Grow Healthy, Delicious Blueberries

(Page 3 of 3)

March/April 2009
Cindy Murphy 
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Blueberries benefit from fertilizing with a good, slow-release fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants. Apply in the spring and again in the fall after the leaves have dropped. Espoma’s Hollytone is an excellent choice for the organic gardener.

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Bees pollinate blueberries, and the plants are self-fruitful and do not require cross-pollination. Studies have proven, though, that planting two or more varieties produces larger berries and higher yields.

Beauty as well as benefit

As an ornamental shrub, blueberry bushes have a lot to offer. Taken out of the “soldiers standing in formation” setting that is typical of fruit plantings and placed among other shrubs and perennials, blueberries are a wonderful addition to any home landscape. In spring, graceful, creamy-white, bell-shaped flowers droop from slightly arching branches before the berries begin to form. A blueberry farm in autumn is a feast of color; a fiery mix of crimson, burgundy and orange blazes from row after row. In the ornamental garden, mass plantings provide an eye-popping, gorgeous fall display, or single bushes give a splash of color and look especially beautiful with a backdrop of evergreens.

Thoreau sums up beautifully this wonderful gift that nature offers. “Great blueberries, as big as old-fashioned bullets, alternated or were closely intermingled with the crimson holly-berries and black chokeberries, in singular contrast yet harmony, and you hardly knew why you selected those only to eat, leaving the others to the birds … it is only in some late year that you stumble on some of these places in your neighborhood and stand surprised on the edge of a blueberry preserve, as retired and novel as if it were a thousand miles removed from your ordinary walks, as far off as Persia from Concord.”

Whether grown for its fruit or as an ornamental, blueberries are one of nature’s little gems.

Cindy Murphy lives in South Haven, Michigan, the self-proclaimed Blueberry Capital of the World and home of the National Blueberry Festival. She is an Advanced Master Gardener, Michigan Certified Nurseryman, and she blogs for Grit about life in West Michigan.

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  • Gary 2/14/2009 5:38:15 AM

    I read in India they use a large single tank filled with manure. There is a lid which floats on the mixture. The lid is weighted down with rocks. As the gas fills the lid, the rocks push it down into the mixture which produces the pressure. A small hose is connected to a hole in the center of the lid.

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