Don't Make These 7 Mistakes In The Blueberry Growing Process

I have ten blueberry bushes planted along my driveway. I dug out the soil where they were, and planted them in a mix of peat moss, small pine bark chips, sulfur, and regular topsoil. Every spring I sprinkle more sulfur on top of the soil, and put a fresh layer of pine bark chips. I sprinkle some epsom salt (magnesium) at the start of the season and while the berries are growing, as well as some holly-tone. I get TWO FIVE GALLON HOME DEPOT PAILS of blueberries from those ten bushes.

I grow a ton of blueberries on my bushes. The birds and squirrels Love them! I may have eaten 3 in 6 years.

One mistake I make with our well established blueberries is not aggressively cutting back the older canes. The old canes don't produce the maximum number of blueberries. So each year cut back at least two older canes to allow new growth and many more blueberries. The older canes are wood-like, twiggy and generally have fungus growth on them.

You can use your coffee grounds to increase to acid level in the soil. My bushes doubled in height and increased in berry harvest.

Thank you for this info. The bottom line I'm taking away is to buy the blueberries in a container. Already picked. You see, once upon a time I bought chicken to raise for eggs and discovered it would have been much cheaper, cleaner and less labor intensive to travel to Europe to buy organic gold eggs. 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I have a blueberry farm in south central arkansas. Every bush I’ve planted (1800+ bushes) started as new bushes. I’ve noticed on some of your plants, specifically the potted plant, the dead or dying leaves. I suggest you remove all the leaves that have died as well as any dead stems. Leaving them on the bush causes the bush to become susceptible to disease. Other than that, you’ve got the right idea. Sphagnum Peat Moss from Canada is a must. I’d also recommend shredded pine bark mulch between 3-4” in depth around and throughout the base of each plant. This will help with retaining moisture and will prevent weeds from competing. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your clear guidance on blueberry growing. Also your pronunciation is excellent for non Americans.

I watched multiple blueberry videos and this was by far the best! Very comprehensive. Thank you so much. We live in White Bluff and are first time land owners. We bought a 30 acre farm. Got 7 fruit trees planted last year and we are now ready to plant blueberries. Thanks for the great videos. Love your content.

Two methods of watering: 1) a very LARGE GLASS container with a small neck and opening. 1 gal or close to it. Fill with water, invert, and shove into the ground. If your plants are in the ground, get a 5 gallon water jug (the commercial blue ones you can get refilled). Toss in two ORANGE ping balls. Fill with water, invert, and shove into the ground about 1 foot away from the plant. Make sure the jug opening is not plugged with dirt. Initial use may require refilling the bottle every day or three but once the ground swells, usually lasts about a week. I do this with a rose bush with excellent results (one mature rose bush can use 5 gal of water a day in the hot summer). Ping balls let you see the water level at a distance. Green or white can aid in algae creation. Orange doesn't seem to have that problem. As soil dries out, it lets air into the glass bottle and water out of the bottle. Same with the heavy plastic commercial 5 gal bottles as well. Avoid the cheap 5 gal plastic water bottles they sell on the shelf. Thin plastic bottles will collapse and not create the required vacuum to draw the air in and let water out. 2) Get two laundry baskets from dollar store (round ones). Invert one, cover with weed block or window screen. Invert the 2nd one and place over the first one. Turn the set right side up and trim off excess. Get a NEW oil change pan from wallyworld. Place the laundry basket set into that pan. Fill baskets with desired soil and your plant. After initial watering a few times so the plant gets started, only water from below. This is a combination of air pot pruning and subirrigation. Your shallow rooted blueberry plant won't have wet feet and still get all the air to the roots and water it wants. You can even put in some fertilizer if desired. This will require extra water due to evaporation. Another advantage is that due to evaporation, your root zone will be cooler (think swamp cooler in a way). Additionally, you won't get as much if any root killing due to sun overheating the side of the container. Baskets last about 2-3 years before becoming brittle and breaking. But for a few bucks, it is dirt cheap to replace. Do not put gravel in any blueberry container! Or any container that uses subirrigation. This works pretty well with cucumbers and tomatoes too. Both above methods do require manually refilling from time to time. About using tap water - True that most tap/well water is pretty hard water. Also most tap water contains chlorine/chloramine. Acsorbic Acid is required to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine. You can adjust the pH by adding vinegar into that bottle. Of course rain water is great except it too has issues. You can get wild swings in pH with rain water. Suggestion: Take a 2" schedule 40 PVC drain pipe. Cut to 3 feet long. Bottom 1 foot you drill 3/8 to 1/2 in holes through it, from the bottom to 10 inches up. 'X' pattern, with spacing between hole rows about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. You want those holes 2" below soil surface! Use a bulb drilling bit, drill a hole in the ground about a foot away from any plant roughly and 1 foot deep. Place pipe, holes down. into the hole you made in the ground. Use your water hose to water that way. Heavy soil will require multiple waterings each day until the ground gets loosened up. Of course, you will have to guess as to how much and how often you water that way. You will find out soon enough. And it is an effective way to subirrigate to a degree.

Great advise. Taken

I'm about to get my first bush end of the month. Thanks for the tips!

Thank you for the tips! Trying with 3 plants this year in southern hemisphere

I grow container blueberries and they do just fine. I water once a week at most. Zone 6

Great tip on the Canadian Sphagnum peat moss. I would use it in growing aquatic plants in aquariums but never considered using it to lower soil pH for blueberries. I live in Canada and have easy access to peat moss so will use this tips on my blueberry bushes.

Thanks! In my state, we have zones between 5 and 10. Quite a few, but Arizona State University in Phoenix does publish information for the Phoenix area.

Thank you for the information , other videos never mentioned about the plant depth. Have a blessed day.

I have 20 acres with lots and lots of wild blueberries and the deer love them and our blackberries. Sometimes we even get some!

I use homemade ollas to water plants in the veg garden. Will be putting one in with the blueberries.

Loved the video. Loads of information without all the off topic talk. Thanks I learned a lot

I added coffee grounds at the roots and the plant perked up and seems very happy with many bids formed