Blueberries

[grubbysoles]

Hello All,

A couple of summers back I bought a blueberry plant in a pot, then completely neglected it for about, urm, a year I planted it in the garden a few months back, just in case it might show some signs of life in the spring, but it is well and truly finished. I really want to grow blueberries as they are yummy and horribly expensive in the shops, but I don't want to shell out for another plant. Is it possible to just, like, plant a blueberry in a pot and see if it grows, or is life not that simple?!! Or could I cut a blueberry open and get the seeds out and plant them?

Any tips would be appreciated....

Emma

[CyberPaddy66]

Nature does a great job of propagating the plants by just littering the ground with them so I don't see why we can't just bury some seeds and hope for the best but there is a strong possibility that the blueberries you buy in the shops are not fertile and have been genetically altered to not allow propagation.

I think your best bet is to try to germinate some seeds but be aware that you may end up buying a plant at the end of it all anyway.

[Shutsumon]

Blueberries are lime hating. So unless you live somewhere with acid soil you'll need to plant it in Ericaceous Compost. I've also seen it suggested that you water with rainwater only as they hate the lime in tap water.

Becky

[foodinistar]

I bought some blueberry plants a couple of years ago also and left them in pots, but potting them on last year, until a week or so ago when I finally got around to planting them in large pots - the soil here is not especially acid so I needed to create the right environment for them.

I am no expert but these things I know about blueberries from my Expert book and the Dorset Blueberry Company, from where I got the plants and a lot of advice (before buying) over the phone.

For maximum yield grow 2 varieties, plant in acid soil (e.g. where rhododendrons/azaleas do well) or in stout pots at least 1½ feet deep (but I have planted some dwarf/semi-dwarf varieties in shallower pots) using a combination of ericaceous compost, loam/soil, moss peat, washed sharp sand, sawdust and pine bark chips (I had/got and used all of these except the sawdust, and mulched with an inch or so of fine pine bark chips that should conserve moisture in the pot and eventually rot down), birds love the berries so the plants need to be netted as soon as they turn colour, place in a sunny position, prune in winter, they shouldn't need any more nutrient supplement than is supplied by additional mulching and a small amount of fertiliser tea in the spring.

I also have a couple of cranberry plants, which I think I should be able to easily propagate into several more plants, which have been in a sunken butler's sink - they love an even boggier, more acidic environment than blueberries do - for over a year but which I could now put in with the potted blueberries, if I can keep the pots well moist. I posted a couple of days ago about a rainwater collecting system I have rigged up so I think I should have enough neutral water for these plants now. Previously I had to use tap water occasionally, but compensated by also adding a bit of diluted distilled vinegar, which has worked wonders on the azalea out the front!

[grubbysoles]

Thanks for the advice.

That's quite a long list of demands for the humble blueberry! I popped a blueberry open (to free the seeds) and potted it in eracaceous compost and it is sitting on the shelf in the greenhouse doing very little so far. It was worth a try, but I'll probably have to bite the bullet and buy a couple of plants from the nursery. Maybe I'll treat myself at Christmas and add them to my order for a bare root cherry tree

I'll have to somehow not lose this thread, though, as I'm going to need that list of blueberry instructions for reference. But they are SO yummy, I think it's worth the effort.

[clare]

Hi all,my blueberry was planted and a pot of ericatious compost and potted on in the ame but appears to have died!!Is it the tap water that killed it??I only used it when the waterbutt was empty a few times.
Clare