Practical Tips For Growing Blueberries And Blueberries

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Forest guests come to the gardens

Recently, more and more plants have begun to appear in gardens that were previously considered forest or marsh. Increasingly, gardeners and summer residents are planting garden blueberries on plots, especially since now its seedlings are on sale. However, this plant has its own specific requirements for growing conditions. And it's no surprise that sometimes gardeners fail.

First of all, it must be remembered that successful cultivation is possible only if the soil is properly prepared.

The first and most important condition: for the successful cultivation of this crop, the soil must be acidic: pH 4.0-5.0; but not higher than 5.5, otherwise the blueberries will develop chlorosis and die. Most garden soils are not acidic enough to grow cultivated blueberries. And therefore, yellowish leaves soon begin to appear at the planted bushes, the bushes almost stop growing, and then completely die.

The second condition is that the soil must be well water-permeable and air-permeable (i.e. it can be sand, peat, peat-sand mixture, etc.). Very often gardeners think that since blueberries and blueberries grow in swamps, then they need to arrange something similar to a swamp on the site. But this is not the case. Heather plants do not grow in the swamp itself, but on hummocks, and stagnant moisture leads to souring of the roots and death of plants. How can such conditions be achieved?

Choosing a place for the bushes. A prerequisite is to choose the right place where you will plant blueberry bushes. It should be sunny. Protection from the wind is also desirable, especially from the north side. It is a misconception that blueberries and blueberries love shade, since they grow in the forest. For the plant to bear fruit well, choose places that are open to the sun, but protected from the wind. Some partial shade is also possible.

Soil preparation. If the soil on your site is the most common, that is, not acidic, then 5-6 buckets of soil are taken out of the planting pit 40-50 cm deep and 1 m in diameter. The pit is insulated with boards, polyethylene or pieces of tin - only from the sides - the walls of the pit to prevent widespread roots and siltation. If the soil is heavy, clayey, then the bottom of the pit is laid out with small stones, broken red brick, forming a drainage.

The soil from the pits is mixed in a 2: 1 ratio with peat chips, rotted oak leaves, crushed by kitchen cleanings, and even better - with partially rotted pine-spruce needles from the nearby forest. For heavy soils, river sand is also added. All these work must be carried out in a timely manner so that the soil in the pits has time to settle.

We plant heather crops not in a hole, but on a crest. For this, the soil is taken out to a depth of 20-40 cm. The removed soil is scattered around the future landing site. Peat with sand is poured in the form of a mound, and a blueberry bush is planted in its center.

The soil surface around the bush is mulched (the thickness of the mulch layer is 5-8 cm). The mulch layer retains moisture in the root habitat, regulates the temperature of this layer, improves the illumination of the bush, destroys weeds and prevents the development of diseases.

Watering blueberries and blueberries no more than watering beets, carrots, potatoes and other crops.

If your soil is not acidic enough, you can acidify it by adding colloidal sulfur or adding sulfuric acid to the water. The easiest way to do this is to use electrolyte for filling acid batteries. 1 ml of electrolyte per 1 liter of water changes the pH from 7 to 5 units. Watering with such water is not necessary often - 1 time in 7-10 waterings.

There is another option for acidifying the soil: a year before planting the plants, they put powdered sulfur into it (250 g per 1 m² of land) or apply such mineral fertilizers as ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, urea (no more than 20 g), potassium sulfate, nitroammofosk (add no more than 10 g for each square meter).

The main thing is not to overdo it with doses.

Fertilizers. The application of organic fertilization, especially on light, sandy soils, as well as on soils poor in humus, is an important measure for increasing yields of cultivated blueberries. Well-rotted manure, nutrient-rich compost, or peat chips enriched with nutrients such as bird droppings and mineral fertilizers are all suitable for providing organic fertilizers to bushes.

In no case should you use fresh manure (only well-rotted) or lime, as they affect plants.

You can use a complex fertilizer for rhododendrons - a handful in a pit.

Mineral fertilization, along with providing the bushes with nutrients, should also help regulate soil response. On soils with a pH of 4.0 to 5.0, only ammonium sulfate, potassium magnesium sulfate (potassium and magnesium sulfate) and superphosphate should be used.

Among the diseases on blueberries, the following were noted: stem cancer, drying of the tops of shoots, gray rot. To protect plants from them, fungicides are used (euparen, benomyl, rovral, topsinM, cuprozan, etc.) at a concentration of 0.2% (2 g per 1 l of water). Spray several times in the spring before the fruit is formed and in the fall after the harvest (interval 7-10 days).