts, removing wood that is more than 6 years old, drooping to the ground, or crowding the center of the bush. Also remove low-growing branches whose fruit will touch the ground, as well as spindly twigs.
Prune lowbush blueberries by cutting all stems to ground level. Pruned plants will not bear the season following pruning, so prune a different half of a blueberry patch every two years (or a different third of a patch every three years).

Pests/Diseases

Birds
Blueberry Maggot
Powdery Mildew

Harvest/Storage

How to Harvest Blueberries

Blueberries will be ready for picking in late July to mid August.
Don’t rush to pick the berries as soon as they turn blue. Wait a couple days. When they are ready, they should fall off right into your hand.
If you plant 2-year-old blueberry bushes, they should start to bear within a year or two. (Pick off any flowers that form the first year or two after planting, to allow the bush to become established.) Be aware that full production is reached after about 6 years.
Blueberries are one of the easiest fruits to freeze. Learn how to properly freeze blueberries so you can have them all winter long.

Blueberries

Recommended Varieties

Blueberries are partially self-fertile, so you will harvest more and larger berries by planting two or more varieties. Planting more than one variety can also extend the harvest season.

Highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum): A six-foot shrub hardy from Zone 4 to Zone 7.

For withstanding cold winters, choose ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Blueray’, ‘Herbert’, ‘Jersey’, or ‘Meader’.
For big berries, choose ‘Berkeley’, ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Blueray’, ‘Coville’, ‘Darrow’, or ‘Herbert’.
For flavor, usually the main reason for growing your own fruit, choose ‘Blueray’, ‘Darrow’, ‘Herbert’, ‘Ivanhoe’, ‘Pioneer’, ‘Stanley’, or ‘Wareham’.
For something different, try ‘Pink Lemonade’, which produces bright pink blueberries!

Lowbush (Vaccinium angustifolium): For the coldest climates, lowbush varieties are your best bet, hardy from Zone 3 to Zone 7.

These are the blueberries you find in cans on supermarket shelves. When fresh, the fruits are sweet and covered with a waxy bloom so thick that the berries appear sky blue or gray.
The creeping plants, a foot or so high, are spread by underground stems, or rhizomes. They blanket the rocky upland soils of the Northeast and adjacent portions of Canada. Lowbush blueberries make a nice ornamental fruiting ground cover.
Plants sold by nurseries are usually seedlings or unnamed wild plants, rather than named varieties.

Half-High: Breeders have combined qualities of highbush and lowbush blueberries into hybrids known as half-high blueberries.

University of Minnesota introductions include ‘Northcountry’, a variety that grows 18 to 24 inches high and has excellent, mild-flavored, slightly aromatic sky-blue fruits; and ‘Northblue’, which grows 20 to 30 inches high and produces an abundance of dark-blue, nickel-size, somewhat tart fruits-just right for pies.
‘Northland’ is a half-high that grows 3 to 4 feet tall. From Michigan, it has relatively bland, average-quality fruit.

Rabbiteye (Vaccinium ashei): Grown in the southeastern United States, Rabbiteye varieties are extremely adaptable, productive, and pest-tolerant. They do, however, have a high degree of self-incompatibility and require two or more varieties be planted together to ensure pollination.

Wit & Wisdom

In Ireland, baskets of blueberries are still offered to a sweetheart in commemoration of the original fertility festival of Lammas Day, celebrated on August 1.

Blueberries are one of the few truly blue foods on earth.

For centuries, Native Americans gathered “star berries” (the blossom end of each berry forms the shape of a perfect five-pointed star) from forests and fields and ate them fresh or dried them for later use.

Dried blueberries were added to stews, soups and meats.
Dried berries were also crushed into a powder and rubbed into meat for flavor.
Blueberry juice was used to cure coughs.
Blueberry juice was also used as a purple dye for cloth and baskets.
A tea made from the leaves of the blueberry plant was believed to be good for the blood.

Recipes

Cooking Notes

Visit our recipe archives to find delicious blueberry recipes ranging from salads to desserts!

Reader Comments

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blueberry bushes and vinegar

I'd like to know how white vinegar sprinkled near blueberry bushes to control weeds will affect the bush...please let me know if I should use the vinegar or not....thanks so much

vinegar on blueberry bushes

Vinegar is an acid, so it would make the soil slightly more acidic. Soil acidity is measured as pH; blueberries like a pH of between 4.0 and 5.0. Have you done a soil test? If you bring the soil too much below 4.0, you may notice that your bushes underperform. If, as it happens, your soil is over 5.0, the bushes might appreciate the acid. How much are you going to pour on? Bottom line: if you hand weed well and then mulch heavily, you will probably deter most of the weeds.

For the record, some sources recommend maintaining a soil’s acidity by adding 1 tablespoon of household vinegar to a gallon of water, when watering.

what type of blueberry bush

Hi i was wondering what type of blueberry would be stand up to oklahoma weather

Blueberry types

Highbush and rabbiteye blueberries both grow well in Oklahoma, depending on the location and the cultivar. Highbush blueberries generally ripen in May and June and perform best in northern Oklahoma. For best yields, two or more cultivars should be planted together, making sure that bloom time overlaps. Bluecrop and Bluejay are two good highbush varieties that pollinate at the same time. Rabbiteye blueberries ripen from late May to early July, and grow best in central and southern Oklahoma and are more heat tolerant than highbush types. Rabbiteye blueberries bloom at different times so it’s important to select varieties which have overlapping pollination times. Premier and Brightwell are two rabbiteye varieties that overlap. Check with your local nursery or cooperative extension for more local knowledge.

Containers for blueberries

I have two Sunshine Blue's in a container and I just bought a Northland which I understand is a much bigger plant. I would prefer to plant the Northland too in a container in order to keep it in a full sun spot. What size container would you recommend?

containing a northland blueberry bush

Well, sources suggest that the Northland Blueberry stands at about a 4-foot-spread at maturity (that’s above ground). Generally speaking, blueberry bushes have small root systems. We’d recommend perhaps a 15-gallon size container to start. As it matures, you might need or want to transplant it into a half whiskey barrel or the like (with obvious drainage).

How much hot weather blueberries can take??

Hi, I want to know if blueberry plant can tolerate hot weather up to 40-45°C?

heat tolerance

Good question! I don’t think that the northern types would be happy at all. The southern highbush and rabbiteye types, which are grown in mild climates due to their lower chilling requirements, might be OK with extra care. Blueberries can be grown in desert climates, such as in Arizona. Some gardeners grow them in containers, so that they can move them to shade during high heat (and also, so that they can use appropriate soil, as sometimes native soil may be too alkaline). For more information, you might contact your county’s Cooperative Extension service. There might be someone there who would know about the temperature tolerances of these plants. For contact information, see:
http://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services

Coming Out of Dormancy Early

I have one bb bush with flowers & one bush with buds. I've had both pots in the garage since Dec. Do I need to be concerned about them coming out of dormancy so soon? I live in NW MO so we will not have our last frost until mid-April. I have a Bluecrop, Pink Icing, & Peach Sorbet bush. Thanks

Blueberry bushes not producing blueberries, planted edge woods.

We have 6 blueberry bushes (all different varieties), planted just inside edge of woods next to our yard. They get partial sun/shade. We have provided them fertilizer early March, then early July faithfully for 3 years. They are not producing blueberries. Do you think it's lack of sun? Do you think they are not able to absorb nutrients being amongst White Pines? My husband & I love blueberries, and are very discouraged. Just got a new variety to try in half whiskey barrel on patio.

They will need at least 6

They will need at least 6 hours full sun. The white pines would have nothing to do with their up take of nutrients. The shade would be a major factor. Also the soil Ph would be a factor. A Ph close to 5 would works best. Use peat moss worked in around the plants. Blueberries also need a regular water supply to do well. Without water or a low moisture level no photosynthesis takes place. Also photosynthesis is very low when the plants are shaded. All the fertilizer in the world will not help these conditions. Just on a few plants azalea miracle gro plant food will help bring the Ph down.

seed dormancy

Hi. I want to grow blueberry seeds in a container. Six months ago, I bought the blueberry seeds (highbush corymbosum) and kept them dry in fridge (50F to 45F temp.) and after 3 month I planted them in peat moss, I've kept them moist and have not seen any germinating. How do I break their dormancy? Please help. Special thanks.

Hello please grow herbage

Hello please grow herbage blueberry

Blueberry

Hi i'am from Serbia. I wish to know where to plant blueberry? Because, someone told me that you have to find acidic place which i did, and they told me also that blueberry has to be on sea level above 500m.

PLANTING BLUEBERRIES

CAN BLUEBERRIES BE GROWN IN TROPICAL COUNTRIES LIKE EASTERN NIGERIA WHERE I RESIDE?

I want to buy at least best

I want to buy at least best variety 24 blueberry plant to start a garden in my home town India. So can you please provide the plant.

Buy a jersey berry bush

I use miracle gro , seed starting potting mix. Do I had to change the soil? It rain a lot. I give it plant food by miracle gro every 7 days? Am I doing something wrong.

winter

I have 4 small blueberry plants that I purchased and planted this summer. They are growing, but I don't know what to do with them over the winter. They are in small pots that came with them.

giant blueberry plant

I have a similar question. I have 3 small plants I have bought for my granddaughter. We have them in pots on the patio. What should we do to winter them? Do we cover them? Or can we bring them indoors? Would really appreciate your help on this matter. Thank you.

Protecting Blueberries During Winter

Hi Laura,

The best thing to do is push the pots up against the side of the house for a bit of protection, add a nice thick layer of mulch around the crown of the shrubs, and lay burlap or some kind of tarp over them. Blueberries require a cold dormancy period to fruit. They are pretty tough; they should be fine come spring.

What happens when the plant makes seeds?

Once the plant start making flowers for seeds what do you with them? Do you leave them or cut them off after all the seeds have blown away?

Blueberry Flowers

When a blueberry bush starts to flower, you do not have to cut the flowers off. The flowers will drop off in a few weeks.

Zone 9...!

Hello,
I just love blueberries, I go to Finland in the summer every year but I live in Rome, which appears to be in zone 8-9...
Is there any chance I can grow them, and if so, which variety...?
Thanks

Shade blueberry bushes

I live in eastern MA (zone 6b) and have a small yard that is very shaded. While I realize that I will never get the amount of berries a sunny location would, I still want to replace my 2 quince bushes with blueberry bushes. What variety will have the best chance of survival with shady mornings and sunny afternoons?

Native Blueberry

Hi Bill,

Try your region’s native highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum, as it is a woodland garden shrub that can take part shade.

getting started in blueberries

I just moved to Hermosa SD, which seems to bee a zone 4.5. We have LOTS of pine trees. I'm assuming our soil is somewhat acidic, due to the pine needles.

We have lots of places to plant under trees, and also lots of full sun spaces... I'm wondering what variety to plant for flavor and harvest number.

What size plant should I start with?
What time of year?
Where to plant them?
When will here be fruit?
How many plants should I plant for two people who eat a few pounds of blueberries a week?

Planting Blueberry Shrubs

First, I would caution against digging under established evergreen trees; it is very difficult, as they have tremendous root zones that require very aggressive measures to get through, which is not good for the trees, and ultimately not good for your blueberries, as they will be competing for room to grow as well as nutrients and moisture. If you can plant them elsewhere, start with two-gallon pots. Plant them in the fall when the weather is cooler. If they are happy, they should fruit the next summer (in time they will likely produce more fruit than during their first season). You would have to plant a whole lot of shrubs to eat a few pounds weekly! Space depending, five to seven plants will give a reasonable yield.

Where to plant

Thanks for your response. Can blueberry shrubs get full sun? Is a "2 gallon pot" a typical size I can find at a nursery or is that an older plant? And would they do better if all in the same area?

Blueberries

They can take full sun, but do better with a bit of shade. Two-gallon pots are a common size; you will also find 5-gallon pots. You are looking for container plants that are 2 to 3 years old (you can also buy bare-root blueberry shrubs). They won’t necessarily do better planted together but by grouping them you are ensuring they have the same soil conditions, and it makes watering both easier and more uniform. When planting, space the shrubs 4 to 6 feet apart (If you go with bare roots, plant them in early spring while plants are still dormant.)

Blueberry bushes disease

My blueberry bushes have developed black dots on the leaves. What is this and what do I do about it?