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Everything You Need to Know About Growing Blueberries
Freshly picked blueberries are hard to resist. The delicious and healthy snack is great, but the cost can sure add up if you’re buying them daily. Ever thought about growing your own? What could be more appealing than stepping out of your house in July to pick a handful of fresh berries? With some simple steps and a little patience, your dream can come true.
1. Purchase Your Plants: Visit your local nursery to search for young blueberry plants. Plant them in early spring, once all of the frosts have passed.
2. Plant Conditions and Maintenance: Depending on your home’s location, you may need to alter your soil for ideal growing conditions. Blueberries grow best in clay or rocky soil. Make sure to add compost and organic matter to the soil when you are planting. Mulch around the bushes to help conserve moisture in the ground and keep your pH levels low. You’ll also need to make sure your plants are adequately watered. They will need about an inch of water per week.
Also, make sure to fertilize your berry bushes in the spring and late summer, before the cold weather hits. Once winter arrives, prune your bushes, removing all the dead branches and cutting about an inch off the top to prepare for the new growth.
3. Planting: Make sure you keep 5 to 6 feet between your plants, giving them adequate room to grow. Each row needs to be about 8 to 10 feet apart so you’re able to pick. Here’s where patience comes in play. You’ll have to wait two or three seasons before your bushes will begin producing berries. The first year they will blossom, and you’ll need to snap the blossom off to help strengthen the plants.
4. Pest Control: You’ll need to protect your precious blueberries from birds, so consider netting to keep them from nibbling all your berries. You can also build a small cage around your blueberries.
5. Harvest: Once your blueberry plants have started to produce berries, the fun begins. Peak season for blueberries is about three weeks in July and they produce fruit until a frost. When the berries are ripe and ready for picking, they will be very blue with a greyish color on top. Don’t pick the berries that have any red on them, as they still need to grow. Cup a cluster of ripe berries, then pull gently.
6. Storage: If you’re lucky enough to have any berries left after your day of picking (that you didn’t snack on!), you can freeze them to last throughout the year. Place the picked berries on a cookie sheet without washing them first. Remove any stems off the berries while on the cookie sheet, then transfer them into freezer bags or containers. Once you’re ready to use, rinse before eating.
Use your fresh berries in some of our favorite recipes: