New Blueberry advice

[Alex_Parrott]

Hi all, Im new to growing fruit and have just recieved three blueberry bushes and am not entirely sure of how to proceed as there is so much conflicting advice on the net. The varieties are: Bluetta, Sunshine blue and Northland they are in two litre tubs and are 4 years old. My question is should I prune? should I pot on and can I put them straight outside? I hope the pictures will help.

Any advice greatfully recieved

Alex

I have tried putting the ictures up but they wont upload for some reason. Sunshine blue is short and real bushy got loads of leaves on on. Other two have branches al over the place with tallest being about over 1" tall. Sorry!

[littleexperience]

hi alex i have 3 which are over 10 years old but as yourself they started of in small pots just the same.what i did and worked fine was to take them gently out of there small pots leaving all the roots and soil on them and plant them in larger pots 50litre with ericaceous soil with a handfull of bonemeal thrown in and water them good with rain water if you can.if you are planing to put them in the garden i would just do the same a few bags of ericaceous soil in the planting holes with some bonemeal. blueberries are one of the easiest and hardiest fruit anyone can grow


no need to prune just yet if still small let them grow for the next few years

[Creemteez]

If you can get hold of a bag of pine needles, you can mulch the top of the pots with them. Helps prevent the soil drying out and is acidic, so they'll love 'em!

[sarraceniac]

Littleexperience has obviously quite a lot of experience where blueberries are concerned. Do that exactly. One trick I used when I first got mine and couldn't easily get ericaceous compost (even Wilko's sell it nowadays) was to pot on using a mixture of general purpose compost and peat (you can get it from a sustainable source), about 50/50. Doesn't add anything to LE's advice, just an extra tip.

[Alex_Parrott]

Great! thanks for all of your replies and advice. This seems like the easiest option as many advise potting on each year which is frankly expensive. As for the pine needles there is a big tree in a garden four doors down so I think I shall go and ask if I can sweep up their drive

Should I just put them on top or do I mix them into the soil?

Also it will probably be friday now when I get the pots etc should i leave them indoors for now as it is quite windy here or should I risk it outside?

Thanks again

Alex

[oldie]

Blueberries are pretty hardy and should be O.K. outside if you can provide a bit of shelter from the worst of the wind. I have a very windy site and started by putting them partially under a tree.

[Madasafish]

I just planted 5 blueberrues in our clay neutral garden 5 years ago. Four survive. Ericacious compost? Acid soil? Who needs it? Compost . And more compost. And Iron sulphate.

[Hermit]

Maybe your soil is acidic. Or maybe you got lucky, the ones i know who planted blueberrys in normal compost all died. I have citrus in citrus compost, cactus in cactus compost, and blueberrys, in ericacious compost. Dont take the rist of normal compost, put the right plants in the right growing medium and go from there.

[northepaul]

I used the twiggy bits from two fir trees instead of pine trees as a mulch, and mine love that! When I planted mine (in giant pots) I added some slow release Rhododendron/Azalia food (as they are also acid loving) which gave them an extra boost.

[eieio]

I got 3 bushes yesterday. Would I be better potting them in pots rather than ground?

[sarraceniac]

Most people nstart them in pots eieio simply because it is easier to control the planting medium. If you are blessed (or cursed?) with acid soil then you could put them straight out. Even without very acid soil you could do that by digging in loads of peat and mulching with pine needles. But that is usually best done a few months before permanent planting so you will probably be best keeping in ericaceous compost in pots for a while.

[gojiberry]

Type of bush varies very much with variety. I have about 8 tubs and they range from a 6' sprawling and untidy plant to a 2' compact plant. Blue berries are hardy but if yours have been kept under cover and are in leaf I would be careful about putting them outside. The only pruning required is to keep the straggly ones within bounds. If the crop starts to fall then pruning one third of old wood out to encourage new growth is recommended. Have had mine 6 years and no sign of any reduction in crop.

Ian

[Curlykale]

I'm glad I spotted this thread as I have 6 blueberry plants in smallish pots that need to be moved into bigger ones.

Can anyone tell me what size/diameter a 50 litre pot is? I went to Wilkos yesterday to look for 50 litre pots but they are only marked with the diameter.

Thanks

[littleexperience]

I'm glad I spotted this thread as I have 6 blueberry plants in smallish pots that need to be moved into bigger ones.

Can anyone tell me what size/diameter a 50 litre pot is? I went to Wilkos yesterday to look for 50 litre pots but they are only marked with the diameter.

Thanks

something like 50cm width by 45cm in depth should be fine basically the bigger the better