How to Grow Blueberries

Highbush Blueberries

Growing blueberries can be a rewarding endeavour. The highbush blueberry plant produces delicious, high-yielding, blueberries for eating and making into desserts. It is a deciduous shrub growing up to 4 m tall. In the fall, the leaves change colour to a brilliant red that is very attractive for the garden! They can also be grown as a beautiful hedge around your garden. The flowers are white, bell-shaped, and about 10 mm long.

Blueberries grow best in open areas with moist, acidic soil of pH 4 to 4.5. If you don’t have the proper pH it can be difficult to grow them. When preparing the soil, mix in a lot of peat moss around the blueberries as this will help keep the soil from drying out. Also, it’s important that the plants get plenty of sunlight in order to produce a large crop of berries.

How to Grow Blueberries

Most blueberry varieties produce a larger crop, and larger berry when planted with at least one other variety nearby. When planting blueberries, find a location with full sun to ensure the production of lots of blueberries. Make sure you keep them well watered by watering them at least once a week. It is very important that blueberries have acidic soil, with a soil pH of 4 to 4.5. An easier way to start the seed is to sow the seeds on the surface of 2-3″ of sphagnum peat moss and keep at about 22°C (70 -80F). Blueberries normally will only germinate with light. Keep the mix humid but not too wet, and don’t let it dry out between watering. Germination for blueberries can take as long as 4 to 8 weeks.  For the highest germination results, the seeds need to be stratified (kept in the freezer for at least two weeks) before you plant them. Blueberry bushes take up to 3 years to mature and produce berries.

You can buy highbush blueberry seeds here.

Recommended Books:
The Berry Grower’s Companion.

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