growing blueberries other than "in ground"

birdermom · March 26, 2015

I am very interested to know if anyone is having success growing blueberries in any other method besides "in ground". If so, could you please give me some information on how successful it is, varieties, etc. Thanks!

drew51 · March 26, 2015

I grow them in raised beds and in pots. Since I live in the midwest the cultivars I grow will not do wellk where you're at. I guess you want Southern Highbush or rabbiteyes.
You can grow them decent in huge pots, or raised beds where you can control the PH of the soil. With blueberries the PH is everything. You want it about 4.5 to 5.5. I use pine bark fines, and peat moss in raised beds. I add perlite to potted plants other things too, but it is not your typical mix. I like about 3 parts pine fines. Very small nuggets is best. hard to find. 1 part peat, and 1 part perlite. I also add 1 or 2 cups of sulfur. You must water them with rain water or acidified tap water. If you use regular tap water you will slowly raise the PH. Once all is right they grow like weeds. Use acid loving plant fertilizer like Holly-tone, cottonseed meal, ammonium sulfate. Do not fertilize with nitrates. The nitrogen must be ammonium or urea based. They have a hard time with nitrates.
If fertilizer says acid loving, it's fine. I have 7 plants 4 in pots which are 2 years old, 1 that is in a raised bed that is 3 years old, and 2 in raised beds that are 4 years old.

Here is the 3 year old plant it's 2nd year.

birdermom · March 26, 2015

Do your raised beds do "much" better than your pots? Think I could use grow pots? If so, what size would I need.

drew51 · March 26, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by birdermom

Do your raised beds do "much" better than your pots? Think I could use grow pots? If so, what size would I need.

My pots are only a year old hard to say from experience. Talking to other growers they can do well in pots. I know a guy with the handle fruitnut, and he had a 7 year old blueberry in a pot that produced 20 pounds of blueberries! The pot was big but not super huge only 15 to 20 gallons,
Mine are in 25-30 gallon pots. I use a dolly to move them.
The first year I had them in 4 gallon pots. here are three in the fall of the first year. I have since put them all in the 25 gallon pots. I have no plans to go bigger. In 3 or 4 years I will remove, replace soil, and root trim. I'm not going bigger. I may use a root pouch when I refresh soil. In traditional pots now.
Anyway the fall of the first year

When I transferred them I scored the rootball on 4 sides with a knife, and scored an "x" on the bottom. I pruned them back hard too. I probably cut off all fruit buds for this year. But they will establish well in the new pots, and give me a huge crop next year.
I will get about 10 or more pounds from my raised bed plantings anyway. Some of the growth was weak, and such. So the prune should thicken everything up and produce healthy thick canes, and encourage lateral branching.

At first you can grow in smaller pots and slowly move them up. I decided just to go big after the first year. So yes you can grow them in pots, and they will produce. The bigger you can go the more production, but they will survive even thrive in smaller pots. I would get Sunshine Blue, it is a Southern Highbush, compact growth, and good production. They do really well in pots. I don't know of any others like that but you need a few for good pollination. I do know Santa Fe, Springwide, Springhigh, Sweetcrisp, and Southmoon are pretty good tasting plants. Some are very hard to find. They grow kind of big. Some do not like Southmoon, others love it. Sweetcrisp is very unique in that it is very sweet and the firmest flesh of any blueberry, almost like an apple! Emerald is a standard reliable SHB (Southern highbush) type. Fruit is not as good, but better than anything in the stores. .
The new brazelberries are very ornamental, meant to grow in pots. But I don't know anything about taste or production?
Raintree nursery has them. The others can be found at Bay Laurel, or Real Flora nurseries. Many, many other SHB cultivars out there, but I don't know anything about them? You should ask your local extension office which is better to grow rabbiteye, SHB or NHB before buying any. I know lot's of good NHB types.

birdermom · March 27, 2015

Thanks for so much information. I have done a soil sample and I have very acidic soil...just not very large area to plant and it is low, stays wet in the winter. I was thinking if I could do pots that I would be able to move them "here and there". I may do pots for at least the first year while I watch my "sun" areas this year to determine if I can find any area with 6+ hours and then place them in a raised bed. What did you use in your mix for the pots?...it has been recommended that I use peat moss/pine mulch(the small nuggets). Your plants look good, better than most around here in the ground.

shelleybean · March 27, 2015

At my other house, I grew a variety called Sunshine Blue in a half whiskey barrel for several years and it did well as long as I kept the birds off the berries. When we moved, it was so heavy, I just left it there, so I can't show you a picture, unfortunately. It's some kind of dwarf variety for containers, though it needs to be a large container.

drew51 · March 27, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by birdermom

Thanks for so much information. I have done a soil sample and I have very acidic soil...just not very large area to plant and it is low, stays wet in the winter. I was thinking if I could do pots that I would be able to move them "here and there". I may do pots for at least the first year while I watch my "sun" areas this year to determine if I can find any area with 6+ hours and then place them in a raised bed. What did you use in your mix for the pots?...it has been recommended that I use peat moss/pine mulch(the small nuggets). Your plants look good, better than most around here in the ground.

Yes that mix would work, maybe some perlite too.
My exact mix for my blueberries is 3 parts pine fines (no small nuggets around here, this is a coarse mix) 1 part peat. 1 part coarse perlite(huge pieces) 1 part diatomaceous earth perlite size pebbles, 1 cup sulfur 1 tbsp azomite, 1 tbsp humic acid, and on top some holly-tone. I think I added 1 cup rock phosphate too, had some around.

birdermom · March 27, 2015

In your mix....what is your "part"....5 gallon bucket, etc. because I was thinking that the amount of the other sulfur, azomite, etc, may change according to how much mix I was preparing? Is this so?

birdermom · March 27, 2015

Oh...and one of the blueberries I got was Sunshine Blue. I should have researched better before impulsive buying and gotten more of this variety since it is reported to be "dwarf" or container good.

drew51 · March 27, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by birdermom

In your mix....what is your "part"....5 gallon bucket, etc. because I was thinking that the amount of the other sulfur, azomite, etc, may change according to how much mix I was preparing? Is this so?

Yes, i was not thinking of that!! Yes 5 gallon bucket

habitat_gardener · April 22, 2016

My blueberry plants are still in pots, and it doesn't look like I will find a place to plant them in the ground, so I'm looking into fabric pots.

I think the black plastic pots get too hot, so I've planted a couple of them in double pots, with a layer of mulch in-between the pots. If you are growing in fabric pots, do they also get too hot?

I was thinking I could handle 10 or maybe 15g fabric pots. I will want to move them around under the trees, to follow the sun.

As far as I know, pine bark/ pine fines are not available here. I wonder if more peat would be an ok substitute.

Cole_Robbie · April 22, 2016

My dad is eyeing retirement. We are thinking about planting a blueberry patch on his property.

Barb_FL · April 23, 2016

I would not use fabric pots because blueberry plants live a long time and the fabric containers don't.

I have 2 Sunshine Blue plants; both in a container; it is a dwarf plant that only required 150 chill hours (# of hours < 45 degrees).

It takes the plant several years to produce any sizable amount of berries. Last year was my first year where I could get 1 cup of blueberries at a time. This spring it will be interesting to see what kind of production since we didn't have anywhere close to 150 hours < 45 degrees.

BTW - Last fall I bought 2 Sunshine Blue Plants from Etsy; they were a nice size but they are not Sunshine Blue. I did have my doubts that they would be genuine b/c no one had them for months.

Also, Baker's Creek has small blueberry plants (they are different depending on zones); you get 2, shipping is only $3.50. I went ahead and ordered them and one was a Pink Lemonade (easy to find), and the other was Misty (too many chill hours).

If you live in a warm climate I highly recommend Sunshine Blue.

March 26, 2015	#1
birdermom Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Virginia Posts: 116	growing blueberries other than "in ground" I am very interested to know if anyone is having success growing blueberries in any other method besides "in ground". If so, could you please give me some information on how successful it is, varieties, etc. Thanks!

March 26, 2015	#2
drew51 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Sterling Heights, MI Zone 6a/5b Posts: 1,302	I grow them in raised beds and in pots. Since I live in the midwest the cultivars I grow will not do wellk where you're at. I guess you want Southern Highbush or rabbiteyes. You can grow them decent in huge pots, or raised beds where you can control the PH of the soil. With blueberries the PH is everything. You want it about 4.5 to 5.5. I use pine bark fines, and peat moss in raised beds. I add perlite to potted plants other things too, but it is not your typical mix. I like about 3 parts pine fines. Very small nuggets is best. hard to find. 1 part peat, and 1 part perlite. I also add 1 or 2 cups of sulfur. You must water them with rain water or acidified tap water. If you use regular tap water you will slowly raise the PH. Once all is right they grow like weeds. Use acid loving plant fertilizer like Holly-tone, cottonseed meal, ammonium sulfate. Do not fertilize with nitrates. The nitrogen must be ammonium or urea based. They have a hard time with nitrates. If fertilizer says acid loving, it's fine. I have 7 plants 4 in pots which are 2 years old, 1 that is in a raised bed that is 3 years old, and 2 in raised beds that are 4 years old. Here is the 3 year old plant it's 2nd year. Last edited by drew51; March 26, 2015 at 07:44 PM.

March 27, 2015	#6
shelleybean Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Virginia Beach Posts: 2,648	At my other house, I grew a variety called Sunshine Blue in a half whiskey barrel for several years and it did well as long as I kept the birds off the berries. When we moved, it was so heavy, I just left it there, so I can't show you a picture, unfortunately. It's some kind of dwarf variety for containers, though it needs to be a large container. __________________ Michele

April 22, 2016	#11
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,543	My blueberry plants are still in pots, and it doesn't look like I will find a place to plant them in the ground, so I'm looking into fabric pots. I think the black plastic pots get too hot, so I've planted a couple of them in double pots, with a layer of mulch in-between the pots. If you are growing in fabric pots, do they also get too hot? I was thinking I could handle 10 or maybe 15g fabric pots. I will want to move them around under the trees, to follow the sun. As far as I know, pine bark/ pine fines are not available here. I wonder if more peat would be an ok substitute.

April 22, 2016	#12
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	My dad is eyeing retirement. We are thinking about planting a blueberry patch on his property.

April 23, 2016	#13
Barb_FL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Indialantic, Florida Posts: 2,000	I would not use fabric pots because blueberry plants live a long time and the fabric containers don't. I have 2 Sunshine Blue plants; both in a container; it is a dwarf plant that only required 150 chill hours (# of hours < 45 degrees). It takes the plant several years to produce any sizable amount of berries. Last year was my first year where I could get 1 cup of blueberries at a time. This spring it will be interesting to see what kind of production since we didn't have anywhere close to 150 hours < 45 degrees. BTW - Last fall I bought 2 Sunshine Blue Plants from Etsy; they were a nice size but they are not Sunshine Blue. I did have my doubts that they would be genuine b/c no one had them for months. Also, Baker's Creek has small blueberry plants (they are different depending on zones); you get 2, shipping is only $3.50. I went ahead and ordered them and one was a Pink Lemonade (easy to find), and the other was Misty (too many chill hours). If you live in a warm climate I highly recommend Sunshine Blue.