Blueberries - cultivation and care: personal experience
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How I grow blueberries
Blueberries and blueberries are native sisters.
But blueberries are the favorite berry of all, and blueberries heard only insults in their address: gonobel, drunkard, and dope. Why are we so?
Only for the fact that it grows in the neighborhood of the Ledum, which in the heat emits such intoxicating essential oils, that they become dizzy. But more recently the situation has radically changed. Summer residents literally chase a tall garden bilberry. And she will make you wave a shovel
I saw new varieties of garden blueberries and was surprised: why not blueberries, because it is sweeter and juicier? I was not too lazy, I found the information: it was her habit to grow bilberry, but she does not form dense bushes, which gardeners appreciate so much. Blueberry has no such drawbacks. That's why the breeders made their choice in her favor.
Reference by topic: Growing blueberries in the garden
Growing blueberries - the first pancake is lumpy
My first attempt to make friends with the garden blueberry was unsuccessful. I bought five bushes at once, planted a hedge in a trench like a hedge, the distance between bushes is 1 m, the depth of the trench is also 1 m.
As a newcomer, he planted the best in planting pits: manure, compost and, pleased with himself, for the next year (and not without reason) began to wait for the harvest. And he was! Many, many fat leaves and no berries! I admit, the desire to rip and throw blueberries was, but I restrained myself, I had the intelligence to look for information about this plant.
Blueberry is a lover of sour
All the blueberries want is sour earth!
Well, I had to wave a shovel in the fall, I did a titanic work: I dug up the entire 5-meter trench, carefully dug up the plants, put it aside, pulled out all the fertile soil from the trench and filled it with new soil - acid peat (acidity 3,5-4,5) , put bark, rotten, branches, needles, sawdust (preferably conifers) at the bottom, in general, everything that I found in the forest.
Only after that, I re-planted blueberries in peat. And never again any manure, superphosphate and potassium! The root system of blueberry is at a depth of 30 cm, there must be sour, a lot of air and moisture.
But that's not all! To ensure that this acidic soil is not washed out and the roots of the plant do not touch the soil of another acidity, neutral or, God forbid, alkaline, I laid the whole trench from the inside and the bottom with a film.
He made several drainage holes in the film laid on the bottom. In general, planting currants and blueberries are two big differences. Both physical and material labor costs were large.
See also: How to determine the acidity of the soil
Harvest of blueberries without interruption
But there is one plus - blueberries are a very long-lasting culture, one might say, once tormented and forgot. I had to see blueberry bushes that grew in one place until thirty years old.
It is enough to occasionally add coniferous sawdust under the bushes - this will be long-lasting fertilizer.
Another plus: long fruiting, I have several different varieties of blueberry growing, which in turn bear fruit from the beginning of June to the end of October, usually I do 5-6 fees.
I have tall blueberries growing in the open, here is an analogue that once the berry has come from the forest, even if it grows in the shade, it will not pass. In the shade instead of berries, again, get fat leaves - this is verified.
There is another interesting feature - blueberries can be planted where water stands in spring, this does not mean that it needs to be identified in a swamp, it agrees to endure if flood water costs about a week. If there is an excess of moisture, then the roots will not have enough oxygen and the plant will die.
A question that interests everyone: but how can you reproduce blueberry? I, as an amateur, multiply by layers. In autumn I bend the lower branch, fix it and sprinkle it with earth. At the end of summer, the plant is already rooted. Well, in mass quantities can be propagated by green cuttings.
Reference by topic: Planting blueberries - how to?
American plant, pests - domestic
I have the main pests - birds, if I did not manage to cover it with a net, then absolutely everything will be eaten. As for serious diseases, first of all it is chlorosis. This disease, again, is related to the soil.
If it becomes neutral acidity, then the plant immediately reacts. The first sign - the leaves become pale green, lose color saturation.
This is due to the fact that the plant does not absorb nitrogen. Further the disease progresses: the leaves turn brown at the edges, as if charred. What to do? Again, take up the shovel! Dig up the blueberry, remove the soil and fill the peat. Then the bush will immediately come to life.
Blueberries are a self-pollinating plant.
But if there are several shrubs, the yield increases almost twofold. Fruits already on 3-4-th year. Spring planting is preferable, the risk of freezing is less.
Another caveat - you can not leave the black soil under blueberries, it heats up, and the plant does not like overheating. Therefore, I fill up the soil around the bushes with sawdust so that the bare earth does not stick out, but there is an option and more interesting: plant cranberries along the entire trench with a small border.
They have absolutely the same requirements for soil, and both are long-lived.
Those who want to make this wonderful shrub, I want to give advice: do not be careless about the acidity of the soil. I have friends who decided: yes, we have trees and horse sorrel on the plot, which means that the land is acidic!
Planted blueberry, four years, she suffered, and then turned yellow and died. Very to her those gardeners took offense.
But acidic soil is not enough to say, blueberry will have gray peat just right (it’s mossy overgrown for years), and I would advise you to even check the acidity with a special device before planting so that you don’t feel sorry for your labors!
Growing blueberries - frequently asked questions
Competent planting of blueberries
- Saplings with a closed root system can be planted throughout the growing season - from early spring, when the ground only thawed and its temperature became higher than +6 degrees., And until late autumn until frosts. The plant begins to bear fruit in a year or two.
We take out the rooted seedlings from the greenhouses to the field in the so-called “incubator” for the second year. They are suitable for planting in open ground, more adult bushes can be planted.
With open root system blueberry planted in early spring and autumn (in October). What is important to consider when planting?
- The roots of blueberries are superficial, so you do not need to dig a hole too deep, but you can’t get by with a shallow hole. The pit should be approximately 60-80 cm deep. On heavy soil it can be made smaller, but wider. In the lowlands, blueberries cannot be planted.
Dug land must be mixed with horse peat (1: 1). It is poor in nutrients, but holds water well, unlike the lowland, and creates the necessary conditions for the blueberry roots in chemical composition. 1) Some gardeners advise putting into the planting pit the remains of beautiful, whitish-looking stumps, the so-called “cubic rot”. Is it correct?
- Good advice if the stumps are pine. They retain moisture in the soil, and by increasing acidity in the root zone, they help the plant roots absorb nutrients. '
Is it worth it to cover the bottom of the landing hole with a film in the sandy area?
- Everyone decides for himself, but the film must be perforated (have holes), otherwise when watering or rain it will turn into a "trough" filled with water. If there is sand on the top and clay on the bottom, you can not cover the bottom with a film.
On clay soil, blueberries need to be planted on raised ridges - ridges. On a flat site in heavy rains, clay is saturated with water, and the roots rot due to lack of air.
For the winter
If the seedling was purchased at the end of autumn, for example, November, when it's too late to plant, where and how can it be over-grown before planting?
- It’s hard to adhere to calendar dates, you need to watch how frozen the ground is. It is undesirable to store the seedling in the basement, and even more so in the house. It can be dipped obliquely in the greenhouse along with the container and covered
burlap or even an old coat. Or put in a sheltered from the north wind of the garden, fall asleep with sawdust and also cover. So sapling safely overwinter. Do you need the first year in shelter?
- Our first-year-olds grow in a greenhouse, and they winter there.
In the garden, a rooted shank will well overwinter in a small blackberry, which must be insulated with sawdust, dry leaves.
Subtlety of care for blueberries
When cuttings of blueberries?
- Winter lignified cuttings are cut in late April - early May. Green cuttings are carried out in early July and almost until the end of the month.
Do I need to feed the bushes in the first year after planting?
- No, the plant must develop the root system. In subsequent years, in the spring they produce nitrogen or complex fertilizers with a predominance of nitrogen. Organic chemistry should not be used on blueberries. In addition, annually in the spring you need to add mulch from sawdust with a layer of about 10 cm.
How much is the bush of blueberry durable? Can it be rejuvenated or replaced with a new one?
- In Poland, I saw bushes planted at the beginning of the last century! And they live happily and bear fruit. Only by the huge shaft of mulch (1 m or more in size) can we understand that these are long-livers. Cut blueberries in early spring. In young plants, only small growth and diseased shoots are removed. And starting from 6-7 years of age, old shoots are gradually cut out.
© I. Krotov. Orsha
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- How to plant blueberries WRONG
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As soon as I got a summer house, I planted blueberry in the garden. She is unpretentious, but when you care for her, you must follow a number of rules.
The shrub grows better in sunny areas and requires acidified soils. The optimal soil for it is sand and peat taken in equal proportions. Blueberry feels good in the ground from coniferous forests, especially taken from the surface itself - with the remnants of needles. This land can be slightly spiced with humus (but not fresh manure!).
Plant bushes need at a distance of 1,3-1,5 m, leave between rows about 2 m. Mulch planting better coniferous sawdust thickness of up to 10-12 cm, however, another mulch will do.
That there were a lot of big berries, on adult bushes it is necessary to leave 4-5 of the strongest young stems. The harvesting period can last 2,5-3 months. At this time to collect blueberries need 1 once a week and a half, or berries fall.
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To be honest, it was not even possible to grow garden blueberries and thoughts.
But when I bought a dacha, I inherited two bushes of this culture with a height of 4045 cm. The previous owners, apparently, did not care much about them. Well, I thought, it means that together with the development of the site I will study and cherish blueberries. As the branches of the bushes grow curved and spreading, I first made frameworks around the trunks of wooden rails so that the crowns are always raised and do not touch the ground. And the plants soon became cheerful.
Does blueberry need additional pollinating, I do not know. My two bush grows side by side, and I just make sure they do not close, since such thickening badly affects the taste of berries and yield (checked already). In the early spring I spend their pruning, removing weak and broken branches, and I leave only six or seven fruiting shoots. During the ripening of berries I water more abundantly than other garden crops. Mulchiruyu fallen pine needles and peregrubshimi sawdust layer 5-10, see.
But I do not use ash solution, because it removes the acidity of the soil, which is so necessary for blueberry (also came to this through trial and error, and then found in the special literature my fear).
As a top dressing I use only an infusion of comfrey. Blossom bushes early, they have small flowers, white with a pink tinge (beautiful very). Fruiting is abundant every year, berries grow in clusters, like in black-throated plants, mature gradually and for a long time. And the most pleasant thing is that the bushes are already many years old, and they are all as young.
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CUTTING OF BLUEBERRY
A few years ago, blueberries bought very well in our garden. Fruit it starts on 3-4-th year after planting, but reaches maximum fruiting to the sixth year.
Fruits of blueberries are formed on the shoots of the previous year. When pruning it is necessary to understand that in young bushes it is sufficient to remove the ends of shoots damaged by frost, as well as obviously weakened and lodging branches. In the first two years, all fruit buds should be removed. In adult fruit-bearing bushes, cut all weakened, diseased and low-lying shoots, leaving 6-8 strong perennials. Adult shoots older than four years must be cut at the ground level.
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A bag with blueberry seeds Canadian for two months kept in the refrigerator - for stratification. In February, filled the soil with azaleas container, a little rammed and sowed. I must say that the seeds of blueberries are very small, so they did not sprinkle the soil. Ploshku put on a light window sill, the ground was sprayed daily. Thin shoots appeared a month later. Continued to spray them until the appearance of four real leaves. After diving into separate tanks - three seedlings each.
Blueberry was taken to the dacha - in the greenhouse. Watered once a week. At the end of summer, the grown up bushes passed into fresh medium-acid soil into slightly larger containers. To the bottom
laid the drainage. Left the plants in the greenhouse before the frost came. For wintering I transported the first year in the apartment, kept them on the glassed balcony. At strong frosts brought in a room.
And next spring she landed in the open ground. I took a separate bed for blueberries, filled with peat moss. The place chose sunny. So far the results are happy: sprouts have appeared, seedlings have formed that develop in the open ground and, I hope, will yield in the future.
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Leaves on some bushes blueberry large-fruited yellow (pictured). What's with the plant, and what can I do with it?
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In the photo there is an obvious chlorosis of the leaves, caused by a deficiency of sulfur. A similar picture can be with a lack of iron. Pour the plants now (1-2 times) with a weak electrolyte solution (10-15 mL per 10 L of water). Plus, sprinkle with a solution of ferrous sulfate (2-4 g per 1 L of water) and add for winter to the soil around the bush of sulfur (from 50 to 100 g to 1 sq.m). In the spring, as soon as the earth thaws, renew the irrigation with electrolyte solution - 1-2 once a week until the symptoms disappear.
In the future, monitor the acidity of the soil and water, which water the bushes (optimal for blueberry - 4,5-5). How to do it at home? On sale there is a pH-tester (a bag with several strips of indicator paper and a color scale on the package). The strip is lowered into the water for irrigation and compare with the scale. With soil a little more complicated: 50 g soil fill with 100 ml of distilled water, insist for 24 hours, then dip a strip of indicator paper into the solution and compare with the scale.
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I love blueberries
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I love my blueberry very tall. In the care of her regular weeding is important. Especially while the bushes are young, otherwise the weeds become the worst enemies of blueberry. No less important and loosening, but do not forget that the root system of the bush lies at a depth of 20-40 cm, so I work with the chopper in the trunks at a depth of no more than 10 cm. During the season the trunks round 2-3 times mulch with a mixture of sawdust and reparted manure.
Another important point: when growing blueberries, you need to constantly monitor the water regime. Soil drying is unacceptable! After planting, until the blueberry seedling does not take root, it is necessary that the earth is constantly moist.
Abundant watering is especially necessary in July-August, when bushes fructify and lay flower buds for the future harvest. And in the intense heat, I also spray the plants with water. At the same time, it is important to remember: blueberry does not tolerate water stagnation.
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My site is located on the site of the former peat bogs.
Despite many years of work to improve the soil, the “swamp” past still makes itself felt. Not all fruit trees and shrubs grow well on acidic soil with a close location of groundwater. Therefore, when I was offered seedlings of garden blueberries, I immediately became interested. Like the wild ancestress, garden blueberry prefers acidic soil with a large admixture of peat and sawdust. You can use soil brought from a pine forest or swamp. Additionally, planting pits are shed with a solution of citric acid (3 tsp in a 10-liter bucket of water) or 9% vinegar solution (1 cup in a bucket of water). For mulching use peat, sawdust, needles, pine bark. The mulch layer is made very thick so that weeds do not break through. Decaying mulch also serves as fertilizer. It is important to remember that habitual compost, ash and dung under blueberries are never introduced. In the spring, when the kidneys begin to open, they are watered with a solution of complex mineral fertilizer (see instructions). The place for blueberries is chosen sunny, otherwise the fruiting will be weak, and the berries - sour. The setting of berries occurs on the shoots of last year, so there is no need to zealous with pruning. Only old, 5-6-year-old branches are cut, leaving young ones to replace.
With proper care, you will annually have your own tasty blueberry.
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Is it necessary to cut blueberries?
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To obtain regular harvests and large berries, blueberries, beginning from 6-year-old age, must be cut off. This procedure is best done in late autumn, when the bushes discard all the leaves. The plant roots are cut by low, empty and thickening bush branches. Then, remove branches older than 7 years (you can 6-year-olds). Of the large annual shoots, 3-5 is left strongest and healthy, the rest is removed.
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the benefits of blueberries
■ Blueberry juice is recognized as the most useful of all possible juices. It has more antioxidants. than in any other.
■ Blueberry is called the berry of longevity - only a few berries a day increase the immunity and defenses of the body.
■ Blueberry berries help reduce blood sugar, thereby helping to fight diabetes.
■ Protect the body from increased radiation, strengthen blood vessels.
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My pride is a tall blueberry.
The best is blueberry of the Belarusian selection. Planted seedlings in pits at a distance of 1,2-1,5 m from each other with a diameter of 60-80 cm and a depth of two bayonets shovels filled with a mixture of peat and forest land {you can additionally pour sand) with the addition of mineral fertilizers.
After planting, the surface of the soil is advised to be covered with sawdust, but I prefer the needle. Golubike is extremely necessary for fertilizing. At first, because of ignorance, the bushes a little spoiled - fed, like currants, manure (by the way, if you did the same, transplant plants to a new place - this will save them), which in no case can not be done. Dung blueberry is contraindicated. Only mineral fertilizers are applied that do not alkalinize the soil: ammonium sulfate, superphosphate and potassium sulfate (1: 2: 1). Mixing fertilizers in such proportions, I sprinkle them around the bushes every year and then water.
The dose of the mixture depends on the age of the plants: I make 2 tbsp under 1-year-old bush, 3-year-old 2, 4-year-old 4, 5-year-old 8, and 6 years 16 tbsp. You can make the entire fertilizer dose in one stage in late April or early May or divide it into parts: 2 / 3 at the end of April - beginning of May and 1 / 3 - at the end of May - beginning of June. Watering the blueberry is especially necessary in July-August, when the berries are pouring. Then I pour on 2 buckets on the big bush and on the bucket on the small one. In hot sunny days I do sprinkling. Once a season I acidify the soil with table vinegar (0,5 l per 4 buckets of water) at the rate of 8 l under the bush.
Necessarily every year I pour a lot of woodland around the plants with a needle. When the berries are cut, I cover the bushes with a light spunbond or net - the birds of the blue are very fond of bluebirds. Still would! Such delicious!