July is National Blueberry Month. It’s a great time to celebrate this super fruit! Plant blueberries in your garden and you can pick fresh blueberries for all your summer entertaining. Nothing impresses friends, grandkids and relatives more than the ability to pick fruit fresh off the bush, and they are oh-so-easy to grow outside in the garden.
Benefits of Growing Blueberries
Blueberries have many benefits. First, let’s cover their simple beauty as a landscape shrub. The bell-shaped flowers bloom white in the spring, with blue-green foliage with yummy, tasty berries in the summer, and gorgeous fall color. Blueberries have a lot going for them.
Blueberries are a super fruit that are rich in antioxidants, enhance memory, prevent aging and improve vision. The bonus is that home-grown berries taste better and save money!
Best Varieties for Mountain Gardens
Beginner gardeners struggle with their first blueberry crop because there are a few secrets for a bush that produces an abundance of fruit. This unique plant loves peaty, acidic soils that are actively composting. This does not describe the native soils we grown in at the higher elevations.
For this reason, the best results come from container and raised bed gardens with this proud landscape shrub. This ensures a vibrant deep green throughout the growing season. You will also find the flowers have more contrast and the fruits will seem larger and easier to pick.
Planting Blueberries
Most blueberry plants should be planted about four feet apart. The top of the root ball should be exposed to garden air and firmly back filled with Watters specially blended potting soil. This peat moss rich soil ensures better drainage, reduced pH and a heavier harvest. This soil is meant to be planted directly into the ground without additional soil additives. The top of the root ball should be even with the soil around it. Tamp down the soil around it to remove any air pockets.
- Bigger is Better – Plant in a container at least 14” in diameter for long lasting blueberries that come back year after year.
- Fertilizer – Feed with Watters, “All Purpose Plant Food” 7-4-4 at six to eight week intervals. The additional sulfur in this organic food will ensure larger berry formation and better plant color.
- Water at three to give day intervals for consistent hydration. It is highly recommended to place a saucer under the container to increase water retention of the soil.
- Sunny Locations – Plants can be placed in full sun to part shade, but the ideal locations would be an eastern exposure. Directly under a tree also works well. Early morning sun followed by midday shade followed by afternoon sun is well suited for blueberries.
Hardiest Mountain Varieties
Jubilee Blueberry – Perfect for the warmer climates and the higher elevations. Abundant crops of sky-blue fruit are extra sweet as they mature from late summer through fall. Here is the unusual trait of this blueberry over others – the dusted blue green foliage remains evergreen in mild winters and can have an orange cast when exposed to full sun locations.
Patriot Blueberry – Prized for not only its early crop of very large, sweet berries, but also its profusion of delicately tinged flowers. This larger blueberry bush says it can grow to 10 feet tall, but don’t believe it at the higher elevations. Expect five to six feet out of this most hardy of blueberry bushes. The multi-stemmed form and brilliant fall colors of yellow, bronze and red make it a prize for those gardeners that are also looking for some fall color in the landscape.
Sunshine Blueberry – If you want a hardy push that not only produces in waves of berries, but is also beautiful, this is the blueberry for you. Hot pink flowers fade to white that yield abundant crops of large tangy blueberries. This semi-dwarf shrub is well suited for contain gardens over flowering with petunia for a stunning look. This is one of the few bushes that is self-pollinating, but when planted with another variety of blueberry in the same backyard, will double production.
Until next issue, I’ll see you at Watters Garden Center. QCBN
By Ken Lain
Leave a Reply