BLUEBERRY CARE GUIDE

 Blueberries bring a unique combination of delicious fruit and striking ornamental beauty to the garden and landscape.  Blueberries are easy to grow, require little care, and are seldom bothered by pests.  If a few basic steps are followed, your blueberry plants can thrive and last a lifetime.

Varieties

Blueberry varieties are distinguished by their climate suitability and ripening season.  Be sure to choose varieties suited to your area.  You may want to select varieties that ripen at different times or feature large fruit (best for fresh eating and desserts), or small fruit (best for muffins and pancakes).  Bushes with brilliant fall color or different growth habits offer the gardener lots of choices to use throughout the landscape.  For blueberry lovers, allow at least two plants per family member.

Site Selection and Preparation

Blueberries can tolerate full sun, but prefer a morning sun/afternoon shade location.  Select a site that has well drained soil, is free of weeds, and is well worked.  Locate in an area where irrigation water is available, as best results will be obtained by keeping the root zone moist throughout the growing season.  Where the soil is poor or marginally drained, raised beds 3-4 feet wide and 8-12" high work very well.

     A fail safe way to grow blueberries in almost any soil is to incorporate peat moss into the planting medium.  For planting directly in the ground, work up a planting area approximately 2-1/2 feet in diameter and one foot deep.  Remove 1/3 to 1/2 of the soil.  Add an equal amount of premoistened peat moss and mix well.  One 2 cubic foot compressed bale will usually be sufficient for 4-5 plants.  For raised beds, mix equal volumes peat moss with acid compost or planting mix.  Blueberries thrive in acidic soils.  We recommend a treatment of E.B. STONE pH ADJUSTOR PLUS twice a year to help raise the soil pH.

Spacing

Blueberries can be planted as close as 2-1/2 feet apart to form solid hedgerows, or spaced up to 6 feet apart and grown as individual specimens.  If planted in rows, allow 8 to 10 feet between the rows depending on equipment used for mowing or cultivating.

Planting

For container stock, remove from pot and lightly roughen up the outside surface of the rootball.  Set the top soil line of the plant about 1-2 inches higher than the existing ground, and firm around rootball.  Mound soil up along sides of exposed root mass.  Water in well. For bareroot plants, spread roots out wide and shallow, cover with 1/2" of soil.  Firm soil around roots and water well.

Mulching

Blueberries do best with a 2-4" mulch over the roots to conserve moisture, prevent weeds, and add organic matter.  Bark mulch, or a soil conditioner such as BUMPER CROP, sawdust, etc. all work well.  Repeat every other year.

 Pruning

It is important that blueberries get established before allowing them to bear fruit.  Thereafter, they should be heavily pruned each year to avoid overfruiting which results in small fruit or poor growth.

     Remove all blooms as they appear the first year.  In years thereafter, follow these steps after the leaves have dropped.

1)  Remove low growth around the base.  If it doesn't grow up, it gets pruned out!

2)  Remove the dead wood, and non-vigorous twiggy wood.  Select for bright colored wood with long (at least 3 inch) laterals.  Remove blotchy colored short growth.

3)  If 1/3 to 1/2 of the wood has not been removed by the above steps, thin out the fruiting laterals and small branches until this balance has been obtained.

  

Fertilizing

Blueberries like  acid fertilizers such as Rhododendron or Azalea formulations.  We recommend feeding in spring and mid-summer with DR. EARTH ORGANIC 4 for best results.

The Miracle Blueberry

If you add one food to your diet this year, make it blueberries.  Calorie for calorie, luscious blueberries have recently emerged as the single most ferocious food in the supermarket at halting the forces that age you.  Even the scientists who study blueberries are excited.

Miracle Food for Your Brain?

The most intriguing news about blueberries is this:  "There's a possibility they can actually reverse the loss of short-term memory that happens as we age", says James Joseph, PhD, a USDA scientist at Tufts University. 

     Though the animal studies are still very preliminary, Dr. Joseph calls them "very exciting".  The next step:  to identify the compounds responsible for this effect and eventually test them in humans.

Berry Good For The Eyes?

In Japan, blueberries are known as "the vision fruit" - reputed to help relieve eyestrain - and blueberry sales there have quadrupled in the last two years, says John Sauve, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Association of North America.  That's due in part to research in Europe indicating that European blueberries (bilberries) can improve night vision and help  eyes adjust to bright lights.     At Tufts University, Dr. Ronald L. Prior, director of research, USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, plans to study the ability of blueberries to prevent macular degeneration, a disease of the retina and the leading cause of blindness in people over 65.Holly McCord, RDPrevention Magazine - June 1999 

Blueberries:  The Gift of Health in a Small Package.Recent studies are hailing blueberries as the reigning king of antioxidants, disease fighters that also help slow down the outward and inward effects of aging.     To illustrate their remarkable health potential, Dr. Prior explains that just 1/2 a cup of blueberries can provide as much antioxidant power as 5 servings of other nutritious fruits and vegetables - say peas, carrots, apples, squash and broccoli.  "Of course," he adds, " these foods supply other essential nutrients, so variety is still the key to a healthful diet."  To express it another way, the same 1/2 cup of blueberries packs the antioxidant punch of about 1000 mg vitamin C, a vitamin well known for its antioxidant properties.     Says Dr. Prior, "This research is still in its infancy; the ultimate goal is to see if people are protected from chronic diseases by eating blueberries.  The animal studies that are underway show very promising results.  In the meantime", says Prior, "I'm eating blueberries every day". Ruth Lowenberg, MS, RDLewis & Neale, Inc.  Blueberries Lower Cholesterol.Pectin in fruit fiber may be more important to health-conscious people than the fiber itself.  That's good news for blueberry lovers.     "Blueberries are a good source of pectin", says Andrew Proctor, food chemist in Ohio State University's department of horticulture.  And recent reports show that the pectin in fruit fiber helps lower cholesterol levels in your blood.     "The pectin content of dietary fiber is being shown in medical studies to reduce cholesterol in the bloodstream," he says.  "Fruits and vegetables have pectin that is shown to be able to lower cholesterol in the blood."      Pectin is thought to bind to cholesterol in the digestive system and keep it from getting into the bloodstream.  Proctor is interested in blueberries because they are becoming more popular. About 30 percent of blueberry fiber is pectin. Northland Berry News - Fall '98 Where the Antioxidants Are"With 1/2 cup of blueberries, you can just about double the amount of antioxidants most Americans get in one day", states Ronald Prior, PhD, head of the USDA Phytochemical Laboratory at Tufts and the scientist who discovered the secret power of blueberries. To get the level of antioxidants found in just 1/2 cup of blueberries, you need to eat more - sometimes much more - of other fruits and vegetables:                 

1/2 c. Blueberries = 3/4 c. Strawberries  

1/2 c. Blueberries = 1-1/4 c. Orange Sections

1/2 c. Blueberries = 2-1/4 c. Broccoli Florets 

1/2 c. Blueberries = 2-1/2 c. Chopped Spinach 

1/2 c. Blueberries = 2-2/3 c. Corn  

Source 

USDA Human NutritionResearch Center on Aging at Tufts University 

Move Over Broccoli!New research is pointing to berries as the powerful, new super food champion.  In particular, the humble, all-American blueberry is emerging as the king on antioxidants.     As Prevention's Nutrition Editor, Holly McCord, RD, explains, "Blueberries are the single most ferocious food in the supermarket for halting the forces that age you."     That's right, these sweet little harbingers of summer can help prevent heart disease, cancer, and even wrinkles.  So grab a handful, and start being deliciously good to yourself. Anne Alexander, Editor-in-ChiefFrom the Editor - June 1999 Prevention Magazine