Weve got a blueberry bush (from Aldi) and were wondering if to grow it in a big pot so we can take it in to the greenhouse in the winter or to put it in the garden and wrap it in fleece in the winter ? Has anyone had any success with Blueberries ?
Hi Carl, I bought a bush from Aldi too, in 2010, and this year was the first with a small harvest. Mine grows in a raised bed outside my back door and it gets no extra winter protection. It can be glimpsed growing up a piece of fencing wire used as a trellis in the pics on this thread. My experience is that for a viable crop you really need several bushes because the berries don't all ripen together at once. I've been picking off berries in dribs and drabs for the past 3 weeks. They are tasty though! Regards, Steve
I also bought 2 blueberries from Aldi .I have potted mine into a large trug simply because my back garden waterlogs,everything in pots etc.Also i believe they thrive better in ericacious soil/compost ,which I will be able to control better in a pot.
I'd go further any say it is essential. Thus need to keep in a pot, and buy special ericaceous compost for it, if your soil is alkaline, and probably even if it is neutral.
Blueberries are a great fruit to grow, even a single bush will provide berries over several weeks. Two bushes as has been said will extend the cropping season even further. We've got two of different varieties, we had our first picking this year from one bush on 26th July and the second bush started producing a few ripe berries on Sunday. Our bushes are planted in the ground though I did keep the first one in a pot for a couple of years. The soil in that part of our garden is neutral to just on the acidic side of neutral but when I planted them in the ground I dug two big holes and filled them with ericaceous compost. If you live in a hard water area it's not a good idea to use tap water to water them, the water here is soft but I still use water from a water butt. Blackbirds really love the berries so some netting is essential if you don't want to lose much of the crop. I feed in spring with ericaceous feed and when berries have formed I use comfrey fertiliser and/or tomato fertiliser. As Steve has said winter protection isn't required.
Blueberries only grow in acidic soil.As to winter protection,don't worry about it. Remember,if you live in a chalky area,give them only rainwater. And net them when fruit starts maturing.
I had one in multi purpose compost for years, and it always provided a few berries. Then at the very start of this year I transplanted it, and gave it ericaceous compost. It produced a few more berries than usual, which is a good sign considering its root disturbance only a few months ago. I also bought a few new bushes at the beginning of the year and put them in ericaceous compost too. They're producing berries but only in very small numbers. I'd love to know how you get a decent crop off them.
Clueless - it's probably just a matter of time before you start getting good crops. These are our bushes, the small one is now about 5 years old and the bigger one about 7 years old, maybe a bit older. The small one produces a crop of very large plump berries and seems to be a slower growing variety than the larger bush that produces a big crop of slightly smaller berries. At present we are harvesting every second day and are getting stacks of berries. Berries on the larger bush
I bought a Blueberry Berkley last July . Planted in a container with ericaceous compost , it cropped well last year and this years good crop will be ready in another week Two bushes are supposed to crop more , but DaveW said he did not notice any differnce in crop size with his two. One question ,as usual , mine is growing a little untidily . It it OK to gently prune them ? If so when is the best time ?
we have acid soil - there are rohdodendrons growing on the road side up the lane so it must be good for stuff like that
I love blueberries I have two in pots with eracaceous compost as mention, I didn't fleece the blue crop last winter, that's the one that has gorgeous autumn colours before dropping all its leaves. But the other one I have is semi evergreen and I did fleece that one, I think though it is probably hardy also but maybe not as much as the disciduous one (do we have spell check, I think may have mis-spelt some words). This year bought a bilberry closely related to blueberry, it also likes acid soil and I have that in a pot too. The disadvantages of bilberry is the fruit stains tongue and teeth, the advantages are they are tastier and more nutritious. So what I am doing is mixing a few of the bilberry in with the blueberry for added flavour and nutrition, although all are nutritions of course. The bilberry is a smaller shrub than my blueberry bushes are at the moment so I guess next year it will fruit better as it matures. Link about bilberries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_myrtillus
