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Fruit & Orchards

what size of pot for these patio blueberries?

16 years ago

I have a few blueberry plants on the way, all for keeping in pots on a patio - Dwarf Northsky, Northblue, and Northcountry.

Now I just need to decide on pots and have them ready when the plants get here. About what size pot would be needed? Also, forgive me if this sounds crazy, I'm a newbie gardener ;) but would one BIG pot be feasible? Like a half wine barrel? (I already have one of these I could use, its about a 60 gallon container).

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

juniorpilot
16 years ago
jojomojo:

I use 24" light colored plastic pots. Got mine at HD. They work great. I wouldn't put more than one bush in each pot. Light color is important, IMO, so the summer sun doesn't heat up the pots and burn the roots.

Tony
jojomojo
Original Author
16 years ago
Shows you how much I know about gardenging. I just read a few threads about blueberries in containers and saw that I'm not limited by those descriptions that specifically say for the patio (I really need to keep them in pots rather than in the ground).

So....in addition to my question above, what are some blueberries that do well in containers? I'm in NW New Mexico, zone 5b - anything suited particularly well for my area? I did a search and didn't come up with much. The Northblue and Norhcountry probably haven't been ordered yet (from mom) so I still have time to choose a new variety :)
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My blueberry bush lived in a pot for over 10 years without ever needing repotting. I attribute it's survival to the right soil and fertilizer. I used soil made for acid loving plants (i.e. an azalea mix with peat moss mixed in). Then every year I would top it off with more peat and fertilizer intended for azaleas, camelias, and other acid loving plants. It got half day sun. I also started off with the right kind of blueberry bush for my area, it was a highbush blueberry I bought from a local nursery that knows what grows well in our zone. Don't buy blueberries from catalogs unless you know it will do OK in CA. What kind of soil did you fill the pot with? Have you added fertilizer or perhaps added too much and burned the plant? My plant would occassionaly die back on one limb, for no apparent reason. I would cut off that branch and then it was OK. But I never figured out why a cane (not sure what it's called so I'll use my rose terminology!) would die but it just did and the rest would be fine.
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jojomojo
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks Tony (we were posting at the same time) - I was thinking thats how it would need to be done, each to its own pot but thought I'd ask.
jojomojo
Original Author
16 years ago
Okay....after posting that, saying zone 5b just didn't feel right. Thats what kept coming up in some of those 'submit your zip" searches, so I went with it. So I went searching a bit more - on the arborday site, its saying zones 6-7 which makes much more sense to me! Our winters are a lot milder than it suggests for 5b.

So anyway, to clear that up, depending on where you search, I'm in zones 5/6/7 lol (I should probably have just asked when I called the extension office).

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