Forum home Fruit & veg
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Replanting blueberry bushes...

I've a couple of blueberry bushes in pots and wanted to replant them into a raised bed which will be built on hard core and stones were an old shed stood.  

I was going to get a couple of bags of acid compost to start the beds but not sure how deep to make the beds or whether they are in a suitable spot on the stones, what would you advise?

...and although the bushes aren't old they haven't produced many berries for a couple of years, so I also want advise as to how to improve the crop. One's called top hat, not sure of the other one.    

Posts

  • Hi Zoomer image



    Mine grew loads better when they went into the raised bed out of pots, to the point they will be put in the ground soon, i mixed soil with ericacious compost and lined that bit of the bed before planting because the soil level drops really quickly, you will have to top it up every year at least.

    They also respond to pruning, i havent done mine yet, so you might want to look it up image
  • DorcasDorcas Posts: 159

    I have 3 blueberry plants (early, middle and late varieties) which started out in pots for a couple of years, then I moved them into the ground packing them with ericaceous compost and feeding them with Chempak ericaceous fertiliser.  That worked for a couple of years but the fruits were disappointing so I dug them up again and potted them back into large pots (45 cm size) using the ericaceous compost and feeding them a sachet of Chempak each in the Spring and the results were fantastic.  Huge fruits both in size and amount.  They now thrive in their pots and the fruits seem to increase each year.  I rarely prune them just take out any dead bits in the Spring before the buds break.  Each Spring I just top up with the ericaceous compost and give them a sachet of Chempak.  Oh and I never, ever water with tap water, I always use rain water.

    My bushes are Earliblue (early) , BlueCrop (mid season) and Aurora (Late).  Hope this helps.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    I moved mine from pots to sligtly raised beds after coming home form hols and finding them crispy.  Our watering monitor had not believe my instructions!

    We have alkaline to neutral lomay soil so we dug deep holes, at least 2' 6" deep and planted them 4' apart, backfilling with proper ericacious compost.   They get a feed every spring and have been mulched with chipped bark to reduce competition form weeds and reduce water evaporation.

    I get very good crops except for the last 2 years - one dreadful winter that killed a few branches and then late frosts that got the blossom and again last year a late frost after a mild winter so blossom all frozen.   This year they'll have windbreak netting to protect them from frosts and, later on, more netting to keep the birds off the crop.. 

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • I bought the Thompson and Morgan full season collection which includes Brigitta, Chandler and Early Blue, I only planted them in pots last December so I can't comment on their performance yet. I did read that the much publicised Top Hat was one to be avoided though if that helps.

  • Edd, ive got a mixture of plants i had from the pound shop and posher ones from the big plant companies,all are fab, had lots of fruit last year. One thing i have found is its really easy to knock the flower buds off, especially when they were in pots.

    Im not convinced they need as acid a soil as we think. image



    I think ive got

    Blue crop

    Patriot

    Blue hat?

    Got six i think in total, most are the shorter types image
  • Zoomer44Zoomer44 Posts: 3,267

    Thank you everyone, think I'll take my chances and plant them in a raised bed. It's not going to be a big bed just 4ft long and 2ft wide, the space will be bigger than the pots they are planted in and deeper. 

    The council left a heap of wood chippings on the allotments which look like chopped up christmas tree's, there's lots of pine bits in it, so me thinks I could line the bottom of the bed with this and then top up the raised bed with ericacious compost mixed in with a little soil to fill up the bed and a mulch of the same chippings image, how does that sound...image    

  • I've got Brigitta, Bluecrop and Earliblue which were in pots for 3-4 years. They produced some berries but didn't get going until they went into raised beds of ericaceous, and now they produce lots of berries.

  • I had two blueberries in pots. First couple of years they were fine, but then I had difficulty in keeping up with the watering. Last year I  moved them into my fruit cage and planted them out with a load of ericacious and home made compost. The soil is slightly acidic but clayey. One plant in particular was looking sick and out tumbled a number of vine weevil grubs when I planted it out - it didn't have a very good root system. I wait to see what happens this year. 

Sign In or Register to comment.