Buying blueberries in the supermarket is very expensive, for the price of a couple of those tiny punnets of fruit you could buy your own blueberry plant.
A North American native plant that will grow very well here in the UK. Be careful about which variety you buy especially if you have a small garden some of the bigger species can grow up to 4m tall and just as wide. There are several varieties that are much smaller and suitable for growing in containers on a sunny patio or terrace. If fact due to the growing conditions that they need it is much easier to grow them in containers, they require moist, acid soil, unless you live in a peat bog or a part of the Country that has naturally occurring acid soil you are not going to get far by plonking them in the ground next to your runner beans.
If you are going to grow a blueberry plant in a container it needs to be at least 12″ – 18″ deep. Make sure that you have drainage holes in the base, I usually add a few stones to the bottom of the pot to ensure the roots don’t get waterlogged. You will need to buy some special ericaceous compost the sort that you need for azaleas and rhododendrons. Fill the pot about ½ – ¾ full of compost place you plant on top of the compost and add more until you reach the level the plant was previously planted at, you don’t want to go any higher or the plant could rot, if the level of the compost is not high enough the roots will dry out. Make sure you leave an inch or so of space between the soil and the top of the pot to give room for watering.
Talking of watering blueberries you should only use rainwater on them not tap water, it has too much lime in it and could end up killing them. You will need to water them from early spring right through until the autumn.
Even though some varieties are self-fertile, apparently if you have more than one variety you get more berries and they are bigger.
You won’t need to prune them for the first couple of years and after that you only need to remove 2 or old canes from the bottom or those that are not producing any fruit.
The only pests blueberries seam to suffer from are birds, so netting is essential unless you are prepared to share or completely loose your precious fruit.
The berries are ripe when they turn blue but the flavour improves if you leave them on the plant for a few more days before picking.
Here are a few of the different varieties you can get:
Blueberry Sunshine Blue – Semi dwarf, maximum of 1m tall, self fertile, semi evergreen. I have two of this variety, one of them is in the photo in a blue pot.
Blueberry Berkley - This one when mature is 5-6ft tall and wide.
Blueberry Patriot – Low growing with a 4ft spread.
Blueberry Bluecrop – Height 1.5-2m when mature.
Blueberry Chandler – Height 1.5-2.5m when mature, produces the biggest berries in the world.
Blueberry Spartan – Height 1.5-2m when mature.
Blueberry Bluegold – Height 1.0-1.5m when mature.
Blueberry Duke – Height 1.5-2m when mature.
Blueberry Top Hat – Dwarf variety, usually sold cheaply in three’s via national newspapers and magazines. So far I have heard nothing good about this blueberry, none of the specialist growers sell it. If I am wrong and it is a productive, good tasting blueberry, please let us know.
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Blueberry Sunshine Blue-This Blueberry has so many excellent qualities that its almost a new kind of plant. Has dense, rounded, semi dwarf form only 2-3 feet high and wide making it a great choice for containers. Self fertile. Semi evergreen. The only variety to be truly self fertile, which means that you only need 1 plant. The other beauty is that it’s perfect for tub growing on patios, highly ornamental, with shocking pink flowers. Highly recomended. These have been reduced in price to £4.50 per plant in a 1litre pot, so you can plant it any time of the year.
Awesome information on taking care of blueberry plants. Just what I need to know when my plant comes in the mail. I had such a difficult time getting them to germinate (yes, germinate… I didn’t get far at all…) that I just gave it up altogether.
Thanks for the info!
Glad you found the info useful. If you buy plants you get to eat your blueberries a year earlier too.
What sort of climate is required for blueberries to thrive? You mention that they can grow fine in the UK, but I see you’re down in the Isle of Wight where it’s rather warmer than up here in Belfast!
Hi John
Blueberries are native in North America & Canada. If they can grow them in Canada I am sure you can in Belfast. The plants are a bit tender until they reach a year old but most of the ones that you buy are already a year old.
The variety that I am growing ‘Sunshine Blue’ is self fertile so you only need to buy one plant if you want to give it go.
For me the only difficult thing is trying to remember to water them with rain water. I put the plug in the bath when I have a shower and bale it out, everything in the garden including my veggies gets watered with that. I hasten to add that I only use Suma Clear & Simple shampoo and no toxic soap, if you use normal shampoo etc you should only use your shower/bath water on flowers.
Do you have any suggestions for companion plants that could go into a raised bed with my Blueberries?
Hi Kathy
Blueberries don’t seem to suffer too much from pests so I have not come across any recommended companion plants.
Depending on how much space you have in you bed you could add another dwarf blueberry.
Cranberries are low growing and need ericaceous compost.
If you want something ornamental I would go for heathers, many of them need acid soil, Calluna varieties flower in summer and autumn, Carnea are winter/spring flowering. There are loads of different varieties to choose from.
Gentians need acid soil and are really beautiful.
Those are all I can think of at the moment, perhaps someone else might have some better suggestions.
Hi, i What Kind of fertilizer should i use and my bluberrries are dry and sour (bitter <3
please reply soon!
You need to use a balanced ericaceous, fertiliser, the sort that is needed for rhododendrons & azaleas. Sprinkle 50g, for young plants, evenly over the root system. Increase in future years as the plant grows. You should not use a fertiliser that is designed for vegetables or tomatoes, also do not use animal manures on them.
If the berries are dry, make sure that they are getting enough water, if they are growing in containers even if it rains you will still need to water them most days. Only use rain water on them not tap water.
Try and keep the plants in the sun.
Don’t forget to leave them on the plant for a few days after they turn blue and look ready to pick.
Hope they improve.
thanks for the help ! ill reply back soon once they start improving!
is there anything we can do to tap water to be able to use it on blueberries if , we dont have any rain water?
thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx thx sooooo much for the info!!! you rock
If you live in a hard water area, eg you get white lime deposits around taps, in wash basins and loos, that is not good for them as it means that you water contains a lot of lime. Blueberries hate lime!
You can add some sulphur chips to the compost they help to bring down the PH level, like these:
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=475
Hopefully you are growing them in ericaceous compost.
If you don’t have a water butt, try to find space for a small one and keep the water just for the blueberries. If nothing else put out buckets, bowls any containers you have to collect the rain.
Any water is better than none as far as blueberries are concerned, leave the tap water in a watering can or bucket overnight, that will allow some of the chemicals like chlorine to evaporate.
Fingers crossed for you and your blueberries.
Pests on blueberries
It’s worth mentioning that caterpillars can attack blueberries. One of my plants was stripped by over 50 caterpillars of the vapourer moth -they weren’t there one day and had done all this damage the next. The RHS also mentions that bluberries can be attacked by the larvae of torrix and winter mothes so it’s worth checking plants regularly,especially if leaves have bits cut out of them.
Hi Lis
Thanks for the info, I am off up the garden to check mine over. I must get myself sorted out and make up some netting covers for them after checking there are no caterpillar eggs on them first. It is one of those thing I have been meaning to get around to doing. Hopefully small mesh netting will stop the moths as well as the birds.
Angie
hi before my name was help now my blue berries should be saved!
If you have acidic soils in the UK it isn’t necessary to us rainwater. The ph of our rain is 4.5. I use tap water.
If you have ideas to keep the dog and chipmunks away I’d like them
Hi Cheryl
Thanks for the reminder. Here on the Isle of Wight as far as I know there is no acidic soil. When I first started this blog I thought it would only be used by people from the Island and I do at times tend to forget that it is now has readers all over the UK and in other countries too.
Fortunately chipmunks are I think one of the only problems that I don’t have so I am unable to advise. Where are you?
My runner beans are being destroyed by large green bush crickets that are about 3″ long, it takes one less than 5 mins to eat one large leaf and I reckon there are at least 50 of them in my garden and the ones either side of me.
I have had to make a temporary barricade today to stop my Airedale terrier eating pelleted chicken manure and compost that I added to the soil when I replanted my courgettes last night, she seems to think I did it for her benefit.
She is 14 and has calmed down an awful lot, when she was younger I had to put a fence right across the garden so that she only had access to a third of it and could not get to the fruit and veg area. She used to chase butterflies and concentrate on them rather than where she was going and used to destroy nearly everything in her erratic path, the rest use would decimate when digging holes.
Angie
Question: I planted one (1′ high) blueberry plant in spring 2007 (in my garden in Maryland, USA). It survived the summer but did not flower – or produce fruit. I planted two more in the fall 2007. All survived the winter but did not flower or produce fruit this summer either. They look healthy aalthough some of the leaves are a rusty red color, as if they are turning color for fall. Are they too young to produce fruit – or is something else going on?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi Lea
I don’t think they produce any fruit until they are at least two years old. I have three plants all planted this spring, one has produced about a dozen berries, the other of the same variety has about 50 berries and the one of a different variety has not one berry on it.
On both of my ‘Sunshine Blue’ plants all the new leaves have a red tinge to them.
If yours in acid soil or compost, you been feeding them and giving them plenty of water they should be fine.
Angie
I live on Long Island N.Y. and in the spring of this year (2008) I purchased 2 each blueberry plants; bluecrop& new jersery. I have them in planters that are 14″x14″x14″-my question is, if I place them on my screemed in porch over the winter,will I need to water them during this period of time
Hi Tom
Blueberries do not like to dry out, so you may well have to water them. How often will depend on the humidity in your area. It is probably best to check the soil every week or two to make sure it has not dried out to much, they don’t want to be soaking wet but the roots will die if they get too dry.
Angie
What are the varieties of the blueberry plants shown in the photos (especially the small potted one in the second photo)?
Hi Gabriel
The variety in the blue pot is Blueberry Sunshine Blue – Semi dwarf, maximum of 1m tall, self fertile, semi evergreen. They are lovely compact easy to grow plants, mine was loaded with berries last year. The other variety I have is Blueberry Top Hat, which I wish I had not bothered with, it has sent up huge stems and I was hoping that one was going to be compact.
Angie