Blueberry Hedge

[whiskyman]

Has anyone created an hedge of blueberry plants? I bought 10 plants that I want to grow closer together than the recommended distance to create a hedge. I want to know the minimum distance I can get away with without it looking too overcrowded.

varieties bought are Blueberry Duke and Blueberry Bluecrop, 5 of each. There be two hedgerows of same varieties in each.

[Scarlet]

I'm not really sure but just bumping this so that it gets noticed!

Most people grow these in pots although if your ground is suitable for them to grow well I would say 4ft minimum.

Hoping that someone with a little more knowledge will be along soon!

[AllInContainers]

I'm kind-of-ish-of-a-fashion-maybe attempting to create something similar by cheating

I now have seven blueberry bushes (only one of which is currently old enough to fruit properly), all of which are in around 30L pots. As these grow I Intend to keep shuffling the pots slightly so that the "hedge" is of a constant density, and reclaims the unused space below the branches of larger fruit trees. Several times so far this year I have told myself I have achieved the final layout, only to start moving stuff about again a week later

..... but back on to your hedge, have you considered doing the same? Putting them in the ground depends on the soil condition, but also careful pruning to ensure they don't have health issues with robbing it's neighbour of air, or simply look a mess. The pots solution allows you to create a divide without. The problem is that neither you nor anyone here, knows how much growth these plants will actually put on, or in which direction. I have a couple of plants which seem to like growing sideways, but a quick pot rotation of 90 degrees getseverything looking like it should do. I know some folks don't like planting in containers as the watering can be a pain in the back end, but I reckon intentionally reducing the spacing of fruit bushes would cause more of a headache in the long run ... and portability would ease that problem

[whiskyman]

Got the same problem as you AllInContainers. I bought six of those cheap fruit plants you find in pound stretchers, the ones that normally end up as dead sticks in the ground. When I visited my local pound stretchers early this year I found some that had foliage and good root system so bought them. Out of the six only one ended as a dead stick, five are thriving. But now I decided I don't want them planted where I have, so probably will move them.

I can really see the benefits of growing in pots, as I don't plan very well when I plant stuff and something else always end up buying more fruit plants only to find that I have no where to plant them.

[whiskyman]

My 10 blueberry plants arrived today. Some advice

1) Should I snip off all the buds to allow all the energy to build up the root system.

[Penellype]

Are they bare rooted or in pots? I have 2 blueberry bushes, bought as pot grown plants about a foot high when just about to fruit. Both gave fair crops in the first year and the one I have had for 2 years produced an excellent crop last year. So far both have doubled in size each year, and I had to trim the Bluecrop (this is only its 3rd year) as it was getting much too big. I'd therefore think it is not necessary to remove buds from pot grown plants.

If they are bare rooted it may be better to remove the buds as they may need time to settle after being planted.

[whiskyman]

Lucky I only snipped off my Duke plants, only two had flowers and only had three on each. The Bluecrop has quite a few and planted those in bigger pots first and one Duke. I have to find some more pots by Tuesday before I go away to work, the roots got no more room to grow in the pots they came in.

[woodenman]

I've tried to do something similar as a privacy screen for my garden against the downstairs flat courtyard which otherwise only has a picket fence separating them. I'm going to give up with it this winter and replace the bushes with a couple of fig trees for the following reasons:

I've found the blueberries to be fairly slow-growing (albeit they've only had 2 years, but they were 2 yr old to start with)

The bushes aren't very 'thick' - they are quite twiggy and the leaves are small and sparse so not great screening material

Different varieties have vastly different growth habits. My Elizabeth is sprawling and only about 1-2' tall, whereas by Nordblue and Pink Lemonade are very upright.

I was trying 4 varieties over a length of 2-3m.

I'm going to switch the blue hedge with the figs that are currently in pots, so they are not going to waste.