How to Grow a Blueberry Bush

[vehve]

Thank you. I will have to grow them in containers here as we have heavy clay soil but I will add peat moss and mulch with pine bark mulch.

That would be pretty close to our natural soil. I'm in no way an expert on soil, but we mostly have humus on top of ground rock, not in very thick layers usually. And the blueberries thrive in that, alongside the pinetrees and lingonberries.

Here the chickens have helpfully dug up a sample of what the soil looks like.

 

[chickadoodles]

That would be pretty close to our natural soil. I'm in no way an expert on soil, but we mostly have humus on top of ground rock, not in very thick layers usually. And the blueberries thrive in that, alongside the pinetrees and lingonberries.

Here the chickens have helpfully dug up a sample of what the soil looks like.

Thank you for the wonderful pic. It does show the mulched soil very nicely and you hen is pretty and looks like she is enjoying herself.

 

[vehve]

Thank you for the wonderful pic. It does show the mulched soil very nicely and you hen is pretty and looks like she is enjoying herself.

That's three pullets in the pic

They really like to get in there and bathe, so only one is visible.

The soil here is very acidic due to the pine trees though, good for the blueberries but has interesting effects on other plants. My neighbor had planted black tulips a few years black, but due to the soil the flowers they produce now are a really intensive purple.

 

[Arielle]

Hej vehve

I have been hunting down lingnon berry plants here, in addition to the blueberries. I grew up eating lingon berries on swedish pancakes, pankakas. Recently I learned that the lingnon has far better nutrients than the American cranberry. Only a few pine trees on the property but peat can be used to augment the acidity. I have been eying a low lying boggy area for years-- maybe it is too wet, and it certainly needs more light.


As for the blueberries, we have farily acid soils in my region, known for blueberrries here in the New England. I too have loads of wild blue berries n the woods. HD says once we remove more trees and let in more sunlight they will grow better and fruit better. I prefer the wild berries as they are better for us with more anti-cancer ingredients, and well, the flavor is 1000 times better than any cultivated blue berry.

 

[vehve]

Hej vehve

I have been hunting down lingnon berry plants here, in addition to the blueberries. I grew up eating lingon berries on swedish pancakes, pankakas. Recently I learned that the lingnon has far better nutrients than the American cranberry. Only a few pine trees on the property but peat can be used to augment the acidity. I have been eying a low lying boggy area for years-- maybe it is too wet, and it certainly needs more light.


As for the blueberries, we have farily acid soils in my region, known for blueberrries here in the New England. I too have loads of wild blue berries n the woods. HD says once we remove more trees and let in more sunlight they will grow better and fruit better. I prefer the wild berries as they are better for us with more anti-cancer ingredients, and well, the flavor is 1000 times better than any cultivated blue berry.

Hmm, lingonberry on pannkaka, that one I haven't tried. I usually don't use lingonberry with sweet things, but that might be worth a try. (Du verkar ha svensk bakgrund?) In my experience both lingon- and bluberries do well in slightly boggy, wet areas. In summer we get a bit longer days in Finland than you do in New England, so the light might not hurt, as long as you don't change the soil too much. It can be a bit difficult to replicate the right climate. You don't really see much blueberries growing without the trees around them here.

Bushgrown blueberries aren't worth anything in my opinion, really watery taste, and I can just walk 10 meters from the door and start picking wild ones when they're in season. If only I could trick the better half to fill our freezer with them, I'm a bit of a lazy picker myself. Sure I can gather enough for a pie, but larger quantities, not so much. Besides, the dogs always clean up the spots I start gathering from much faster than me.

I haven't found cranberries here, but we have some bogs near our summer cottage where they grow nicely, don't know how the Finnish variety stacks up against the Merkan one, but it's usually considered quite nutritious. And sour as heck, as are the lingonberries.

I can snap a picture of what kind of forest the bluberries like for you when I take the dogs for a walk. We have a bit colder than usual weather right now, so they haven't ripened yet, but it should improve their taste once they start to be ready in a few weeks. Last year you could find loads still in September, and even October, so the season for picking is pretty long when weather is favorable.

 

[Arielle]

Ja, Swede. Only know a few words though-- Years agot he norma was to not let the new generation learn the language so we would become Americans. My mother learned a few anyway from her granmother. BUt I only know a few foods, lol, and a few words from my brother who lived in Sweden for 6 months.

WE had blueberry barrens about 1/2 mile walk from our house ( as a kid) and one summer the family picked 50 quarts. My mother had set a quota for each of us to pick. About 1 hour per quart. ANd yes, the dog was a faster picker!! When we went into the cranberry bogs with tall grasses, the dog would dis appear but the pop pop pop gave away her location!! lol She loved those sour berries!!

I make smoothies blending yogurt, wild blue berries and cranberries and a bit of splenda and my kids suck them down fast!

Blueberry bushes in the sunlight have a great crop of berries this year-- praying we will get the berries BEFORE the birds. As in song birds.

 

[chickadoodles]

Between the birds and squirrels here we can hardly get any of the fruit we are growing. Now the bull keeps pulling on the branches making a bunch of pears fall off our pear tree! We are going to have to move the fence behind the shed and pear tree so they only get what falls off the tree.

 

[vehve]

As promised, a few pictures. The first two are taken 50 meters from our house. The second picture shows a spot where trees have been cleared a bit maybe 5 years ago, the first one is 20 meters from that spot and at least here, the blueberries don't seem to like too much light. Here the blueberries do ok, but nothing spectacular. Lingonberries don't really grow here.


In this next picture you can see a super productive patch of forest. Last year it was difficult to get the dogs to walk through here, they just stopped to fill themselves all the time. This is about half a kilometer from our house. It's slightly sloped here, so I think the added drainage might be a factor in the magical seeming growth. Here you get about a 10:1 mix of blueberries to lingonberries growing.

Here in Finland you could just buy some of this stuff on rolls, just like they sell pre-grown lawns.

 

[Arielle]

Between the birds and squirrels here we can hardly get any of the fruit we are growing. Now the bull keeps pulling on the branches making a bunch of pears fall off our pear tree! We are going to have to move the fence behind the shed and pear tree so they only get what falls off the tree.

That must be annoying!! What do you like to do with the pears that you do get??

I know my peach trees have kept on growing and extend over the fencing now, so I m looking at planting new trees in a new area.THeyare getting crowded by the forest ont he othersides and blocking too much sun so they are dying on oneside and growing on the other Very lop sided. lol

 

[chickadoodles]

That must be annoying!! What do you like to do with the pears that you do get??

I know my peach trees have kept on growing and extend over the fencing now, so I m looking at planting new trees in a new area.THeyare getting crowded by the forest ont he othersides and blocking too much sun so they are dying on oneside and growing on the other Very lop sided. lol

Dh was out there yesterday digging the holes for the cherry bushes and he had to go run the bull off! We make pear preserves. And then I can make pear pie or cobbler or what ever all winter long. I also freeze my cantaloupe and what ever black berries we do get

Sorry you are having problems with your fruit trees not getting enough sun. Our orchard is wide open with open pasture all around it. Our trees in the pasture are mostly on the fence line except for the side where the chickens are. lol