growing blueberries

[buzzingtalk]

Yes very interesting to read about bee's. I'd like to do more for them next season, and try to encourage them into my garden - amazingly this year I had a honeybee (i think) turn up and get amongst one of my courgette flowers, when it emerged from the flower it was bright yellow and furry from the pollen. soon after were more honeybees, which continued to devour the pollen until there was none left

apparently there are honeybees around norwich castle, someone said they used to/might still make honey up there. so its worth a shot intruducing bee freindly plants next year

as for the blueberries, im very tempted to buy some now! although it will be a pain putting up bird netting in the very limited space i have...although i never really see any birds here, its very well covered and there is nothing for them here, so maybe they would overlook my berries?

[buzzingtalk]

Also, there is a great deal on Suttons, 3 blueberry bushes for £17 which I think I'm going to indulge in

[Croila]

Also, there is a great deal on Suttons, 3 blueberry bushes for £17 which I think I'm going to indulge in

I just ordered them yesterday! Never bought or grown any fruit plants at all though, so it'll be interesting to see how I get on.

I like what you say about the bee friendly plants ... I've always heard people talking about how important it is to entice bees to your garden but I never knew why. I've certainly seen a few this summer, and I've also had a lot of hoverflies too, which I believe help pollinate plants as well?

[FB.]

Bee-friendly plants have been talked about in the "Wildlife Gardening" section of this site.
I find that Helleborus niger is much appreciated by the bees as they emerge from hibernation in late winter. Helleborus flower from February onwards - also known in these parts as "winter roses".
My garden has several Helleborus plants.

Next the crocus get the bees attention. Remember that bees like large masses of flowers and may not be interested in just a dozen crocus.
The entire edge of my lawn is planted with a 1ft wide strip of crocus - probably over ten thousand nowadays and the crocus are buzzing with bees from early March onwards.

After the crocus come the apple trees.

Then foxgloves - they self-seed fairly easily once introduced to a garden.

Then lavender.

[buzzingtalk]

Nice - I'm going to plant some hellborus niger as feburary is a bit dull usually. Might check out crocus too, it would be nice to have things growing year round

Bees are incredibly important, both in your own garden and in general. they are in massive decline for some reason and everyone with a garden/alotment should try and help them along a bit which im sure we all do without knowing it! I didn't have any flowers this year, jus some courgettes, strawbs, toms etc and there were quite a few bees, even for a city centre! so next season, im going to up my game

[buzzingtalk]

Blueberry update - just bought 6 plants from suttons for the bargain price of £27! Well chuffed Can't wait to get them, and I know I won't get much off them for a while, but it will be nice to see them grow. Blueberries are probably my favourite fruit, I could have 18 of these plants and probably still not have enough haha!

It sounds like they don't need massive pots either, which is good. It seems that a lot of poeple have them in 12" or so pots, which I have enough room for. The way I see it, once they are productive, I should have an allotment by then and if not, then I'll have to battle to the door through my sprawling fruit jungle

[Croila]

OOOH that sounds brilliant! Well, I will have four blueberry plants .... Just wondering when they would be productive though? Year after next ..?

[buzzingtalk]

Update on the blueberries - they all arrived and they look lovely!

I am planning on repotting them soon though, which leads onto my next set of questions (sigh)...

I have bought lots of john innes eracious compost, and some standard eracious compost too as I heard a mix of these two is good. The next thing I need to find, however, is some wood chippings of some sort - I looked in my local garden centre (Notcutts) and they had decorative bark chippings, but it looked more like it was for driveways etc rather than adding to pots. Can anyone tell me if there is something particular I can buy from a garden centre, or is any wood suitable?

I am planning on going for a walk tomorrow in the local forest to collect pine needles, do you need them after they have fallen (they will be light brown by now) or fresh from the tree? Is it OK to mix pine chippings with the compost to help retain moisture etc or do I need wood chippings.

The compost mix looks a bit too 'heavy' without adding some sort of woody chips to help it.

Next question - what size pots should I upgrade to? They are in quite small pots now, maybe half a litre or a litre. I've been told not to put them straight into massive pots, so whats a good size to go for?

[Croila]

I got my blueberries too! I've not potted them up yet though, they're still in the litre pots they were delivered in. I'm also wondering what size pots to put them in (the three plants are between 1 and 2 foot high), so I'd like to hear any suggestions for this too - thank you

[buzzingtalk]

Ohhh we'll have to keep each other posted on the blueberries. I'm so excited, when they arrived I was beaming like a kid a christmas and the OH said 'this is the start of your fruit empire' and I went all Alan Sugar for a minute, until I realised I had no land on which to build my empire.

It will happen though

[Croila]

Pots are the next best thing though!

Have you figured out what size of pots to use yet? I need to get some at the weekend but don't know how big ...

[buzzingtalk]

Haha! I think a 12" pot is a decent size, from stuff I've read online. Then repot it again next year around October time again. I've not got a clue how big these guys will get so not sure on the eventual pot size. I've got all the soil ready to go, I'm gonna do a mix of 50% John Innees Eracious with 50% normal Eracious compost, and some bark chippings to help water retension. Then mulch the top with pine needles when I collect some next week! I hope they should be happy plants then

[binley100]

I bought some at Wyevale, they said to use a 20L pot ........

[Croila]

Thank you for the advice buzzingtalk

Hmmm, 20l pot ... I never seem to think in volume, only diameter, where pots are concerned. I better get on google to see what actual size of pot a 20l one is, I think!

[grannysmith]

HI there buzzingtalk!

We have one blueberry plant in its second year and, although we didn't grow it as part of a pair, it is thriving in a pot environment. We repotted it this spring and had lots of blueberries off it this year, plus the growth was vigorous and strong with new shoots. It's turning a lovely red now too for autumn colour!

I don't think you'll have any problem growing it in a pot, provided you choose a sunny location. Our soil isn't acidic enough to grow it happily out of its pot anyway, but since it's been such a success, we may well get another blueberry bush to grow next year in another pot. The berries were great this year!

I used only ericaceous soil, though, so not sure about the mixing soil idea. It seemed delighted with just ericaceous and so if I repot it in a year or so, I'll just keep on with the pure eriacaceous. Let me know how the soil mixing works out!