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Post by synergy on Jan 22, 2011 0:36:32 GMT -5
Wow I can't believe I am the first to mention blueberries?
I have been planting blueberry bushes as of winter 2011:
11 Duke (early, 4 - 6 ft)
5 Bluecrop (midseason, 4 - 6 ft)
22 Brigitta (late, 6 ft - 7 ft) ,
5 Elliot (very late . 5 - 6 ft) ,
15 Chippewa (early, 4 ft)
5 North Country (early mid season , 2 ft, hardy to minus 40 c)
5 North Sky (2 ft, hardy )
5 St. Cloud (3 ft, hardy )
4 Blue Gold
4 Blue North
I started with a few in my kitchen garden, then interplanted them on a bank dividing the barnyard from the pasture and now I am using them in hedgerows to make a dividing corridor between paddocks.
Now to get other kinds of fruiting bushes : )
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Post by steev on Jan 23, 2011 21:27:04 GMT -5
I think all you mention are rabbiteye blueberries, so very tasty fresh, but much too watery for baking; they need to be pre-cooked to boil off most of the water, before going into your muffins, or you'll get these gloppy, wet holes.
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Post by synergy on Jan 24, 2011 1:56:16 GMT -5
I wonder if you dehydrate some for baking in muffins and for pancakes if they will be better suited? Mostly after fresh consumption we freeze them and make smoothies. Over 50 bushes should produce as many berries as our family eats! We do eat a lot of blueberries, but I imagine we will lose some to wildlife (deer, birds) and our horses will no doubt reach and chew on some , so we should still have enough I hope .
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Post by mjc on Jan 24, 2011 2:37:19 GMT -5
You are seriously over estimating your ability to eat blueberries...when they are in full production (usually about 2 to 5 years after PLANTING them) each of those bushes will produce several POUNDS of fruit (most of them will do 5 or MORE)! You've got the potential there for over 200 lbs of berries!
NONE of them are rabbit-eye blueberries, they all appear to be Northern Highbush types...especially the Duke, Bluecrop and all the 'North' series. Rabbit-eye are almost exclusively southeast US plants...Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama.
Yes, drying them for use in baking is a very good way to go.
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Post by flowerpower on Jan 24, 2011 6:54:05 GMT -5
The wild ones near my house are low bush. They do put out a good amt of fruit for tiny plants.
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Post by synergy on Jan 24, 2011 18:51:19 GMT -5
I am pretty sure I did some things wrong, for one thing I mixed up different highbushes and they are all different parts of the season, will they still cross pollinate?
I am almost thinking I need more midseason ones to pollinate the others ? I really have no idea what I am doing , sigh. I guess if i find poor setting of fruit in a few years I will need to do something more, graft branches or buy more varieties ?
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Post by mjc on Jan 24, 2011 19:10:43 GMT -5
If you've got them in a hedge or fairly close together...don't worry, pollination won't be an issue. They tend to flower over a period of days anyway, so you are bound to have overlap, with the numbers/varieties you've planted.
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Post by steev on Jan 25, 2011 21:38:21 GMT -5
O K, Northern Highbush; I tend to call all the large blueberries rabbiteyes, just to differentiate them from the small "wild" type that is mostly used up by commercial bakeries; in any event, yes, drying works just like boiling, in that it reduces the water content.
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on Jan 26, 2011 5:11:23 GMT -5
I've been wondering if it's worth growing blueberries as we have a very limey clay soil. However we thought an acid bed in the polytunnel for a few plants might serve the purpose, although would we always have to water with soft water rather than our limy well water?
Perhaps somebody who has tried blueberries on non acid soil can advise?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 26, 2011 10:53:58 GMT -5
I've been wondering if it's worth growing blueberries as we have a very limey clay soil. However we thought an acid bed in the polytunnel for a few plants might serve the purpose, although would we always have to water with soft water rather than our limy well water? Perhaps somebody who has tried blueberries on non acid soil can advise? I have tried blueberries many times. I've finally decided that I would have to raise them in a pot, and water with rainwater. No matter how much acid I add to ground planted blueberries, it's not enough. |
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Post by wildseed57 on Jan 26, 2011 11:42:22 GMT -5
I love fresh and processed BlueBerries, we just have eight bushes, but the clay based soil isn't quite right for them and when we get heavy rains the soil gets to wet and stays that way much to long for the plants. I may have to move them or raise them up and build a raised bed around them. we may loose a couple of them, because some are looking a bit sick, luckily the plants are still fairly small and will not be to hard to re-plant if we have too.
George W.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jan 27, 2011 7:18:27 GMT -5
They grow TONS of blueberries around here. In fact, the "official state blue berry" IS the blueberry.
I have noticed that in some areas, the blueberry farms in particular, have white soil. It isn't sand... I thought it was until I visited a far and asked. There is even a town nearby called "Snow Hill" because of white soil. A naturally occurring acid soil of some sort? We have to lime like crazy right here.
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Post by bunkie on Jan 28, 2011 13:52:34 GMT -5
great thread synergy! we're experimenting with growing blueberries too.
we made a very tasty blueberry and peach jam this year! one way to use up a lot of blueberries!
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Post by steev on Jan 28, 2011 18:02:19 GMT -5
I'd never thought about growing blueberries until I maintained the yard of a guy in the Berkeley hills one summer. He had two dozen varieties! We scarfed blueberries all summer. The local nurseries didn't start to offer them for several years after that.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jan 28, 2011 20:31:08 GMT -5
Berkeley Hills huh? Do you know the cement slide?
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