Growing Blueberries

Planting, Growing, Pruning, and Harvesting Blueberries

Blueberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow.

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The Summer Solstice is Friday. Get ready!
Here are 10 things you should know about the first day of summer.

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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And when the goats escape

And when the goats escape from the pen...they REALLY enjoy blueberries!

Just wanted to say Thanks to

Just wanted to say Thanks to Almanac editors and community for the wealth of information on this BB forum. I ordered three high-bush varieties this morning on-line, and with your tips pasted into my word document, I feel prepared for arrival of the 2 year rooted crowns.

when is the best time to

when is the best time to plant bluebarries i live in zone 5b

As soon as possible after the

As soon as possible after the plants arrive in early spring, plant them in soil that you prepared the previous season.

Greetings from south central

Greetings from south central PA. I am going to try again to plant blueberry bushes in the Spring. I am concerned about my soil which is dense with shale not far below the surface. Your information advises, "Dig holes about 20 inches deep and 18 inches wide." I expect to need to do a lot of work to get the soil to a suitable condition. How deep do you suggest I go in preparing a suitable growing area? I am going to start with 4 each of 3 varieties. Thanks.

Hi Mary, Dig down about 2

Hi Mary,
Dig down about 2 feet and amend the soil. Make sure that the soil is bit acidic. After you plant your bushes add a layer of mulch.
Good luck!

hello I'm from Bulgaria and I

hello I'm from Bulgaria and I want to sow 15 acres of blueberries. will you give me information on what varieties is better to buy, how to look, what they cost for 4500 units. Could you send me Email varieties here with us because PH is 4.50 to 5.50 and from May to September is 25 to 40 degrees. Can you give me advice on what to do and how to do it. Thank you.

Zdrasti, Any variety will do

Zdrasti,

Any variety will do better than what's presently available. I tasted a few blueberries in BG (Varna) and they were, no offense, terrible. They had huge seeds in them and were bitter. It was not what I had expected and I was disappointed.
(I come from a small farm and knew there was better.)

I would imagine you are looking at about $35-$40 per bush and then add on any delivery and import fees. Quite an expensive undertaking, but once your bushes start growing, I am sure you will make your money back and start seeing plenty of profit by the 10th year.

Късмет!

Be very careful to purchase

Be very careful to purchase from a reputable nursery/wholesaler. We have been stuck by many growers. They don't tell the truth. I would be happy to give you more advice if you need it. Shipping from the US to Bulgaria has to be expensive but you can get great quality bushes for under $5 in the US. Be careful.

Look at the zones in the US for agriculture and apply that to Bulgarian temperatures. Buy bushes that are recommended and grown in that Zone.

chris

Ivan, 15 acres? You

Ivan,
15 acres? You should be growing more than 1000 per acre (based on 4 ft and 10 ft aisles.

You should be buying Tissue Cultured, Virus indexed and paying (at that volume) around 2.00 US per plant. Shipping costs, irrigation, labor, peat will add significantly to your costs.

Do you want to harvest all at one time? Then I'd consider Draper.
If you want to harvest over a period of time: Reka, Blue Crop, Liberty would be my three.
If you are serious I can hook you up with growers and shippers. STEVEAJL@aol.com

I'm reading all the comments

I'm reading all the comments about soil acidity and am concerned. The water in my area is very alkaline. How do I overcome this obstacle?

To lower pH, add common

To lower pH, add common sulfur to your soil. Ferrous sulfate and aluminum sulfate are sometimes used instead. You can also lower the pH of alkaline soil over time by applying compost and manure regularly.

Aluminum sulphate can attack

Aluminum sulphate can attack the delicate fibrous root system of the blue berry plant and kill it.
The run off is also harmful to the environment.
I strongly recommend against using it.
Cottonseed, coffee grounds, hollytone, ammonium sulphate will all lower your ph.
Adding seasoned pine bark or chips of pine wood will help but it must be aged.

Hi there! My father ordered a

Hi there! My father ordered a large bag of blueberry "starts" I guess you'd call them around November 2014. We literally just took them out of the bag they were shipped in (March 2015). Do they even stand a chance? They were kept indoors, not refrigerated. Many thanks for your help!

Hi Tracy, The sooner you get

Hi Tracy,
The sooner you get them in some soil the better. Depending on where you live you can plant them in containers or in the ground. If the "starts" were dormant and were kept in a cool, dark place they may still be OK. Plant them and see what happens.

I live in Southern

I live in Southern California, zone 10b. I planted two blueberry bushes at the same time in my back yard, but on different sides of the yard. One bush gets morning sun, afternoon shade, and has a number of clusters of berries starting to form. The other bush gets morning shade, afternoon sun, and all the leaves have dried up and fallen off. It had flowered first, before the other bush, but the flowers fell off and no berries formed. They both get the exact same amount of water, since the entire back yard is on a timed sprinkler system. What could have happened to this second bush? Is the afternoon sun too much?

Blueberries do best in full

Blueberries do best in full sun but they do tolerate some shade. We suggest that you check the soil around the sad bush. Blueberries prefer moist, well-drained acidic soil that has been amended with compost. The pH value should be between 4.5 and 5.5.

I live in southern Arizona

I live in southern Arizona and you problem could be the sun is hottervin the afternoon then in the morning which I know that here plants have a harder time with the afternoon sun giving it shade for afternoon or moving it to an area closer to you other plant may be a good idea. Even though plants say they need full sun doesn't always mean it can handle it when 100+ temps get to the summer heat as it does here and probably there in Ca.

All that I have heard, you

All that I have heard, you need 2 different types of blueberries to be grown near each other. They need cross pollination in order to get a good crop of blueberries. Lots of acidity to your soul as well.

will blueberrys grow well in

will blueberrys grow well in half whiskey barrels? I live in south louisiana

Hi Carroll, Blueberries do

Hi Carroll,
Blueberries do well in containers. Select a variety that doesn't grow too tall or big. Make sure that the barrel has adequate drainage since blueberries don't like to have ‘wet feet.’ Drill at least 6 good-size holes in the bottom.

Hi! I live in Manila where

Hi! I live in Manila where the sun is hot during summer and the wind is cold at night during Dec-Feb. I keep my aircondition open at night and managed to grow some strawberry seeds after a few patient months. Can i grow blueberries from the frozen blueberry packs in the grocery and could I probably use the same technique as with aircondition?

I recently came into 20

I recently came into 20 potted blueberry plants. It's December in NY. We have a break in the weather for the next few days - 40 to 50 degrees. Should I try to plant them or store them in a makeshift greenhouse until spring?

I'd keep them in containers.

I'd keep them in containers. You probably can't set out new blueberries until after frost. Plus, you have to get the soil ready-- you need well-drained, light, sandy loam soils that's high in organic matter and has a pH between 4.5 and 5.5. If the soil pH in the container is not between 4.0-5.5 then work large quantities of such materials as peat moss, oak leaves, pine needles or sulfur into the soil.
Blueberries do need some winter chill to produce but not too cold. So bring the containers into an unheated shed or garage during winter months. It should say in the 30 to 34 degree range--no colder. Check the container soil once in a while to make sure it doesn't dry out and water if you need to.
If they are young blueberries, they probably won't produce the first year or two. See how it goes!

Hi, I live in Upstate NY zone

Hi, I live in Upstate NY zone 5a. I have 10 bb bushes, Bluecrop and Vaccinio. They are 8-10 years old and only about 3 foot tall. I used to get tons of blueberries and now only three trees produce. They all have nice leaves but not a lot. I have never pruned them for they all look dead and I wouldn't have anything left if I removed what looked dead. I have never seen a new shoot yet. We thought it was because of the harsh winters so we started putting huge heavy plastic tubs on them with huge cut out doors so snow could get in but not allow the snow to crush them. Was/is this a bad move? Should I be putting 3-4 inches of straw on them instead? We water and use Miracle Gro Miracid every two weeks during the spring and summer. Thanks for your help!

For winter protection it's

For winter protection it's better to add a thick layer of mulch around your bushes (about 6 inches thick). Bark, pine needles or straw works well. The bushes should be pruned once a year to ensure good fruit production. Prune late in the winter or early spring when the plants are still completely dormant. Remove any diseased, weak or spindly branches.

Try adding sulfur to your

Try adding sulfur to your plants to make the soil more acid. Blueberries won't produce much fruit if the soils is not acid enough. I add sulfur to my blueberries every fall. Also, you could be adding too much nitrogen with your Miracle Grow. The N ration should be smaller than the P and K.

I would test your PH also

I would test your PH also fertilize in march, read up on what type of fertilizer and PH blueberries like.

You're killing them wiht an

You're killing them wiht an excessive of Miracid.

Miracid is not organic, it's quick acting and can burn.

Blueberries need very little fertilizer. Hollytone is organic and slow acting, you should use no more than 1/2 cup over the course of a years.

I live in North Western

I live in North Western Alaska, in a small village of Eek. And we have a lot if wild blueberries around on the Tundra. And we don't need to plant anything, we have all the berries. That includes: Salmonberries, Red Berries, Cranberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, and other berries i know in Yu'pik but cannot translate them. Yeah. Living in Wild Alaska in a remote town is kind of peaceful. :) Anyway, i'm not trying to brag....but i am. So...have fun planting berries :)