How to plant blueberries on the site and provide them with proper care?

Growing berry bushes in summer cottages has long become a tradition, but some of them are only gaining popularity among gardeners. Such is the blueberry, planting and caring for which have their own characteristics. You will have to pay a lot of attention to the shrubs in the garden, but it will pay off handsomely when the time comes to harvest delicious sweet and sour berries. Not only blueberry fruits have healing properties, but also its branches and leaves. Reproduction of this amazingly useful plant will not cause difficulties even for novice gardeners.

Blueberry varieties

The types and varieties of blueberries are varied. Its uncultivated specimens are undersized. Their height ranges from 40-100 cm. Wild blueberries are widespread in the northern regions. It prefers moist, swampy soils of coniferous forests and peatlands, where it forms dense thickets.

Growing wild specimens of culture in a summer cottage is a pointless exercise. For these purposes, it is better to use seedlings of hybrid shrub varieties. The answer to the question why is obvious. Preserving the beneficial properties of forest blueberries, they bring more harvest, have larger berries, are more decorative and are less affected by diseases and pests. Among them there are also undersized varieties that are ideal for breeding in the Urals and Siberia. They are not afraid of severe frosts, they are not damaged even under a thick layer of snow.

Bushes of tall garden blueberries stretch up to 2-4 m. It originates from North America. In our country, it is more common in the southern regions. The climate of Siberia is too harsh for her, although she can be grown in the open field in the Urals, if you responsibly approach the preparation of her bushes for wintering: bend the branches to the ground and carefully cover them with spruce branches. The narrow-leafed Canadian blueberry is becoming more and more popular with gardeners. It is surprisingly unpretentious, generous in harvest and has increased frost resistance.

The most common varieties of tall blueberry are:

• Bluecrop;
• Nelson;
• Rankocas;
• Patriot;
• Northland;
• Weymouth.

On an industrial scale, the Bluerop and Patriot varieties are most often grown. You can plant them in the country. Both varieties are distinguished by high productivity and unpretentiousness to keeping conditions.

Site requirements

For the berries of the plant to gain sweetness, they need a lot of heat and light. Therefore, planting garden blueberries is optimal in places open to sunlight. It should be borne in mind that the shrub reacts poorly to drafts. The site should be carefully protected from them by walls of buildings or a hedge of trees. Bluecrop and Patriot varieties can grow in the shade, their leaves will not suffer from it, but in this case, the berries collected from them will turn out to be sour. The lack of light will also negatively affect their quantity.

For blueberries, loose, well-drained land with low groundwater levels is preferred. It will be correct to plant it on peaty-sandy or peaty-loamy soils. It is worth remembering that such soil is rich in nitrogen. Due to the increased content of this element, plants may freeze in winter, and with the arrival of spring, their thawing will take longer than usual. The shrub develops well exclusively in acidic soil with a pH in the range of 3.5-4.5.

It is important that no other crops have been bred before on the site where blueberries are to be planted.If there is no such site in the garden, the soil suitable for the shrub will have to be prepared independently according to the following rules.

• Loamy soil is diluted with sand and high-moor peat, mixed in a ratio of 1: 3.
• Sand is added to acidic peat soil at the rate of 2-3 buckets per 1 m².
• If the land on the site contains little organic fertilizers, complex mineral preparations containing equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are introduced into it.
• The same mineral elements necessary for the full development of blueberries are added to the soil enriched with humus, but in a ratio of 1: 2: 3.

Selection and preparation of planting material

Reproduction of garden blueberries can be done in spring or autumn. Professionals advise not to postpone the procedure until September and here's why. In summer, in favorable weather conditions for the shrub, its seedlings will root well, gain strength and get stronger so that the winter cold will not be terrible for them. When planting plants in autumn, the risk of freezing is much higher.

In order for the cultivation of blueberries on the site to be successful, it is important to choose the right variety. You need to focus on the features of the local climate and the ripening time of berries of a particular variety. For growing in regions of the middle lane, early or mid-season crop species (Bluecrop, Patriot, Weymouth) are suitable.

A guarantee of good survival rate of blueberry bushes on the site is high-quality planting material. It is recommended to purchase it in specialized stores or nurseries. It is better to choose seedlings whose roots are covered with soil, growing in a pot or other container. The transshipment method for planting them in a permanent place will not work. In order for the shrub to quickly take root and further fully develop, its roots will need to be carefully straightened in the hole.

Advice

15 minutes before planting blueberries in the ground, place a container with it in water. Then the future bush is removed from the pot and the soil ball is gently kneaded, straightening the roots. Only after such preparation can it be planted in the ground.

In the spring, it is important not to be late with planting dates. The procedure must be carried out before the buds of the plant swell.

Landing scheme

Seedlings of tall blueberries are placed in pre-prepared pits. Their width should be 0.6 m and their depth 0.5 m. The distance between the holes depends on the selected plant variety. Small varieties of blueberry will need a spacing of 0.5 m. Medium and tall varieties (Bluecrop, Patriot and the like) will need more space. The spacing between adjacent plants is made equal to 1 m and 1.2 m, respectively. The optimum row spacing is 3–3.5 m.

Correct agrotechnology of blueberry variety Bluecrop involves loosening the soil at the bottom and on the walls of the pit. It will facilitate the passage of air to the roots of the plant.

The pit is filled with an acidic substrate consisting of a mixture of the following components:

• high-moor peat;
• needles;
• sawdust;
• sand;
• 50 g of sulfur.

Fertilizers, especially organic ones, do not need to be added to it. The substrate is compacted, then the seedling is lowered into the hole and, having well spread the roots of the plant, is covered with soil. If everything is done correctly, the root collar of the bush should be deepened by 3 cm. The planting is completed by watering and mulching the surface of the pit. It is recommended to use coniferous sawdust, small straw, chopped bark or peat for this. The thickness of the mulch layer must be at least 12 cm.

In the fall, the shrub is planted in the same way as in the spring. If the plant is less than 1 year old, weak and damaged branches are removed from it after being placed in the ground. Only healthy and strong shoots are left on young blueberries, which are shortened by half. Saplings of Bluerop, Patriot and others varieties that have reached 2 years of age do not need additional processing after planting.

Watering and feeding

Blueberry farming techniques are pretty simple.During the growing season, the soil around the shrub must be periodically loosened. Too often it is not recommended to carry out the procedure, otherwise there is a high risk of overdrying the plant. Loosening should only affect the topsoil (about 8 cm). If you do it deeper, you can damage the roots of the shrub, which develop in a horizontal direction and are located close to the soil surface. The soil under the plants must always be covered with a layer of mulch; loosening is carried out without removing it. It is necessary to add mulching material every 2-3 years. Blueberry variety Bluecrop does not tolerate the neighborhood of weeds, so you need to carefully monitor the cleanliness of the plantings.

The plant is hygrophilous, but prolonged (more than 2 days) stagnation of water at its roots can lead to the death of the bush. Water the blueberries correctly as follows:

• twice a week;
• twice during the day: early in the morning and late in the evening, when the sun has already set;
• 1 bucket of water for each plant.

Timely watering is extremely important at the stage of laying flower buds - in July-August. A lack of moisture at this time will lead to a reduction in yield and a decrease in the quality of berries. It will affect the next year as well. If the summer turned out to be sultry, watering alone will not work, you will have to additionally spray the blueberry leaves to prevent the plant from overheating. The procedure is carried out in the morning or late in the evening, when the heat subsides.

The shrub reacts well to mineral fertilizers: ammonium sulfate, potassium sulfate, zinc sulfate, magnesium sulfate, superphosphate. It is better to introduce them in early spring, when the plant begins to flow and the buds swell. Organic compounds will only harm blueberries. Nitrogen-containing preparations are applied three times per season: in early spring, in May, when the shrub is intensively growing its leaves, and in June. The plant needs phosphorus in summer and autumn. Magnesium, potassium and zinc are necessary for him in small quantities, they enrich the soil with them once a year.

Advice

The plantings must be periodically carefully examined in order to detect signs of disease and pests in time. If the leaves of the plant change color, turn yellow or turn red, become covered with spots, you should be alert.

Reproduction methods

Reproduction of any of the blueberry varieties, including the most popular Bluecrop, can be carried out in the following ways:

• seeds;
• cuttings;
• layering;
• dividing the bush.

Seeds are usually sown in the fall. Spring planting is also possible, but in this case you cannot do without their 3-month stratification in the refrigerator. The seeds are laid out in grooves and sprinkled with a mixture of 1 part peat and 3 parts sand. The layer of nutrient substrate above them should be 1 cm. They will give amicable shoots if the air is warmed up to 23-25˚C, and its humidity is at least 40%.

Agrotechnics of young blueberry shoots include periodic moistening and loosening of the soil and removal of weeds. The next spring, the seedlings are fed with nitrogen-containing preparations. It will be possible to land them on a permanent place in 2 years. They will begin to bear fruit only 7-8 years after sowing.

Most often, shrub propagation is carried out by cuttings. It is better to cut them from the thickest shoots: they will give roots faster. Their length should be 8-15 cm.After cutting, the cuttings are placed for a month in a cool place where the temperature does not rise above 1-5˚C, and then planted at an angle into a substrate of peat and sand, deepening by 5 cm. blueberries by dividing the bush. It is dug up and cut into pieces so that each of them has a rhizome 5-7 cm long. Additional preparation is not required for the delenks, they are immediately planted on a permanent site.

Pruning and possible difficulties

The successful cultivation of blueberries is impossible without regular pruning of the shrub, which helps to increase its yield and decorativeness. It is better to carry out the procedure in early spring, when the sap flow has not yet begun.Maintenance pruning can be done at any time. Sick branches and severely damaged leaves must be removed and burned immediately.

If blueberry bushes bloom in the first year of life, the buds are cut off so that the plant develops correctly. At 2-4 years of age, a strong skeleton is formed in them, removing weak branches, as well as branches damaged by diseases or frost. It is necessary to get rid of the shoots that lie on the ground, and the root growth.

All blueberry varieties, and Blyukrop are no exception, are susceptible to fungal diseases. The appearance of the bush will signal about them. If its leaves turn red, this is cause for concern. Most likely, the plant was struck by a dangerous disease - stem cancer. Excessive moisture in the soil can provoke it. These symptoms can also occur with improper blueberry care. Its leaves often turn red when the branches dry or if the plant lacks minerals: nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium.

American and Canadian garden blueberries are deservedly considered one of the most valuable berry bushes. She has a lot of advantages. Among them are high yield, an abundance of useful properties of all parts of the plant, unpretentiousness, cold resistance, durability. It's scary to imagine, but its bushes live and bear fruit up to 90 years!

The culture's ability to withstand adverse weather conditions allows it to be grown almost everywhere. You can meet a shrub in the USA, Western Europe, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, in the middle lane and even in the northern regions of Russia. Blueberry care is not difficult. If you follow the recommendations for growing a crop, it will consistently bring a rich harvest.