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Fruit & Orchards

when to get/plant bareroot blueberries?

15 years ago

Hi all. Yet another blueberry question here.

The nursery I am planning to order from (Nourse Farms) will let me pick the week I want the blueberries to arrive. I know I need to plant them asap.

What's the best week for them to get planted? Before or after the first frost-free date?

(I'm in south east PA, zone 6, a stone's throw away from Valley Forge Park.)

Thanks for any advice.

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Comments (5)

gmason
15 years ago
Very slightly before the first frost free date.
ajpa
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks!!!
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berry-nut
15 years ago
If you are getting bareroot plants (and they are dormant) you can plant them anytime. They wont break dormancy till it warms up. If you have the right PH that is. If you need to amend the soil PH you might want to wait till you can work the soil. We planted 200 blueberries last fall and it worked out great. We got some of are plants from American Blueberry Company and some from Hartmann's. They were potted plants and the quality of plants from both were excellent. Although we had customer service issues with American Blueberry Company. Hartmann's was a pleasure to do business with.
ajpa
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks! I do need to lower the pH a bit (it is 5.9 now) and the extension office sent me a rec with my soil test.

I'll check out Hartmann's.
athenainwi
15 years ago
I had to wait a bit on the blueberries I planted last year. I needed to amend the soil and the spring rains made the ground unworkable until about the middle of May. So if you need to do some soil prep keep that in mind and maybe get the blueberries sent a little later than you would for other plants. But normally bareroots can go into the ground anytime you can dig a hole and they'll take a late frost just fine because they're still dormant.

If you do end up getting them before you can plant them then you can always stick them in a pot until you're ready.

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