Blueberries - are they worth it?

[Ruthie_Q]

Hi there.
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Ive been shed painting. I should have been digging the plot but I had more fun painting me and the shed, lol.

Just wanted to ask you experts about blueberries. I had them years ago in the garden in a pot & they were rubbish. Did the whole ericacious (think i spelt it wrong) & rain water. Threw them after a couple if years. Now i have a bit more space are they worth the fussiness of them?

Ta lovelies
X

[DannyK]

Yes. Have you seen the price of them in the shops? Shop ones taste awful compared to homegrown.

[Ruthie_Q]

Thats what i thought but with living in the sunny North West of England wasnt sure. The ones i had last time were amazing when i bought them & then i think we had 3 blueberries off them the following year

[Bluenowhere]

I’ve planted some in the soil. All the old boys on the allotment looked at me like I was rather a quaint girl who knew nothing and said I should grow in pots with the whole special ericatious compost (not sure of spelling either) water with rain water, fertilise etc. To be fair we are on alkaline clay soil so I suppose they had a point as it was my first year with an allotment.

I got some sulphur and sulphate of iron. Mixed a bit in with the soil, then planted the little bushes last year and mulched with horse manure. They were the full season collection from Sutton’s they were small bushes but grew healthily. This year all three flowered and got a crop off each of them despite them never being watered with anything but tap water from the mains fed allotment dunk tanks, as have only just got a shed capable of collecting water this year, and forgetting to add the ericatious liquid feed I bought.

I intend to add a bit more of both substances hand forked into the top of the soil after checking the PH and some shredded Christmas tree as a mulch but frankly it has been a low maintenance experiment that worked for me. They have even survived the slight watering neglect that the weather has created and I picked more berries today.

My allotment neighbour on the other hand has bushes 5-10x the size of mine in pots with the proper compost, fertiliser, rain water watering almost constantly in the hot weather etc etc and got about 6 berries total from her 6 bushes so regardless of their supposed fussiness I still think they are far happier in the soil even if it isn’t quite perfect.

I’m sure someone will have a different opinion on what I’ve done but the bushes are still growing happily so I’m sticking with it.

In answer to your original question yes worth it for the taste!

[Aberdeenplotter]

with the drought this year my blue berries are smaller than normal but that is to be expected. Mine are just growing in the ground. No idea what the ph is but everything else grows well in my soil. I will say though that it took 5 or 6 years for my plants to properly establish and give a decent return so be patient

[Brack]

My 3 bushes (patriot, goldtraube and bluecrop) were in pots the first year (did nothing, but probably too small to fruit then), then I dug out a 5-6' section of the border and backfilled it with ericaceous compost. 2 years on I've 3 big bushes and we eat handfuls of blueberries every day, and there's still stacks of them ripening.
I hardly even watered them much as I was trying to save my water for the new fruit trees I'd planted.
Definitely worth it.

My lingonberry on the other hand (same bed) was targeted by pigeons and cats and has passed on.

So yes, in the ground but correct pH soil, and full neglect and they crop well.
I've heard bad things about the novelty varieties (pink, variegated etc) though.

[Baldy]

Also need other bushes for pollination I think.

[Jay-ell]

Also need other bushes for pollination I think.

Most blueberry bushes are highberry bushes and can cross pollinate but some (e.g. Pink Lemonade or Buddy Blue) are Rabbiteye bushes and need another Rabbiteye to cross pollinate. There's also lowberry bushes but I don't think that the ones available are this type.

[chillithyme]

I have failed in the past and am tryin again as soon as I get hold of some plants, I might try planting them in ericacious compost in a massive bucket, with the bottom cut out and sunk into the ground, I do this for Strawberries and they are happy, so in theory best of both worlds controlled pot and ground access. I've got some mycrorhizzal fungi for a fruit trees in large pots that il try shifting into the ground later this year, so might use some on the blueberries if I have any fungi left over.

[Jay-ell]

This year I have 3 blueberries on one bush (the Pink Lemonade) and about a dozen on the other (Blue Crop). Both are supposed to be self fruiting so I'll see next year when they're more established if the yields improve (only planted last year).

I had though that they would cross pollinate each other but this was before I figured out that one was a Rabbiteye (as you see in my post above) as no one selling it (except Lubera) tell you this.

If next year the yield doesn't improve then I'll have to decide on getting more bushes or pulling these ones out and replacing with something else - possibly billberry.

[Ruthie_Q]

Thanks everyone. Im gonna give it a go. I think we might try the trench method. Well I'll organise & the OH will dig.

[chillithyme]

good luck

[Issy]

I have mine in pots but really thinking of transferring them into our plot - we only had 10 berries from two bushes but there again did not water - quite sure they will do better in the ground.

[4Shoes]

I would like to say yes.
Every year I have good pollination but for some reason (about now - last week of july this year) there was a blast of wind and they berries were stripped. One of the problems might be that they are in large pots and the additional height just catches the wind.

I move then to see if I can find a sunny sheltered spot. Still to find that sweet spot.

If planting in the ground, perhaps line the hole with sheet plastic 1st. will regulate the soil acidity better.

[ecudc]

I have a Herbert in a 50cm cubed pot who lost his pollination partner but still managed to provide tonnes of berries. Unfortunately this is also the year the birds found them so i’ll have to net next year.