How to Plant Blueberries

Designs & Pictures

Plants & Mulch

Structures

Gardening

Outdoor Fun

Newsletter & Articles

Start a Business

About this Site

[?] Subscribe To This Site

How to Plant Blueberries

Learning how to plant blueberries is a little trickier than working with other fruits and vegetables. Soil preparation is much more important when working with blueberry bushes than other types of plants. I usually don’t pay much attention to the pH balance of the soil, for example, and just let the plants do what they will. Unfortunately when you’re talking about blueberries, pH balance is critically important in producing a good crop.

Here are some of the details and steps you need to take when learning how to plant blueberries correctly.

First of all, you’ll need an area in your yard that has full sun. As with most fruit and vegetable plants, optimal growth happens when the plant receives full sun throughout the growing season.

Next, you’ll want to test the soil’s pH balance. This is a critical step in how to plant blueberries correctly. Ideally, the soil should be between 4.0 and 5.5, which is on the “acidic” side. But how do you do that, and what do you do with the results?? No need to panic – your local lawn and garden shop will have everything you need to take care of the business of testing and adjusting the soil’s pH.

First, find yourself a pH tester. You can search for a pH tester online, or visit a local garden shop. A decent one will run around $20. This is a good investment and even a novice gardener is well-advised to own one of these items.
Next, take the pH tester home and test your soil. You’ll need a small bottle of distilled water to conduct the test, and these instructions on how to test soil pH (opens new window) will walk you through the steps. Nothing too complicated to follow. Of course, the pH tester itself will also have instructions for your use printed right on the packaging.
Assuming your soil is not in the ideal range, you’ll need to either raise or lower your pH level. Let’s say your soil tests at a pH balance of 7.0 – in that case, you’ll need to “lower” it. One way to do that is to add “sulfur” to your soil Again, the experts at your local lawn and garden shop can help you with your specific needs given the exact pH balance, and the size of the area you are working with. To raise your pH balance, add “ground limestone.” The finer it is ground, the faster it will raise the pH level.

Make sure that the area in which you’re planting your blueberry bushes has been prepared to some extent. This includes not only correcting the pH balance, but also tilling the soil. Tilling the soil stirs up nutrients and loosens it so that the roots of your plant can establish themselves more easily.

Purchase your plant! (almost forgot this step :) When you do buy your plant, make sure you ask about pollination. I always forget about this, but many fruits, trees and plants need a “sister plant” so to speak, to complete the pollination process – which is the process that ends up giving you what you’re after - BLUEBERRIES. You wouldn’t want to go through all this trouble, and then fail to produce any blueberries because the bushes didn’t pollinate properly.

Dig a hole to the specifications of the plant you purchase, remove the plant from it’s pot and loosen the root ball with your fingers (you don’t have to be gentle here) to help the roots spread out in their new home.

Pour water into the hole before you set the plant in it. This will help the new plant retain its moisture level even though you’ll be watering it when you’re finished as well. The importance of watering your plants can’t be over-stated.

Fill the hole with dirt, and cover the area with mulch. This will reduce weed growth and help the plant retain water.

And finally – water your plant.

Now you only have to wait a mere 1-3 years for your plants to produce fruit! I know...very anti-climatic, isn’t it? Well, it’s sure to be worth the wait when you have warm, sun-ripened blueberries directly from your garden...yum!

I hope this information helped give you some good ideas on how to plant blueberries in your own yard. For more information on gardening, follow these links:

As always, happy gardening!