All sounds good except you did not mention pH. You need to add sulphur to the bed to get to pH 4.5 or thereabouts. You need a pH meter or papers to verify you indeed lowered the pH to the desired level. I don't know about the 1 vs 3 gallon issue. You can space them as close as 2' and as far as 6'. Closer gives you a nice looking hedge and more berries sooner; further is the standard commercial method.

Scott

I'm new to growing bluberries too, but last spring I purchased two from Starkbro's from their end-of-season clearance. They came in 3.5 inch pots, tiny little twigs, and I thought that it would be years before they would fruit. But I planted them in pots in normal miracle gro potting soil tried to remember to water them on hot days, and boom! They are now bushes about 2 feet in diameter, covered with buds. So apparently they grow very fast in the right conditions. I've never bothered with the pH, though I know that probably should check it now that they are in the ground!

Happy gardening!

Rachel

See Finch blueberries website. They not only have great plants, but good info! :)

I'm new to blueberries, but here's the research I've done. If you're doing high bush varieties, they need about 4 feet of space between the plants and they'll grow around 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I have two in a raised bed 4 feet apart and got 3 year old ones. Make sure you get multiple varieties to cross polinate or you won't get good production.

Plant in 1/3 peat moss to soil and fertilize with an acidic version. I plan on using Miracle Grow for Acid Loving Plants. Another technique is to multch with pine needles. I used acidic beauty bark.

I have problems with weeds because the native soil I planted in was a weed infested failed tulip garden. Apparently since blueberries have shallow roots they don't compete well with weeds. I'll have to get out there when the snow melts and weather dries up a bit. Grr weeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden and blueberry experience

Our local Home Depot sells bare-rooted blueberries at only $4.97 each. The plants are quite big for their price. Excellent deal.

The trick is to apply lots of sulfur in the top 5" of soil where you are going to place your peat moss or pine needles or other mulches. Sulfur can maintain the proper acidity which can last a couple of years. It primarily depends on your soil pH on how much to apply. After the soil sulfur application, follow up with ammonium sulfate and other acidifying fertilizers (like those for azalea) that contain iron and other minor nutrients.

The last tip that I can give you is to not use the point drip emitters. Rather use the microsprayers connected into your drip line. The microsprayers spreads the water over larger root area and time it for shallow watering depth. The point drip emitters do not cover a lot of shallow root area. The blueberries will love you for an automated watering with microsprayers.

Contact your County Extension Agent for a free soil test kit. They will mail it to you. Just follow the instructions for taking the sample and mail it back to them. They will contact you with the results and you will know exactly what and how much needs to be added to the soil for correcting PH and nutrient problems and how to ammend the soil composition if necessary. Just search for your county and state followed by the words "extension agency" and give them a call. Remember they will test your soil and you can request blueberry growing info from them for free.

NAFEX List has just done a round about blueberries and acid and several people voiced experiences (myself included) contradicting the conventional wisdom and literature that blueberries only thrive in a very acid soil. I've managed several very healthy and productive blueberry plots that I inheritded with pH's in the mid 6's. These plots were well mulched and had rich soil high in organic matter.

I'm curious what constitutes a good sized Lowes' plant? I saw some this week (and got 3 different varieties they had available) the main stem sticking out of the bag was about 10 inches long I'm guessing...and a single stem...Of course, I'll get them in and see what comes.

I'd just as well purchase them all from Lowe's since the lady selling them is a distance away from me....IF I knew that what I was getting would be adequate. They say on the bags that they are 2 years old....so have them been cut way back in order to package them? Is that what that means? It would seem unreasonable to think that it took 2 years to grow one single small stem....