Getting Ready for Blueberries

I'm told blueberries are an excellent four season plant.  They are an attractive bush in spring, provide delicious berries in summer, turn a brilliant red in the fall and provide interest in winter.  I'm told this, but my warren of rabbits is determined to see I never experience this.  Most people lose blueberries to the birds.  I invariably wind up with a 4" bush that never has a chance to set fruit.

Blueberries belong to the genus Vaccinium and are native to North American.  They have been around for thousands of years.  Native Americans used to smoke the wild berries to preserve them for winter. Blueberries have always been prized as a food, whether eaten fresh, cooked in stews or used to season meat.  They were even used for medicinal purposes in colonial days.  North America is still the leading blueberry producer, growing almost 90% of the crop used worldwide, with nearly half of that sold fresh.

Except for wild blueberries, the plants you buy today are probably not heirlooms. Although wild lowbush blueberries are still grown in Maine and Canada, this is one of those crops that we've grown so accustomed to in it's cultivated form, that early incarnations just don't seem to measure up.  Over the decades, breeders have worked to improve the flavor, color and texture to create the plump, juicy efforts we grow today.  Most cultivated blueberries grown today are the highbush variety.  As highbushes, they can easily grow to 10 to 15 feet.  A small percent are the Rabbiteye varieties, which grow better in the southern United States.

For those of you who haven't become a sucker for those cute, furry faced rabbits, blueberries can be an easy growing treat.  Their most demanding trait is that they require an acid soil with a pH between 4.0 and 4.8.  If you don't happen to have these conditions, you will need to add either sulfur or aluminum sulphate to the soil.  Ask at the garden center or your local Cooperative Extension office for the ratio of sulphur to add for your area's soil type.  Adding sulphur will need to be done a year before planting, to condition the soil.

Once your soil is ready, you can plant your bushes in the early spring or in the fall in warmer areas.  Here I'll point you to the experts at county extensions around the county for advice.  In the northeast where highbush berries are popular, try Cornell Cooperative Extension's Growing