It’s Time To Plant Blueberries

Fingers, lips and tongue stained blue, plus a wickedly satisfied smile—all while standing in the garden.

Those are telltale signs that you’ve spotted another convert to growing blueberries. Home-grown, the fresh berries are so delicious that they often don’t make it to the table.

Blueberries have long been the domain of Easterners and colder climes. But a new strain of bushes is gaining traction in warmer areas across the West.

The two tricks to success are choosing the right type and going overboard with soil prep.

Getting Started

Traditional blueberries are northern highbush types, which require deep freezes and go deadly dormant during winter. New southern highbush varieties are low-chill and produce fruit in mild climates. Some, including Misty and Sunshine Blue, are even evergreen, forming shrubs that are so pretty year-round that they can be used in place of conventional plantings throughout the garden.

The best planting time is January through March. Whether you buy locally or by mail, be sure to select southern highbush.

At local nurseries, I’ve found Jubilee, Misty, O’Neal, Sharpblue and Sunshine Blue.

While Misty is my favorite, I grow all five. Blueberries don’t require a companion type to bear fruit, but you’ll get a better yield if your bushes can cross-pollinate. Also, by growing different types, you may harvest berries off and on from February through October. And you’ll discover the many sizes, colors and flavors, which range from pea-sized to marble-sized, from light to dark blue and from juicy sweet to quite tart.

Preparing the Soil

Special soil prep is mandatory. While southern highbush varieties thrive in our climate, they have not lost their parent plant’s basic need for fertile, fast-draining, acid soil. To put it plainly, our soil tends toward alkaline, with a pH ranging from 6.5 to 7.5. Yet blueberries prefer a pH of 5.5 or less.

If you don’t push the acid, you’re likely to have punky plants and little—if any—fruit. Raised beds, mounds and large containers all provide an opportunity to create that perfect blend from scratch.

In my garden, I’ve had good luck with a beefy mix of peat moss, sulfur and well-aged compost. For my six bushes, which are planted in a raised redwood bed, I dug holes 2 feet wide and 1 foot deep; mixed the excavated soil, which was already heavily amended heavy clay, with an equal amount of peat moss; tossed in a handful of sulfur and a few shovelfuls of kitchen compost; then planted each bush an inch high, to allow for settling.

Blueberries need ongoing irrigation and they appreciate decomposing organic material. So I shaped broad basins around each plant and mulched with a couple of inches of homemade compost.

If you grow your bushes in containers, Dave Wilson Nursery, a commercial grower that offers nine varieties of southern highbush blueberries, advises a mix of equal parts coarse peat moss, ¼-inch pathway bark and leaf mold—or forest humus-based potting soil; and 2 tablespoons of soil sulfur. Another favored planting medium is equal parts peat moss, azalea-camellia mix and coconut coir, redwood compost or other organic matter.

Ongoing Care

Do not let your blueberries dry out. They like moisture year-round, and peat can be difficult to re-wet. Plan to soak the bed once a week and replenish the mulch once or twice a year. I rebuild my basins with peat moss as well, for extra acidity. Container-grown blueberries like mulch, too. But even with mulch, they may need watering two or three times a week during hot spells.

Wait until spring to fertilize. Then apply an acid-based fertilizer every month or two until fall. Use a product that contains humic acid or is designed for azaleas and camellias. Avoid high nitrogen. Ammonium sulfate (not ammonium nitrate) and iron chelate are OK in small doses. Coffee grounds work well, too.

Whatever the product, thoroughly water it in. Don’t use a cultivator, as it can damage the tiny, fibrous roots that lie just below the surface.

Pruning

Blueberries don’t need much, other than nipping back the occasional wayward branch. While some tags claim the bushes grow four to six feet tall and wide, my 3-year-olds have stayed in the two- to three-foot range. I’ve corralled them in large tomato cages to make the fruit easier to reach.

But the bushes are infinitely prunable. If you plant three or four blueberries in the same, large container, you’ll need to prune more often, to keep the branches from becoming overcrowded. Each individual bush won’t produce as heavily. But you’ll make up for it with a greater variety of berries.

Harvest

Early- and late-season blueberries can be agonizingly slow to ripen. But wait until the berries are fully swollen and have darkened to their target color before picking. That usually seems to be about five seconds before they fall off, or about 10 seconds after the birds have swooped in.

Net your shrubs to thwart the birds. With practice, you’ll then have time to identify that perfect picking moment.

Daily harvests may range from a few berries on a new bush to a generous handful on an older one. By their second year, my two Mistys at their peak produced enough berries to fill a cereal bowl twice a week. From which we often stood in the garden and ate, rather than bowing to any silly etiquette that would have required us to sit down, inside.