Grow Blueberries
in Containers
with Ed Laivo

Backyard Orchard Culture
what it means...

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A Native American plant, the Blueberry is almost the perfect fruit: beautiful, ornamental, easy to grow, and it has the highest concentration of antioxidants and lycopine of any fruit. Blueberries are good for you!

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Blueberries
from North of Boston
published 1914
by Robert Frost

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emerald-small For years, the blueberry has been a northern-grown plant requiring all the climate conditions that much of California doesn't have: high winter chill, mild summer temperatures with high humidity and low-PH soils. This is no longer the case!

—Blueberry Advice—

Ed Laivo

        Ed image

Ed’s Picks:
Fruit Tree Selections
for the Northwest
and Colder Climates

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Tom Spellman

        Tom Picture

Tom's Picks:
Fruit Tree Selections
for the Southwest

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Multiple Planting
of Fruit Varieties
for Sucessive Harvest

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Master Fruit Tasters
can help select the best suited, best tasting varieties for your backyard.

Reveille

It's time to grow Blueberries!

Check out the new low-chill varieties and try some great new ideas on how to grow them!

For the past 10 years there has been a storm of new introductions coming out of the southern states. These more adaptable varieties are called Southern Highbush blueberries and meet most of the requirements for growing in the western climates.

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These great-flavored varieties are well adapted to the low-chill west and have a high summer heat tolerance.

An excellent blueberry to plant this season is the Southmoon.

This is an early-bearing, fine-tasting blueberry and the only one in my collection of 20 varieties that didn’t show leaf burn this past HOT! season.

Because it’s early,
Southmoon is the perfect compliment
to a mid- or late-season variety.

The O'Neal was one of the first Southern Highbush types introduced in California for home gardeners and it still is a first choice with a fine quality berry.

Other new varieties to look for include Sharpblue, Sunshine Blue and Misty.

Remember: Blueberries will yield a much bigger crop when paired with another variety. I find the new Southern Highbush varieties to be tastier than the old Northern Highbush selections. There is such a great selection of adapted-to-low-chill varieties, that I would avoid the Northern Highbush varieties completely unless you are sure you have the climate conditions to suit them.

emerald-smallTo make growing Blueberries easier,
Do NOT Plant them in the ground!!

  • Blueberries make a wonderful container plant.
  • Very ornamental as well as productive when grown in a container.
  • See: Growing Blueberries in Containers from Ed Laivo

The trick is the soil mix. Blueberries like a low PH of 4.5 to 6.0 with 5.5 being optimal. But they also like to grow in actively decomposing organic matter.

Soil Sulfer needed to achieve 4.5 pH
(in teaspoons per cubic foot of soil mix)
pH Sand Loam Clay
5.0 0.5 1.5 2.3
5.5 1.0 3.0 4.5
6.0 1.4 4.3 6.5
6.5 1.8 5.6 8.4
7.0 2.5 7.5 11.3

Here is a mix that has been very successful for me:

  • 1/3 Pathway bark (1/4 inch)
  • 1/3 Peat Moss (coarse, if you can find it)
  • 1/3 Leaf Mold or Forest Humus based potting soil.
  • Mix together and add 2 tablespoons of Soil Sulfur.
1blueberry

This will get your container Blueberry off to a great start. Then, in then spring, use a fertilizer high in nitrogen (sulfate or urea) and minor nutrients.


Check carefully when selecting fertilizers:

  • The Nitrogen must not be from Nitrate!
    This can be deadly to blueberries (I learned the hard way).

With the new introductions,
you can have ripe Blueberries in your yard from May to August!

Best of Health to You!
- Ed Laivo -

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