If you don't mind waiting three or four years after planting for the first harvest, blueberries will reward you many times over for your patience. Just a little care in planting and occasional attention thereafter is all that's required to reap an abundant harvest of deliciously sweet berries year after year. Luckily, blueberries also make striking ornamentals, often grown for their brilliant autumn color.
Blueberries belong to the genus Vaccinium, which also contains cranberries and a variety of other native shrubs such as bilberries and huckleberries. There are three commonly grown types of blueberries: highbush, lowbush, and rabbit-eye.
Highbush: Highbush blueberries (V. corymbosum) are the most common in home gardens. They average 6 to 12 feet tall. Each plant typically yields at least 4 to 8 pints of berries each year by its sixth to tenth season. Some especially vigorous highbush plants have been known to produce 25 pints or more in a season.
Highbush blueberries thrive in a moist, well-drained, acid soil with a pH of between 4.2 and 5.0 and plenty of organic matter. If your soil is slightly alkaline, add sulfur or aluminum sulfate a year before planting to lower the pH. Sphagnum peat moss will acidify the soil as well as increase its organic content; simply mix it with the soil in the planting hole. Other good organic supplements are acid compost, leaves, and old sawdust.
When choosing a site for your plants, keep in mind that blueberry roots are shallow and will need an adequate water supply to withstand heat and drought. Try to plant in a protected spot where the brittle canes are not apt to be broken by accident. Select an area that receives full sun, and avoid low-lying pockets that are subject to late spring frosts.
Choosing Highbush Blueberries: It's important to choose a highbush cultivar that's suited to your geographic area. Some cultivars are bred to withstand consistently cold temperatures in winter, while others are resistant to certain diseases common in the warmer regions. There are cultivars that ripen at different seasons - very early, early, midseason, late, and very late. By selecting a variety of cultivars that ripen at different times, you can extend the harvest season.
Highbush blueberries are self-fertile, meaning a single plant will produce berries without needing pollen from another cultivar (although yields are higher if the flowers are cross-pollinated with another cultivar). Home gardeners can choose from more than 45 highbush cultivars. The best source of information about cultivars suited for your garden is your local cooperative extension service.
Lowbush: Lowbush blueberries (V. angustifolium), the most popular choice among commercial growers, are very hardy plants that grow just 8 to 12 inches high. These plants prefer moist, well-drained soil that is rich in organic matter with a pH between 4.2 and 5.2. They grow from creeping rhizomes that form a dense mat under the soil surface, and for this reason make an excellent ground cover in areas with acid soil.
There are only a few cultivars of lowbush blueberries from which to choose, but you will need to select at least two, for they are not self-fertile and require cross-pollination from a different cultivar in order to set fruit. Two plants of the same cultivar will not do, because they are propagated asexually and are genetically identical.
Rabbit-eye: Rabbit-eye blueberries (V. ashei) thrive in warmer climates in the South. They can grow as high as 18 feet. Rabbit-eye blueberries perform best in soil rich in organic matter that is moist but well drained, although they'll tolerate poorer soils than other blueberries.
They'll grow in soil with higher pH than other blueberries - ranging from 4.2 to 6.0 - and are somewhat more drought resistant than the other types. One feature important to gardeners in the Deep South is that they require very little winter chilling to break dormancy and set fruit - as little as 18 to 20 days at temperatures of 60°F during the day and 45°F at night.
There are a number of cultivars of rabbit-eye blueberries from which to choose, including ones for early, midseason, and late harvest. Consult your local cooperative extension service for the best ones for your area. You'll need to plant more than one cultivar in order for the plants to cross-pollinate and set fruit, for, like lowbush blueberries, they are not self-fertile.
