Blueberries - are they worth it?

[1Bee]

I bought earliblue and bluecrop this year and planted out in large pots in ericaceous compost. I've had a handful of berries off each which were delicious! Looking forward to seeing what happens next year.

If you're going to use mychorizal fungi, you need a specifically ericaceous sort. Sorry.

[MarkPelican]

Yes, but net them. The blackbirds were having mine until I protected them, now I'm getting some, enough to go with the alpine strawberries and make a dish.

[annie8]

Does anyone have a view on whether I could grow blueberries this far north? If they can go into raised beds in a sheltered sunny garden I might try them.

[It never rains..it pours]

Does anyone have a view on whether I could grow blueberries this far north? If they can go into raised beds in a sheltered sunny garden I might try them.

Well mine grow ok, but this year berries seem smaller, think it maybe the hot and dry
Overall I find they have a poor output compared to the black currants, but they are are not to everyones taste

[Brack]

Mine grow fine in Durham, they're in the border, with the ericaceous section sunken in a bit so they're slightly sheltered, but I get tons of berries. Wouldn't have thought Edinburgh was that much different really.

[BrightST]

Blueberries are probably my favorite berries. They contain potassium, folate, vitamin C, vitamin B6 and other useful stuff. These berries are very good for heart health and for increasing your vision. I'd grow it if I had an opportunity. Prices for fresh blueberries usually range from $1.50 to $4.00.

[bario1]

Blueberries grow fine up here Annie8, the slightly cooler Scottish climate is perfect for berries of all kinds.

[ESBkevin]

We have one bush in a large pot (repotted this spring), we netted the fruit early enough to protect it and have had some wonderful fruit. In previous years we failed to net early enough and lost lots to the birds. While it is only enough for a couple of weeks during the year they are wonderful and I plan on taking cuttings to increase to 4 the number of bushes eventually. Space being the deciding factor.
Are they cost effective? Hardly profitable on our scale, but delightful non the less.

[TrixC]

I have six bushes of different varieties and they are probably our favourite thing on the allotment. I planted each one in a plug of ericaceous compost and water them with the regular allotment water supply, occasional handful of slow release ericaceous fertiliser but otherwise neglect them. I was getting masses of berries off them from the second year after planting, until this year when the drought caught them and the berries all shrivelled up Incidentally one of my bushes is Pink Lemonade, I’ve never had any problems with pollination or fruiting and really like the taste, it also seems more tolerant of heat than the others. As others have said it’s essential to net, the birds love them.

[Penellype]

I have Bluecrop in a 35 litre pot and Dixie in a 25 litre pot. Both bushes are a few years old and were planted in ericaceous compost. They are watered with rain water and fed when flowering and again when the fruit is forming, with ericaceous feed. Netting is essential. For the past few years I have had enough blueberries to eat them every day through August and September with some to give to my Mum and plenty left to freeze. The early berries (ready now) are big and fat and juicy. They tend to get smaller as the year progresses.

They must be netted or the birds will eat the lot. In my book these are one of the most cost-effective plants in the garden. The bushes cost me £10 each (bought in late summer with fruit already on them) and with the price of blueberries in the shops they must have repaid that hundreds of times over.

[Kirk]

Sat in the same situation:
Have a well established bush in a sort of purpose build bed but the crop is poor. OK that may be pollination. However the berries are small, so simply not really worth the effort of picking whatever appears.

Would like to grow better and it seems Blue Crop are bigger.

So do I bother or not.
Do I pull up the present one and plant a blue crop and wait for results.
Do construct a second bed for a blue crop, wait for results, and have 2 of the things.

Half tempted to not bother. Birds like the small ones as it is.
As never had a good crop it raises doubts.

[Jay-ell]

If you pull it out and put the Bluecrop in you could still be in the same situation with low harvests. Having two of different varieties will hopefully mean each bush would have a bigger crop.

[Lardman]

I bought an all season collection about 6-7 years back and put all 5 plants in an 8x4 bed, standard soil. I top dress with sulphur powder and feed with ericaceous liquid feed in rain water during the spring/ summer months. Late spring I surround the bed with an 8x4x4' 2" weldmesh frame otherwise the bushes are stripped clean.

With the exception of this year where everything has shrivelled and died, I've had 3-4Kgs of fruit per bush per year. It's not really a lot of fuss if you like the berries considering the cost and the poor flavour available in the supermarkets.

In contrast the cutting which I have in 2 very large 30ltr pots filled with ericaceous compost are terribly sickly things and in 3 years have yet to produce anything I bother to pick.

[It never rains..it pours]

Lardman, can I ask how much sulphur you put on, mine have improved since I added sulphur and iron sulpahate (25g of each per year) the last couple of years bar this year when think heat hurt them early making small beries but have improved in size now heat dropped.

[Lardman]

Lardman, can I ask how much sulphur you put on

Nothing ever get measured around here but I buy 1Kg of the yellow flowers of sulphur a year and distribute sort of evenly around buy the handful, I tried the sulphur chips once but wasn't impressed. 25Kgs seems an awful lot