Huge BlueBerry Plants

12 years ago

This 25 acre blueberry farm is not far from me in the state of Oregon. The plants are unreal! My friend in the pictures is 6'3", some of the plants are 8' tall. They have lots of varieties, Reka, Toro, Darrow, Duke, Chandler, etc. The pictures really don't show how large these plants are, most are probably 5' wide and have buckets of berries on them. The berries are huge! Three times the size of the berries I have on my plants.

The soil on this farm is about neutral, they started with sulfur for a year then planted. The well water has a pH of between 8 and 9 so sulfuric acid is added as needed. The base of the plants is as big as your wrist on some of the plants. The plants are about 7 years old.

Here is a link to the pictures, enjoy.

Here is a link that might be useful: orchard plants

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

blueboy1977
12 years ago
Sweet, Ive been wanting to do the same here in the Houston area. We have a few pick your own operations on the north side and the bushes are bigger than those! They have been around for over 25 years though and most are the rabbiteye variety. Pretty cool stuff;)
alan haigh
12 years ago
Thank you RM. Now at least some here will believe me when I say that blueberries can thrive without maintaining soil pH between 4.5 and 5.5 as the literature always states. Did you ask the owners about this and what their management methods are? What's the soil like?
Related Discussions
Blue Berry Pics
Q
Comments (10)
The raised beds are 3ft X 3ft X 10in high with a mix of mostly peat moss with 2 1/2 bags (50lbs each) of Natures Way Resources Blue Berry Mix and little bit of pine bark mulch. Its also topped with 3in or so of pine bark mulch. I also added sulfer and cottonseed meal when mixing it all together. 2 of the potted plants have 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 soil conditioner (composted pine material), 1/3 pine bark. And one potted plant has all the same plus some perlite I had laying around that needed to be used. They all seem to enjoy there home for now. I have some burnt tips on the new growth on all the plants at one time or another. Not to sure whats its from either. Was thinking maybe lack of water or water quailty? Im using municiple city water acidified with sulfuric acid to ph5. I have noticed that some of the new tip growht that gets rubbed other branches from the wind will get this burnt look to it. Attached is a picture that was caused from rubbing against another branch untill grew past it. Some other ones though Im not to sure about.
...See More
southland blue berry
Q
Comments (0)
does any one have this type i bough 27 nice plants today any would like to know about the flavor an plants iam going to plant with power blue for late berry
...See More
Blue berries but clearly not blueberries
Q
Comments (5)
Looks like Ligustrum. The berries are supposedly inedible, although they may contain some medicinal extracts. And otherwise, the plant is considered invasive. Here is a link that might be useful: Ligustrum
...See More
Very nice woodland plant with blue berries
Q
Comments (4)
I agree with Carol's id of smilax herbacea. I allow a few of them to grow along the margins of my woodland because I find the dried berries useful in dried arrangements. It can be somewhat invasive if conditions are too much to its liking. spidewoman
...See More
michelelc
12 years ago
Wow, that's inspiring, thanks for posting it! I've got to get to work on adding sulfer before planted next spring.
riverman1
Original Author
12 years ago
The soil is silt loam. The orchard is built on a floodplain so lots of river rock about the size of your fist. Almost zero organic matter so far as I can see. They have a drip irrigation system that also provides sulfuric acid. I asked him about pH and he said his soil is getting "too low" right now so they are backing off the acid. He also said that a pH of 6.2 is "just fine". I really had no idea that blueberry plants could get this large. Two days ago they picked 10,000 pounds on a small part of the farm.The plants are so loaded with berries you could easily fill a gallon bucket in 15 minutes.

RM
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
12 years ago
RM:

Your plants won't take 7 years to get that big at the rate they are growing. But in pots they'll slow down at some point. I do have a Star still going strong and almost that big in a pot.

My blueberry fruit in pots has been as big as I've seen anywhere, store bought or Upick. If the fruit gets too small, prune more. That can improve size and quality by increasing leaf to fruit ratio.

Most importantly to me, how did the fruit taste?
riverman1
Original Author
12 years ago
Fruitnut,

The folks that own the orchard very kindly gave me a "tasting tour" yesterday and I was very surprised at how much difference there is between varieties. Until yesterday, I thought "a blueberry was a blueberry" but I was wrong! We started on one row then moved to the next and the next. Reka has a tart flavor, something like a huckleberry which I really like. Toro was much sweeter, I liked it too. Some varities were actually too sweet for my liking, Olympia for example. Duke was kind of run of the mill but still good. I probably tried at least 10 different varieties and there was a huge difference in the taste from one to the next.........most were excellent though.

I'm not sure a plant as big as these could be grown in a pot, maybe I'm wrong but these plants are huge! Like I said, some are 8 feet tall and probably 5 feet wide, they are huge! I can't imagine a plant getting that large in a pot but again, maybe I'm wrong. I was in the orchard again this morning, the amount of berries is phenomenal. He said they get 6000 to 7000 pounds per acre after the birds, deer, and turkeys take their share.

RM
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
12 years ago
Last year I got 15 lbs off a potted 15 gallon Star. It occupies an area about 5ft by 5ft. If you allow an area 6ft by 8ft for walking room that figures out to 13,600 lbs per acre. So don't sell potted blueberries short.

Can you name any other varieties that were really sweet? My experience is that really sweet is more a matter of hang time, ie maturity, than anything else. But outdoors in OR might be different.
riverman1
Original Author
12 years ago
I will ask tomorrow Fruitnut......I see the owners of the farm almost every day.

RM