I'm inspired by the previous post.
I now want to have a go at growing blueberries.
Where would I get the plants and how long before they start cropping?


mark

"Mark" wrote in message
...
I'm inspired by the previous post.
I now want to have a go at growing blueberries.
Where would I get the plants and how long before they start cropping?


mark

I used to have several American blueberry bushes. Though they cropped well,
I really didn't like the American species nearly as much as the wild British
blueberry. The foreign species were big berried but just didn't have the
flavour of the real thing.

Since then I have picked British blueberries when possible. This year was
the best crop ever.

Have others found the same. For me the bought bushes are a terrible
disappointment.

regards
Don

On 25 Sep, 23:47, "Don" wrote:
"Mark" wrote in message

...

I'm inspired by the previous post.
I now want to have a go at growing blueberries.
Where would I get the plants and how long before they start cropping?

mark

I used to have several American blueberry bushes. Though they cropped well,
I really didn't like the American species nearly as much as the wild British
blueberry. The foreign species were big berried but just didn't have the
flavour of the real thing.

Since then I have picked British blueberries when possible. This year was
the best crop ever.

Have others found the same. For me the bought bushes are a terrible
disappointment.

regards
Don

If you want to buy Blueberries then do shop around.
Tesco had bushes the other week at 2 for £10.00 but after 6 days they
were £4.00 each.
Some nurseries are listing them as high as £12.95each, though I have
some on order at £5.50 for 5 I have no idea of the size they will be.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile...berry_care.asp

Good luck
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries

Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry) are widely available from garden centres. We bought a couple very cheaply from a local DIY shed one spring. They were about 40cm tall, and appeared to be second year plants. They fruited the same year we bought them, but did a lot better the second year, which had the benefit of having more rain than the previous year. There are lots of different varieties, as you would expect, I don't even know what ours are.

Best to have at least two plants to get some cross-pollination, and they shouldn't be cuttings off the same parent.

You need to protect them very thoroughly from birds, who will not leave you with a single one. They need some pruning, cut out some of the older branches, let new ones grow.

We find that ours grow OK-ish just in our ordinary neutral dry garden soil with a bit of ericaceous mixed in, but I water them well with collected rainwater (having limey tapwater). I give them a bark mulch or similar and garden compost and some ericaceous fertiliser. I probably ought to have prepared the ground more carefully. If you have soil that is at all limey, then grow them in large pots. They really hate limey soil. It isn't difficult to get a good crop of big tasty berries.

There are some other species of blueberry that in theory are cultivated. The american lowbush blueberry V. angustifolia seems to be unavailable in this country. The rabbit-eye blueberry V. virgatum or ashei used to be recommended as something to try if you had a slightly limey soil, but you don't seem to be able to get that any more either, maybe it's not hardy enough or doesn't ripen, since it is cultivated in the Carolinas. V. myrtillus, the wild bilberry/winberry/whortleberry of this country, is reputedly not very easy to cultivate unless you have a garden in the kind of area where it would grow naturally, with sandy peaty soil of low fertility - and you need an awful lot of them to get much yield. There are quite a lot of other species you can see on RHS plant-finder and PFAF, but I don't know anything about them.

Don
Sorry to be picky but Blueberries are American, whereas our blue
berries are Bilberries (V. myrtillus) and are a different species. As
you will have experienced - billberies are blow growing - like
heathers, whereas the North American Highnush can reach 6ft tall.

For Mark
If you are buying via post, know what size of pot you are buying.
Some offer 1 litre for around £4, and others charge £7 for the same
thing.
For the Northen Fruit Group, I sold some 3 litre blueberries at a
plant fair at Cannon Hall, Barnsley for £8 each. A chap said that
they were expensive - asked him why, said they were only £7 in
Marshalls catalogue. Sure enough they where - for 1 litre plugs. The
tesco plants are 1 litre plugs driven into a pot - as I discovered
last year when I ppicked up some Goldrtaube from them. The roots were
air pruned as there was no compost around them at all.....
Have a good look.
I have purchased Blueberries from Keepers Nursery and the Dorset
Blueberry Company, and would have no hesitation in recommending
either.

Regards
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

"cliff_the_gardener" wrote in message
ups.com...
Don
Sorry to be picky but Blueberries are American, whereas our blue
berries are Bilberries (V. myrtillus) and are a different species. As
you will have experienced - billberies are blow growing - like
heathers, whereas the North American Highnush can reach 6ft tall.


Thanks, Cliff. Yes, I think I did say that the American ones are a
different species. The point of my post was simply to say that to my
tastebuds, the American ones are pretty insipid and not worth the growing.
Same applies to the little blue blobs you can buy in Tesco.

As a country lad, I remember the taste of the wild fruit from my childhood.
Round these parts, the wild species is called "blueberry" or "blaeberry". I
always thought the appellation "bilberry" was a south of England thing. I
am surprised it reaches as far north as South Yorkshire - which is still the
deep south when viewed from where I am in Scotland.

regards
Don

On 28 Sep, 10:40, "Don" wrote:
"cliff_the_gardener" wrote in message

ups.com...
Don
Sorry to be picky but Blueberries are American, whereas our blue
berries are Bilberries (V. myrtillus) and are a different species. As
you will have experienced - billberies are blow growing - like
heathers, whereas the North American Highnush can reach 6ft tall.

Thanks, Cliff. Yes, I think I did say that the American ones are a
different species. The point of my post was simply to say that to my
tastebuds, the American ones are pretty insipid and not worth the growing.
Same applies to the little blue blobs you can buy in Tesco.

As a country lad, I remember the taste of the wild fruit from my childhood.
Round these parts, the wild species is called "blueberry" or "blaeberry". I
always thought the appellation "bilberry" was a south of England thing. I
am surprised it reaches as far north as South Yorkshire - which is still the
deep south when viewed from where I am in Scotland.

regards
Don

If we are going to be picky then you must include all the other names
that the British native one goes by, this plant goes by a number of
other names like Whortleberry, Whinberry, Wimberry, Blaeberry,
Bilberry, Heidelberry, Huckleberry, Hurtleberry and more
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries