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To: mlizzy

What a beautiful garden! I didn’t know that you can plant blueberry bushes in containers.


193 posted on 08/12/2013 7:56:02 PM PDT by Silentgypsy (:))
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To: Silentgypsy
What a beautiful garden! I didn’t know that you can plant blueberry bushes in containers.
Yes, isn't that cool? We live in the Chicagoland area (where the soil is not acidic enough for blueberries), but indeed they will thrive and produce, but only if taken care of in precise fashion. We purchased from True Vine Ranch (they hail out of Bonner Springs, KS), and their plants (and instructions!) are perfect. They do not cover container gardening, but it is the same per se.

"My girls" in the picture shown are all planted in pure Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, nothing else. They are fed organically with a tea made from Holly Tone (one time a month March through August), and I add (per another source) elemental sulfur (small amount) once or twice a year (depending on the acidity of the planting matter). In a couple-three years, we'll have to enlarge their containers somewhat, but for now, they're doing fine. In the fall/winter they need to be submerged in the ground with NO soil allowed to enter, so the lip is above ground. They are continually watered up until Thanksgiving (or the first snow), and they are covered year-round thickly with pine bark mulch (they mention a few others too).

In December of last year (when we moved in), I was so incredibly exhausted (we've been moving a lot), that I left the third blueberry (which was the youngest by a year) in the garage surrounded by straw, but done so sort of haphazardly. I placed some snow on her too (as it is necessary), but only a couple of times. When spring came, I was sure she would have passed on, but lo and behold, she came back, but not as full as the year previous. She did not produce any berries either. The other two, however, provided maybe two pints (total); not a ton, but certainly enjoyable. One nice advantage of the containers for us is that they don't take up valuable garden space, and also we can move them into shelter in tornado-like weather. And since we are *deep sigh* moving yet again, we can take "our girls" with us once more...
201 posted on 08/13/2013 5:01:05 AM PDT by mlizzy (If people spent an hour a week in Eucharistic adoration, abortion would be ended. --Mother Teresa)
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