Back at the beginning of the Fall season, I found a blueberry bush on "end of season clearance" so I bought it (along with another bay laurel tree).
Flash forward to Thanksgiving weekend and on a whim I stopped in another garden center and they had two more! Now we have the three we wanted.
Best of all, they were only $5 each.
Here they are on the front porch. The reason we wanted three was not just because we wanted to have more blueberries (but that's not a bad thing, ha). Yes with three we have a better chance of scoring a nice amount of blueberries (the same reason we have two peach, two pear, two plum and two apple trees) but there is another reason for having three...
...we have three of these rings to use as planters!
Blueberries require a special soil (acidic) and down in these parts our clay soil is not conducive to that. We also read that they do best in containers so we can control the growing conditions.
When we decided to put the citrus trees behind the house last Spring, we built the same 4x4 raised beds that we have for the other fruit trees. That left us with three galvanized rings that we used for the original citrus when they were behind the garden.
Now this one isn't full and ready to go. This is one of the ones that we did when we planted the citrus behind the garden but wanted to just to give you an idea of what we'll be doing (in the Spring).
We're looking at either buying a bag blend that's already mixed up and perfect for blueberries (a local nursery here sells it) or maybe we'll buy the separate components and make our own blend.
COME ON SPRING!
Perfect rings for them Blueberries.
ReplyDeleteIf it where me; I would go ahead and buy the already mixed up version. Would be so much easier but then again, how large of bags that are already mixed and then check on price if you where having to buy everything & mix yourself?
It would probably cost more if you where to buy & mix up everything yourself.
Don't know how large them rings are, but to save some money on your mixture, place some misc. items in bottom of the ring; empty water bottles, milk cartons or whatever is handy. That is what I do in some of my large containers is fill in the bottom so that I use less potting mix.
I have a green thumb but I never had much luck with blueberry plants and so I gave up. The odd thing is they grow wild around here and those ones taste better. Good luck with your plants.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the blueberries. I had trouble with mine in raised beds and gave up. They just didn't do so well even though I mixed the prepared acidic soil. They just died. I think you have to have a long winter season and for us in Seguin Texas the winter cold is like three days and then the temperatures go back to the 70's until April when they start moving into the 90's. But good luck with them. If they survive let all us other Texans know what you did to get them to thrive and produce berries.
ReplyDeleteI hope you got different varieties. They will be delicious if they produce for you.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved into our farm in Indiana 46 years ago, we had 13 small blueberry bushes. They like wet soil, and they had been planted in the lowest part of the acreage, on a slight rise, with a lower space on both sides. We have pure sandy soil here, so have always mulched them with lots of leaves. We also dump our coffee grounds on the roots to maintain the rich acidic soil. They normally last only 20 years, but we are still getting more berries than we can eat each year from these wonderful bushes. Remember to prune away about 1/3 of the old growth each year since the berries only come on new growth and hopefully you'll have delicious berries through the years.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always been scared away from growing blueberries because of their need for special soil. I think you have found a method that will be very successful. Looking forward to seeing your harvest.
ReplyDeleteThose will be delicious!
ReplyDeleteThank you from Australia. So enjoy your posts and follow you all the way. Tragic in Australia at the moment but can only hope things will get better and thank you all for your support. Carol K.
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