Author Topic: Picking Blueberry Bushes  (Read 3978 times)

Mgmny

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Picking Blueberry Bushes
« on: October 27, 2020, 02:24:33 PM »
Hello! I have a 4.5 x 9' raised garden bed that i'd like to plant blueberries in. I know about the type of soil and acidity needed, but i can't figure out a few things about picking the plants that I thought someone on here might be able to help with. I've googled this, but i just end up more confused.

I'm zone 4b, so i believe i need to plant half-high or northern highbush varieties. It looks as though planting a few varieties will increase yield due to pollination.

My questions:

1. Do the plants need to line up from early-mid-late cultivars? With apples, you want the trees to bloom at the same time to pollinate, and I'm not sure if that means that i shouldn't pick a blueberry cultivar that is early and match it with a late in case they also bloom early and late (that part isn't clear - do they all bloom in the spring, and some take longer? Or will they bloom later?).

2. How many plants should i squeeze into my 4.5 x 9 plot? I'm thinking i can get away with 6. Two rows of 3. I've read positive things about crowding fruit trees, and wondering if the same should be done for blueberries?

Thank you so much for the help!


dougules

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2020, 03:37:02 PM »
I'm not totally sure about northern highbush varieties or pollination, but my rabbiteye bushes (zone 7b here) put out runners and take up quite a lot of space.  If northern highbush will get big and spread anything like rabbiteye bushes, I would think that size plot would be good for about two bushes, maybe three if you didn't mind them growing together or pruning them away from each other.  Just from a quick search, though, it does look like northern highbush may not be quite as big as rabbiteye. 

RetiredAt63

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2020, 05:57:31 AM »
Highbush dont send out runners.  Size can be controlled by pruning. 

A good nursery should provide expected size.  It should indicate which varieties do well for cross pollination.  It should indicate variety hardiness. Plus Google is your friend, there is lots of good gardening info out there.  And what about your state's extension service?

Blueberry bushes live a long time, don't skimp.  Box stores are iffy, the original plants are often fine but they don't always give as good plant care and don't always have zone-appropriate plants.

Your biggest issue will be birds.  Birds love fruit, I've lost large portions of strawberry, raspberry and cherry crops to birds.  I have read of people who actually build wire mesh enclosures for their blueberries.


AccidentialMustache

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2020, 07:25:43 AM »
My dad had a 40' or more row of blueberries in the back yard. Single-row, but they filled in to probably 4' wide on their own. If you double row, I'd be concerned about density and access to the center to pick. I would guess dad's bushes were ~4' spacing, based on the bushes touching at the edges and being fairly round -- or so my memory says.

You will need to net the bushes, or birds will eat your crop. Dad had a 3" PVC frame he put up and netted over that. If you just net the bushes, birds can land on exposed branches and "reach through" to eat.

Dad's in-ground berries get 5-6' high on their own, so be aware of height problems for picking, depending on the height of your raised bed.

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2020, 11:55:52 AM »
Thank you both! I think i will stick with 4 bushes in the plot in the corners so that i can reach the middle. I figure i will throw a net over them to keep the birds at bay!

I have done research on the varieties, but really wasn't sure about flowering time, and thought someone on here could help. What i have read is, "Pick varieties that ripen at different times so you always have berries!" but i wasn't sure how this impacted pollination, etc.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2020, 01:56:02 PM »
Thank you both! I think i will stick with 4 bushes in the plot in the corners so that i can reach the middle. I figure i will throw a net over them to keep the birds at bay!

I have done research on the varieties, but really wasn't sure about flowering time, and thought someone on here could help. What i have read is, "Pick varieties that ripen at different times so you always have berries!" but i wasn't sure how this impacted pollination, etc.

Blueberries keep in the fridge a lot better than strawberries and raspberries do, and they freeze well if you have any left over, so pollination and bird protection would be higher priority to me.

dougules

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2020, 02:44:10 PM »
I just throw a net over mine.  The birds reach through and eat the ones at the very edges of the bush, but it's not that many really.  I might build frames some day, but the real benefit of a frame would be making the nets easier to work with and keeping them from restricting the growth of the bushes.  One way or the other, you need to secure nets at the bottom and make sure there no ways to sneak in, though. 

If you're going with 4 bushes, maybe you could do two of an early variety and two of a late variety?  I've not had any pollination problems, but mine all bloom at reasonably similar times. 

AccidentialMustache

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2020, 09:56:20 PM »
My wife has had pollination issues with hers. She has two. One is super early and just doesn't produce. The other (which didn't survive transplant-moving) was fine at production but was just a Meijer special, so not particularly special.

Dad's don't, but he has a ton so there's plenty of overlap.

YMMV of course. 2+2 is a good plan. All 4 together is also good, they do keep way better than most berries.

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2020, 08:58:06 AM »
Thanks everyone!!

I just looked at my university's extension and picked 4 varieties that had good yields and tried to do early and mid-season! If this goes well, I will come back in 2 years and post pictures... Wish me luck! :)

RetiredAt63

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2020, 10:19:43 AM »
Thanks everyone!!

I just looked at my university's extension and picked 4 varieties that had good yields and tried to do early and mid-season! If this goes well, I will come back in 2 years and post pictures... Wish me luck! :)

Definitely, lots of luck!!  Which varieties did you pick?

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2020, 01:29:58 PM »
Thanks everyone!!

I just looked at my university's extension and picked 4 varieties that had good yields and tried to do early and mid-season! If this goes well, I will come back in 2 years and post pictures... Wish me luck! :)

Definitely, lots of luck!!  Which varieties did you pick?

Thank you!!!
Right now:

Pink Popcorn
Pink Lemonade
Northland
Polaris

But, i might swap out pink lemonade for an actual cold hardy variety. Some people say they work in 4 others say 5, and 2 pink blueberries may be overkill, but the internet seems to love them.

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #11 on: November 03, 2020, 01:40:02 PM »
Thanks everyone!!

I just looked at my university's extension and picked 4 varieties that had good yields and tried to do early and mid-season! If this goes well, I will come back in 2 years and post pictures... Wish me luck! :)

Definitely, lots of luck!!  Which varieties did you pick?

Thank you!!!
Right now:

Pink Popcorn
Pink Lemonade
Northland
Polaris

But, i might swap out pink lemonade for an actual cold hardy variety. Some people say they work in 4 others say 5, and 2 pink blueberries may be overkill, but the internet seems to love them.

I was using my university extension website to inform my decision, but Pink Lemonade wasn't on there, but Stark Brothers said it would grow in zone 4B, so i thought,"hey, cool, let's add it!" but now i am seeing that they are rabbiteye blueberry bushes, which now i'm wondering if they don't count for cross pollination (can rabbieteye pollinate northern highbush? I'm guessing yes, but may need more research...). Or, I can just stick to pink popcorn and do another zone 3-4 highbush blueberry variety.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #12 on: November 03, 2020, 04:05:49 PM »
It will be interesting down the road to see if the birds recognize pink blueberries as ripe and edible.  I've seen articles on white strawberries that say birds think they aren't ripe and don't eat them.   ;-)

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2020, 08:00:59 AM »
It will be interesting down the road to see if the birds recognize pink blueberries as ripe and edible.  I've seen articles on white strawberries that say birds think they aren't ripe and don't eat them.   ;-)

Wow, very interesting!! I guess that makes sense... they are programmed to look for a ripe berry. I guess the white strawberry makes sense, but birds will eat pink crabapples, etc, so maybe it just needs to have some amount of red/blue in it? Not sure.

dougules

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2020, 12:02:49 PM »
I like my pink lemonade bush, although, as the nursery owner warned me, it has struggled a little with the heat and humidity this far south (Zone 7b).  I'm surprised if they have trouble with cold climates, too.  I also didn't realize they were also Rabbiteye.  It looks a lot different from the Climax variety, and Climax are also just fine with heat and humidity. 

People say it's psychological, but I feel pretty certain they do taste kind of like pink lemonade.  I should have done a blind taste test this summer. 

My experience so far seems to suggest that birds will eat pink berries as quickly as they will blue.  Nets are the answer.   

Unfortunately, a quick internet search seems to suggest the different species won't cross-pollinate. 

https://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/chooseblue.html

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2020, 01:19:33 PM »
I like my pink lemonade bush, although, as the nursery owner warned me, it has struggled a little with the heat and humidity this far south (Zone 7b).  I'm surprised if they have trouble with cold climates, too.  I also didn't realize they were also Rabbiteye.  It looks a lot different from the Climax variety, and Climax are also just fine with heat and humidity. 

People say it's psychological, but I feel pretty certain they do taste kind of like pink lemonade.  I should have done a blind taste test this summer. 

My experience so far seems to suggest that birds will eat pink berries as quickly as they will blue.  Nets are the answer.   

Unfortunately, a quick internet search seems to suggest the different species won't cross-pollinate. 

https://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/chooseblue.html

Interesting... I think i will remove the pink lemonade then. It sounds like it will be trouble and it won't help my pollination scheme. That link also mentions ripeness time more or less coordinates with blooming-time, so that was helpful as well!

Thank you!

Dreamer40

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2021, 03:16:33 PM »
woo hoo - blueberry thread! I bought 5 blueberry bushes yesterday and can't wait to start growing them.

The ground around the sunny patio where I'm planting them is terrible clay so I have to dig most of it out. I'm about half way done and need to let my callouses heal before I continue... Luckily I can replace it with the leftover raised bed soil that I recently got and had tested. I'll mix it with wet peet and some acid-raisers. I'm paranoid that something won't work out (not enough acid, pollination, not giving them enough room, birds, unknown problems I haven't thought of yet). But I'm also trying to take the pressure off myself to do everything perfectly all the time. I just want to get some blueberries. And I'm excited about it.


Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2021, 06:33:05 PM »
woo hoo - blueberry thread! I bought 5 blueberry bushes yesterday and can't wait to start growing them.

The ground around the sunny patio where I'm planting them is terrible clay so I have to dig most of it out. I'm about half way done and need to let my callouses heal before I continue... Luckily I can replace it with the leftover raised bed soil that I recently got and had tested. I'll mix it with wet peet and some acid-raisers. I'm paranoid that something won't work out (not enough acid, pollination, not giving them enough room, birds, unknown problems I haven't thought of yet). But I'm also trying to take the pressure off myself to do everything perfectly all the time. I just want to get some blueberries. And I'm excited about it.

Where do you live??

Dreamer40

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #18 on: January 26, 2021, 04:39:14 PM »
I'm in Portland, OR.

Mountainbug

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2021, 07:53:35 PM »
I don’t have blueberries but I do have experience growing lots of different things. In my experience if you want cross pollination you would want your blooms to happen at the same time or to have an overlapping period at the very least.

Mgmny

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #20 on: January 27, 2021, 07:14:57 AM »
I'm in Portland, OR.

You can plant already?!?  Wow the PNW really is a tropical rainforest like reddit tells me it is.

Dreamer40

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #21 on: January 27, 2021, 05:51:16 PM »
I'm in Portland, OR.

You can plant already?!?  Wow the PNW really is a tropical rainforest like reddit tells me it is.

I haven't put them in the ground yet. Still prepping the soil. But the nurseries are getting stocked up and going bonkers with fruit bushes and fruit trees. People here definitely do year-round gardening. Not everyone, but it's a thing. This winter was especially mild.

dougules

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #22 on: January 29, 2021, 11:51:10 AM »
I haven't put them in the ground yet. Still prepping the soil. But the nurseries are getting stocked up and going bonkers with fruit bushes and fruit trees. People here definitely do year-round gardening. Not everyone, but it's a thing. This winter was especially mild.

Do you know what variety you have?  The biggest thing I've learned from this thread is that the different species of blueberries have somewhat different needs.  If you've got rabbiteye bushes I can give some pointers, but I doubt you do in the PNW. 

Dreamer40

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #23 on: January 30, 2021, 03:26:54 PM »
I haven't put them in the ground yet. Still prepping the soil. But the nurseries are getting stocked up and going bonkers with fruit bushes and fruit trees. People here definitely do year-round gardening. Not everyone, but it's a thing. This winter was especially mild.

Do you know what variety you have?  The biggest thing I've learned from this thread is that the different species of blueberries have somewhat different needs.  If you've got rabbiteye bushes I can give some pointers, but I doubt you do in the PNW.

No rabbiteye. I have a bluecrop, legacy, liberty, polaris and pink lemonade. 3 of them are late, 1 midseason, and 1 early. I'm hopeful the early and midseason bushes will overlap long enough to pollinate. If it helps, my neighbors keep a beehive directly across the fence! Fingers crossed. If one of them does poorly, it wouldn't be too hard to rip it out and put in a different one later. Sometimes I get weirdly stressed about doing everything "right" and have to remind myself that these are just blueberries. Or not blueberries if it turns out I screw it up. :) Last year, the spring rain stayed a long time (through the end of June!) and nobody got much of a blueberry harvest. So even the best laid plans can still be foiled by mother nature.

dougules

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #24 on: February 01, 2021, 10:12:07 AM »
I haven't put them in the ground yet. Still prepping the soil. But the nurseries are getting stocked up and going bonkers with fruit bushes and fruit trees. People here definitely do year-round gardening. Not everyone, but it's a thing. This winter was especially mild.

Do you know what variety you have?  The biggest thing I've learned from this thread is that the different species of blueberries have somewhat different needs.  If you've got rabbiteye bushes I can give some pointers, but I doubt you do in the PNW.

No rabbiteye. I have a bluecrop, legacy, liberty, polaris and pink lemonade. 3 of them are late, 1 midseason, and 1 early. I'm hopeful the early and midseason bushes will overlap long enough to pollinate. If it helps, my neighbors keep a beehive directly across the fence! Fingers crossed. If one of them does poorly, it wouldn't be too hard to rip it out and put in a different one later. Sometimes I get weirdly stressed about doing everything "right" and have to remind myself that these are just blueberries. Or not blueberries if it turns out I screw it up. :) Last year, the spring rain stayed a long time (through the end of June!) and nobody got much of a blueberry harvest. So even the best laid plans can still be foiled by mother nature.

Yes, most of your varieties are northern highbush, so my experience with Rabbiteye bushes in a completely different climate from the PNW may be of limited value.  The pink lemonade is a rabbiteye hybrid, though.  Do you have two of them?  I'm not sure whether or not it will cross-polinate with the highbush varieties to give you fruit. 

I know we discussed the pink lemonade bushes earlier and came to the conclusion that they were rabbiteye.  From searching around the internet I can't tell if they are pure rabbiteye or a hybrid.  A hybrid would seem to jive better with what I've seen.  They look fairly different from my pure rabbiteye bushes, and they don't take heat and humidity nearly as well as the pure rabbiteye bushes. 

Dreamer40

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Re: Picking Blueberry Bushes
« Reply #25 on: February 01, 2021, 11:16:58 AM »
I only have one pink lemonade. But several of the local nurseries seem to think they cross-pollinate with their other varieties ok. One even sells them as part of a bundle. So I'll stick it in the ground and hope for the best!