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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Hi Kiara, ive always wanted

Hi Kiara, ive always wanted to live where i could be self sufficient. Thats not going to happen, but I enjoy watching the Alaskan shows. Anyway, I can enjoy planting berries here in the subdivision, in New York. Your post got me daydreaming thats all.

I am planning to grow

I am planning to grow highbush blueberries in Turkey for commercial purposes. I bought a land and now I am at the stage of preparing the soil for plantation next year. I might buy 1 year old seedlings next year but I want to experiment with growing seedlings from seeds. I read at ehow.com that "Most blueberries do not self-pollinate -- they need a nearby mate with similar genetic qualities to fertilize their flowers. This means blueberries are an unpredictable lot whose offspring seldom duplicate either parent. For this reason, it's usually better to purchase seeds collected by plant societies that contain known cultivars". So I am looking for a company or institution where I could buy reliable seeds. Can you please let me know about such companies or societies. Thanks.

I am going to assume that you

I am going to assume that you want seeds to get around some import restrictions.
It is a difficult process and adds years onto the time you have to wait for a bountiful crop.
A single cultivar (take BLUE CROP) as an example are really one plant that has been split and asexually reproduced millions of times. So genetically all the blue crop blueberry bushes around the world are, in a very real sense, one plant.
Man is contradicting nature that wants to produce diversity as a survival technique. The only way that I know that can get a seed of bluecrop is to put the plant in sterile conditions, cover each blossom and attempt to introduce its own pollin at a propitious moment.
Even that might not be successful, blue crop, in it's relentless drive to preserve its gene pool through diversity, might reject it's own pollen.

I live in Illinois, and the

I live in Illinois, and the PH of the soil is around 6. I've applied soil acidifier, and have mixed in peat moss, but the PH hasn't declined much. So if I go ahead and plant the blueberries, and the PH stays high for awhile, what will happen? Will the plants die, or will they live but not produce any blueberries? Or will they make blueberries, but they'll be few and far between and puny in size? Thanks for your help!

Make sure the soil around the

Make sure the soil around the plant is what they like and they will be fine. It can take a while for the soil acidifier to work so dont over do it.

Mr. B.

I live in the Toronto,

I live in the Toronto, Ontario area. I was given a pot with three varieties of blueberry plants in it. It was bought like this at a local garden centre. It's quite lovely with an abundance of blueberries on it.
The tag attached states that it's "a cold resistant fruiting shrub and self polinating....great to plant in the garden but our decorative pot makes them right at home on the patio." It also states it will grow to 2.5' high and 3' wide.
I don't believe my garden would have enough sun for this plant so I was hoping I could leave it in the pot on our patio. Will this be ok with our cold snowy winters? What do you suggest that I do please? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!

If you can't move the

If you can't move the container into an unheated garage or shed the best thing to do is to dig a big hole and "plant" the container with the blueberries in the hole. Bury it deep enough so that the top of the container is slightly covered with soil. Fill in around the container as you would with a plant and then add mulch on top of the soil for extra protection.

It will freeze and die unless

It will freeze and die unless you plant it in a 20 gallon plus container or bring in into a warmer area.

Mr. B.

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.

I would ask local farmers. Mr

I would ask local farmers.

Mr B.

I want planting the

I want planting the Blueberries in India Gujarat State
Soil--black cottan
Temp-summer-25 to 45'C
Winter-7 to 15' c
Monsoon-25 to 35'c

Blueberries must have good

Blueberries must have good drainage. If you have a monsoon season, will the bushes be in soggy wet soil for a long time? They probably will not like that.

This is the first year and

This is the first year and the plant is producing a fruit that is small and red in color. All are red now. Will they turn blue and how soon ? thanks

Maybe it's not a blueberry

Maybe it's not a blueberry plant.

Hi Joel, Some varieties of

Hi Joel,
Some varieties of blueberries turn pink or red before turning blue. You should have some ripe blue berries soon.

Hello there! I am in southern

Hello there! I am in southern California and am having a hard time with reviving my sister's blueberry bush. Right now it is in a medium size pot in her backyard and looks as if it is almost completely dead. I dont know what to do. Can you please help?

Hi Tiffany, Please read our

Hi Tiffany,
Please read our "care" section on this page. How old is the bush? Is it getting enought sun, water? Is the soil acidic enough? What variety is it? You may have to test the soil and amend it.

What varieties of blueberries

What varieties of blueberries have the largest berries?
What varieties of blueberries have best taste?
What varieties are sweetest?
I am in northeastern Arizona where winters get down to 0 and occasionally a little lower. Summer can get up to mid 90's and low humidity.

I did go thru your many posts and that was quite an education!

Thanks

Hi Chris, Thanks for reading

Hi Chris, Thanks for reading through your comments and your kind words. In your area of Arizona, growing blueberries can be a challenge. Soils in the higher elevations of northern Arizona have a pH range of between 6.7 and 7.3. Blueberries require a soil pH of 4.3 to 5.0. Remember that at least 2 varieties need to be planted for cross-pollination and fruiting.
In terms of variety: "Patriot" produces large size fruit (approximately 55 per cup) and has excellent flavor. Taste is very subjective but many people enjoy "Bluecrop" which produces medium to large fruit (approximately 65 per cup) and tends to be good and tart.
Much of this information comes courtesy of the University of Arizona cooperative extension and we would advise getting in touch with their services for more on-the-ground support.

Bonus and Chandler are the

Bonus and Chandler are the largest while Darrow is right after them.
Best taste is subjective but generally speaking the best tasting plants (among the northern high bushes) are: Legacy, Bonus (very distinctive) Blue gold, Elizabeth, Jersey (smallish), Hannah's choice, Hardy blue and Sparta. Duke, highly rated for productiveness but not for flavor, tastes great to me.
Don't worry too much about it, the worst blueberry I ever had was delicious.

I live in South-Central

I live in South-Central Colorado in a zone 5 climate with lots of sun and fairly temperate winters but low humidity. What would be a good variety of blueberry bush(es) to grow and when should I plant them? Thanks.

Blueberries are not the most

Blueberries are not the most natural berry for Colorado, due to the alkaline soil. Blueberries need acidic soil to thrive (pH 5.5). If you're up for the challenge, 'Earliblue' Highbush blueberries grow in zone 5. You'll need two varieties for cross-pollination. Other highbush types that cover zone 5 are 'Blue Crop", 'Blue Gold', and 'Blue Ray.' Some tips: grow in sphagnum peat moss, ensure that the root zone always stays moist, even in winter, and protect the bushes from winter winds. Wrap bushes with burlap or old sheets while they are dormant.

Im indian,i m having keen

Im indian,i m having keen interst in planting blueberries,especially emerald ones ,is hybridization is possible here,,with othr berries,and what r the neccesary steps required to do the plantation.

I have a blueberry bush that

I have a blueberry bush that I purchased at a local store. I planted it in a large pot because I live in an apartment. It had several berries on it which ripe
ned and I picked. The bush does not seem to be producing anymore. Is that typical? Is there anything that can be done to it to produce again. Also, live in the northeastern US. Will the bush survive the winter?

I just received a blueberry

I just received a blueberry bush from my granddaughter which she has failed to water for most likely a good week. Some of the leaves are very dry and will most likely die, but some are okay and there are berrys on the bush. I need to know if it is a waste to try to revive this bush or should I start over. Also it is in a large pot (patio type container), will it continue to grow or will it need to be replanted?.

Put the container in the sun

Put the container in the sun and give it some water. Blueberries need 1-2 inches of water a week. If it survives you can plant it in the ground next spring.

Are blueberries are loaded

Are blueberries are loaded with fruit. Have gotten several good crops. Now all of a sudden they are getting hard and not turning blue. What is causing that our lack. We had a lot of rain..above average...until about a week ago and not a drop since.

It sounds as though your

It sounds as though your plant(s) may be suffering from "Mummy Berry". A rapid fungus that that infects the blossom by releasing spores into the wind. If you notice tiny mushrooms near by- eradicate them. It may be best to destroy the plant entirely. But, to rid it you must be extremely vigilant. Collect the berries and toss them into a 'Hot" compost pile or remove them completely. If you find you cant get a handle on the disease- destroy the plant(s) and till a new spot.

My blueberry bushes have

My blueberry bushes have spots.....brown ugly spots......they are in full sun ........is my soil bad or is this a type of fungus infection? What are some things I could to remedy this problem?

Wait till next year, it

Wait till next year, it should fix itself.