Bluecrop Blueberry Bush

Peat Moss Planted
We take care to use sterile sphagnum peat moss and perlite mix to start our plants out and keep them healthy. Blueberries are most at home in bogs. There the soil is light and loamy. This allows the roots to grow easily and send new canes quickly to rejuvenate the bush. In Kentucky, we recommend your Kentucky clay soil be mixed with the peat/pearlite mix to give roots a transition space and happy place to grow. We sell peat and pearlite here at the farm! Call for pricing.

Blueberry plants grow in a variety of climates and soil types. Many of the issues you may face will be regional. Here in Kentucky we have a clay/rock soil, so the most important things to do here is to plant your new plant in a peat/pearlite mixture. If you are pot planting, you can use a fifty/fifty peat pearlite mix, if you are soil planting, make sure you have good drainage, then mix the
peat/pearlite into the soil in a one foot deep four foot by four foot area. This will allow the roots to grow without strain and allow the bush to rejuvenate at a high rate.

Care
For the home gardener, Miracle-Gro® Miracid is easy and works well. All you have to do is follow the directions and treat about once a month starting at bloom and ending at fruit.  A good rule of thumb is to not fertilize after July 1.  This will cause a flush of late growth that will not harden off before winter and cause dieback on your plant.

The leaves will speak to you.  If they are a veiny-yellow on the new growth, they need water and/or nutrition. If you notice anything strange on the leaves or dieback, it is most likely a fungus. You can treat  fungus with Captan, or any like fungicide.  Their is a plethora of information online about blueberry care and you can check out our blog for more information as well.  For the birds, netting is a practical deterrent, but there are many things you can try: distress calls, owls, sprays, or balloons.

When your bush gets to be about four years old, you will want to begin pruning. Take out about one cane per year, or anything over one inch thick that looks barky and unproductive.  Cut the old cane back as low as you can to the crown.  We use a lopper (a long handled pruner) and do this in February while the bush is dormant.  This reduces the exposure of live wood to fungus (more prevalent in the spring).

If you have any questions, feel free to call us or come and see us!  Thanks!