We can’t easily grow blueberries in our alkaline Kansas soil. I grew them for several years after regularly applying Sulphur and aluminum sulphate to manipulate the PH. I did pick many blueberries that were sour and the plants remained short. Finally I lost interest. I find myself returning to the idea of growing the super fruit and wondered how other people with alkaline soil are raising blueberries.
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After having two blueberry shrubs die in my soil, I now have two 12 gallon containers filled with 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 hardwood bark which have the Tifblue and Blueray varieties. Yes, that involves daily watering, but I now have healthy 6-8 foot shrubs that provide fresh blueberries for about 2 months.
Would it work to plant blueberry shrubs in about a 20 gallon hole in the soil filled with potting soil, peat moss and hardwood bark?
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That would be one approach. Maybe a trench 18 inches deep and a raised bed over that. Fill it with pine bark and peat moss. You’d need a good drip watering system preferably using pond water rather than well water. Just as good might be 60 gal drums cut in half and filled with the same mix. The advantage of pots is they can be set in shallow saucers. That helps the mix from drying out and you can tell when you are watering enough. The trench idea and you are just guessing and watching the plant but possibly wasting lots of water.
These might work but in Kansas it’s going to be an uphill battle all the way. I think you’d need to go with northern highbush or rabbiteye. The southerns will bloom too early.
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i live south of you but have the same type soil. I have been growing in 270 gallon chemical totes cut in half with a 4 1/2 inch gringer. You can often get totes free at farm fertilizer and chemical dealerships . I grow in pure peatmoss filled to a depth of about 12 inches and then mulch with about six inches of pine bark mulch. Each year I spread a 12 oz. red cup of elemental sulfur and then cover with more bark mulch to bring the level back to six inches, I have a drip hose on a timer that waters a few hours every day. Our well water is 7.8pH but the yearly sulfur counteracts it. I have not found any northern varieties that can survive our hot dry winds but rabbiteye thrive.
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Another suggestion: my blueberries weren’t thriving no matter how much sulfur and peat I had. Turns out our municipal water was loaded with bicarbonates. Now I acidify the water with sulfuric acid and use some chelated iron if the pH gets a little high. So far, so good. They’re doing much better.
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Some cultivars are purported to do better in less acidic soils. Look for those.
Legacy is listed in the literature as adaptable to less acidic soil, but mine has struggled in my heavy clay which I heavily amended into a raised bed mixed with peat, perlite, bark, sulfur, etc.
Clark,
You and I seem to be on similar soils. My best performers have been Bluecrop, Jersey, Northblue (northern highbushes) and Climax, Vernon, and Ochlockonee (rabbiteyes).
So far, Ochlockonee has been the surprise champion, but I need more years of data to reach any real conclusions.
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Thanks Matt who did you get yours from?
I got the rabbiteyes from Ison’s. A good value.
I got the northern highbushes from Stark Bros. As much as Stark’s refusal to track and publicly disclose their tree rootstocks irritates me, I cannot deny they have great deals on blueberry bushes. Their bloobs are sizeable and extremely well-packaged, and you can’t beat the price. I just hope they’re true to name. So far, they seem to be.
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I grow mine in raised beds and in containers. The raised beds are much easier to manage, the plants do well in them too. What to do with containers in our cold winters is a problem.
My plants are getting older and are sizing up nicely.
I also grow honeyberries. They are more tart than blueberries, but wow, the flavor is rich. I like them a lot so far. I need more experience with them. I have some of the newer cultivars, and will experiment with propagation down the road. They seem easy to grow too, so far so good.
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Figured I’d post on this old thread instead of starting a new one.
I’m trying blueberries this year and am clueless about them. I decided to just try using straight peat moss with some water absorbing gel (Watersorb) added as a growing medium. I’ve got the blueberries in 8-12 gallon pots right now. I don’t think they’ll be able to over winter here in those pots however. I’m trying to figure out if going to a raised bed makes more sense than getting a few pick up loads of sawdust to mound all around the pots? Is using straight peat moss a good idea?
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