Northern Blue Berries

[Jeff]

Tammy and I decided to start our own patch. I hoped to find a couple bushes to put in this fall, but no luck.  Im figuring a total of 12 high bush plants. They will have to be fenced somehow.

Using the backhoe for this was fun. Stacy got a chance to play awhile. I used to let her drive the case w-14 we had at the mill when she was just a kid.

That 3pt landscape rake I have does a great job cleaning up.



 

 

 

 

[barbender]

Are you going with domesticated plants, or some wild ones, Jeff? I started a patch of wild ones once with just cuttings off of wild plants. They root very easily since they spread by runners anyhow.

[Resonator]

Just to be sure I'd check the soil PH is high enough, blueberries need acidic soil for best results.

[Jeff]

I have to amend the soil every year but only at the plant. My neighbor down the road is my teacher and example. I picked 4 quarts off of just one of his bushes this last August, after everyone else was done picking. I think he has around 20 bushes.

These will not be wild.

[Onthesauk]

Bears use to sit down in the middle of the patch, on top of plants and all, and eat everything he could eat.  F&G brought in a trap for about 10 days but could never catch them.

[Jeff]

Everything needs to be defended here.

[Ianab]

Bears use to sit down in the middle of the patch, on top of plants and all, and eat everything he could eat.  F&G brought in a trap for about 10 days but could never catch them.

Bear was too well fed with berries to be suckered into a trap?
Probably need a NZ spec electric fence controller. Our old one was rated for 5 miles of Elephant fence. If it got shorted out, you could almost feel the pulses going to the ground wires.

[SwampDonkey]

Deer, grouse, coons, red fox, and bears are all preparing. :D

It will probably take about 3 years before they really set a lot of fruit.

The wild ones here either grow on glacial sand or wet ground. There is a dirt cross road over toward Renous that is jack pine land. They cleared the pines off and manage the wild blueberries that came. I think it was started around 1980. It's like a sand dune that forested itself, but it's glacial. Some of the best wild berry picking I had was on jack pine land that burned down. Sit on a stump and pick a bucket full. :D

[thecfarm]

Blue berries do not like good soil.
I had a field of low bush ones. Had about an inch of good soil then nothing. 

[Jeff]

Donk, you left out the biggest threat. Jack Rabbits. Varying Hares.

[Resonator]

Now if it was blueberry ice cream, he'd wrestle a bear to defend it. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Never seen the hares bother them, but voles will get into straw if mulched around for winter and gurdle the bushes in winter. Hares will eat the new tender leaves I guess. ;D

On the rare occasion I get a hare around the house. The first winter at the new house one came through on fresh snow one night. Never saw another track in the yard since. Up at the woodlot there are a few, followed by the coyotes. :D

[maple flats]

Having grown blueberries for over 40 years, I have some suggestions. First, check your PH, based on what shows in your picture my guess is the your PH is good for blueberries. It needs to be in the 4.2 to 5.2 range. A blueberry can not take up nitrogen unless it's in the ammonium state. If you are looking for a really good variety, try some Chandler. They are a later variety helping them miss most late spring frosts when in bloom, the grow large sweet berries and their harvest period is longer than most other varieties. If planted now, you will start getting berries in 2-3 years and by year 8 they will be fully mature.
If you need to adjust the PH, do it now, Down- use Sulphur, up use lime. I highly doubt you are going to be too low, but use some Sulphur if you need to go lower. If lower PH is called for, add some sulphur now and don't plant until spring . If PH is in the right range, you can plant now.
While there are lots of high bush blue berry varieties, I've found the Chandler to be among the best.
Once planted, use no fertilizer until a year after planting, then add 1 oz per bush for each year old the bush is until 8 yrs old, then stay with 8oz each year, all applied in early spring. You are too far north to split the application into 2 times, like New Jersey does. If your PH was above 5.0 use Ammonium Sulfate for fertilizer every year, if you wer below 5.0PH, use a triple 10. Then once every 4-5 years add 1/2oz of magnesium to the fertilizer when applying, that's per bush.
Once growing if you want more specific fertilizing recommendations, send leaf samples to Michigan Cooperative or the state land grant college, they will give you exact amounts to apply based on their leaf analysis.
In my experience 2 yr bushes seem to do as well as 3 year old ones, and they cost less. In fact if you are looking for very long term, 1 yr rooted cuttings do well, but they will take a year longer to start producing fruit.

[Brad_bb]

Man that's cruel, a bonanza of sweet blueberries that the bears have to look at, and an electric fence that will never let them touch them.  Sounds like that Greek story....Tantalus.

[Ljohnsaw]

Maple Flats, looking up soil PH testing, I see some dual probe meters you just stick in the ground. Are those accurate? I was thinking I had to send a soil sample somewhere. I planted 4 different varieties and I think I got a second crop on two!