Imagine picking your own delicious blueberries from the garden next summer. Yum! They are easy to grow, will do well in containers and once the berries are over you get lovely autumnal colours to admire in your garden. Here’s how to grow them:
- Blueberries grow best in soil where the pH is 5.5 or under. You can buy pH test kits at most garden centres. If your soil is unsuitable, then it’s best to grow your blueberries in containers using ericaceous compost.
- If growing in container, start off with a 30-40cm pot and then repot into something larger once the plant outgrows it. It’s a good idea to line the pot with polythene and pierce a few holes at the base – this will help keep moisture content consistent.
- If growing in the ground or in beds, leave 1m between plants.
- Blueberries can be self pollinating (the varieties available at Rocket Gardens are all self-pollinating) which means you only need one plant. Others need to be planted in pairs for pollination. We would always recommend planting in pairs anyway if you have enough space as you really will get a better crop from the cross pollination.
- Don’t be tempted to add well-rotted manure when planting blueberries – it’s too rich for them.
- Make sure you water them during dry spells. If you can, water your blueberries with rainwater from a water butt rather than from a tap.
- Pruning blueberries is easy, you just need to cut off 3 or 4 old stems at the base at the end of each winter. If you notice any particularly eager new stems outgrowing the others, you can cut them back a bit but make sure you leave a couple of healthy buds on.
- You’ll be able to harvest blueberries from mid-summer into early autumn. Pick them regularly and make sure you put nets up to stop the birds from eating them all!
That’s it – they are really quite easy to grow and such a fab fruit to have in the garden. We very much hope you’ll give it a go!