Our Home Works

Our dozen blueberry plants are in the ground, finally.  We planted them on the west side of the house, along the hedge.  We managed to document most of the process to share with you, in case there are others out there considering blueberries.  We are currently on a little weekend jaunt in Bend, OR and I forgot the camera/computer cable so photos will go up tomorrow when we get home.

Soil prep

One thing to know about blueberries, before buying plants is that they like well-drained, acidic soil.  The soil in the part of the yard where we chose to plant them is pretty much clay.  To improve the drainage, we broke up the clay and added compost to create a raised bed effect.  We added about 1.5 cubic yards of compost to 45 linear feet of bed.  This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is essentially 1.5 truckloads (small truck) of compost.  Because the bed was originally sod, we first removed the sod by hand, then turned over and broke up the top 8-12 inches of soil, added the compost, and then mixed it in with a garden fork.  The soil prep work was, by far, the hardest, most labor intensive part.

Choose varieties best suited to your conditions

In addition to amending the soil, we also chose varieties that were more tolerant of poorly drained soil so that we aren’t fighting an uphill battle trying to get the plants to thrive.  Fall Creek Nursery has a great website for finding blueberry varieties best-suited for your climate, soil conditions, and taste.  You can read about the varieties we chose in this post.  The NW Berry & Grape Growers recommend that you plant more than one variety of blueberries (like many other fruits) because cross-pollination increases the amount of fruit.

Correcting pH

According to my Master Gardener class and Steve Solomon in Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, most of the soil in the Pacific Northwest is acidic due to the heavy winter rains that dissolve and leach alkaline minerals.  Blueberries grow best in a soil pH of 4.5 to 5.5, which is slightly lower than the 5.7 to 6.5 average soil pH range in western Oregon.  Instead of paying for a soil test, we added coconut coir fiber (which has a natural pH of 5.2 to 5.8) to each hole while planting.   We will also monitor the plants and make adjustments as necessary. If necessary, we can add sulfur to further acidify the soil.

Typically blueberries are planted with peat moss, but we opted for the more sustainable coconut coir fiber.  Peat moss is dredged from bogs that provide habitat for wildlife and which some say is disappearing at an alarming rate.  Coconut coir fiber offers similar water retention qualities as peat moss and is a byproduct of processing coconuts that used to be burned.  It can be purchased in compressed blocks at Down to Earth and many garden stores.  The blocks come in 3 different sizes - 1/3 cubic feet, 1.8 cubic feet, and 4.5 cubic feet.  We planted all dozen of our 2 year old plants with 2 of the largest blocks and had a little bit left over.

The blocks need to be broken apart and saturated with water before using.  I recommend putting the block on a tarp so the material is easy to mix with water and to move from planting area to planting area.  Getting the blocks to break apart can be a little tricky.  I didn’t try it, but I saw one recommendation to douse it with water and let it sit for about 30 minutes.  I am sure this would make it easier to break apart the outer layers.  I used my garden fork to break the layers apart by digging the tines into the block a little and driving it through the block, little by little.  Eventually, the layers are easy enough to pull apart by hand.  When you have the entire block broken apart, spread it out on your tarp and turn the hose on very low.  Sprinkle the fiber with water evenly and grab a garden rake while letting the water drip on the fiber.  Rake the fiber to saturate it with water, while breaking it up even further.  I just constantly move fiber that still looks dry toward the hose.  Do this until all the fiber is completely saturated with water.

Now you are ready to begin planting.

Planting & mulching

For each plant, dig a hole about 1 foot deep and 2 feet wide.  When you place the soil back into the hole, replace 1/3 of it with saturated coconut coir fiber.  I measured this by adding one shovelful for fiber and 2 shovelfuls of soil consecutively.  Before adding the next set, I mixed it up inside the hole to prevent layering.  When planted, the blueberry plant should sit about an inch above the rest of the soil.  We spaced our blueberries 3′6″ apart, which means they will eventually represent a loose hedge.  According to Fall Creek, you can plant them as close as 2′ 6″ apart for a dense hedge or 6 feet apart for individual bushes.

After planting, you should cover plants with 2-4 inches of mulch.  The mulch protects their shallow roots and prevents weeds.  We will be adding bark mulch this week.

Maintenance & watering

In order for the plants to get properly established, blooms should be removed the first year so they don’t set fruit.  Although this will be difficult to do, it will result in larger crops in future years.

I have read in Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and my Master Gardener handbook that watering with rainwater is much preferred to watering with regular irrigation water because irrigation water contains some of the basic minerals that were leached from the soil.  We don’t have a rainwater catchment system setup yet, so will be using irrigation water and compensating as necessary with fertilizer and amendments.

Blueberries also require annual pruning for optimum performance.

For information on pruning, maintenance, and all things related to blueberries, check out the Northwest Berry & Grape website.  In addition, be sure to read the Starting Right with Blueberries information sheet on the Fall Creek Farm & Nursery website.

Click here for a great Huffington Post article about peat moss.

Tags: blueberries, Garden, planting blueberries