Blueberry muffins, blueberry pie, blueberry ice cream, blueberry pancakes, plain old blueberries, and my favorite, blueberry daiquiris, if you like them you can grow them in containers or in the garden bed I'll show you how!
For successful blueberry garden its important to choose the right variety.
The number of chill hours in your area will help you make a decision on what varieties to plant and you can contact your local ag department to find out the chill hours in your area.
For example, if you live in a cold area with a thousand chill hours or so, get a northern high-bush type. For warmer climates go with lower chill hour southern high-bush.
Get at least two varieties for optimum yields and pollination.
Growing delicious blueberries all starts with the soil. Blueberries are an acid loving plant like azaleas and rhododendrons. If you're not sure of the acidity of your soil you can do simple pH test.
Blueberries like the soil pH to be between 4 and 5 on the pH scale. Controlling the pH of your soil in containers is very easy and blueberries do really well going in containers like thirty gallon smart pots.
A great recipe for blueberry container mix is one part organic potting soil for nutrients and one part peat moss or coco peat for moisture retention and to help create that low pH.
We're going to add a half a pound of acid fertilizer to every cubic foot that we have of potting mix.
These blueberry plants have been growing in 5 gallon posts for a few years now and still do very well as long as they are watered and fed.
I expect an abundant harvest of blueberries from these plants in the future but this year I'm going to pick off these little flowers so that I can encourage the root development, but that's okay because I have established blueberries planted somewhere else and I'm going to show you how to care for those.
So here we are with some of my established blueberry plants and they're just starting to flower and to keep them healthy and happy I'm going to do a few things. I'm going to make sure that they're well mulched and watered.
Fertilize them and do some moderate pruning.
I've buried emitter line all along the row line here where the blueberries are planted. Make sure that the blueberries are getting adequate water. They like about an inch of water per week.
Also, make sure that there's no weed competition around the base of the blueberry plants.
Once the weeds are cleared away, go ahead and fertilize. You're going to want to fertilize in early spring and late spring and then about half rate in fall. Just a little top dressing for each plant. We use chicken manure pellets. They work great and are a bit acidic which blueberries love.
After fertilizing, heavily mulch to keep the roots moist and cool. We have a huge pile of saw dust that we mulch with and helps keep the soil ph low which, as mentioned, blueberries love.
Mulching heavily with pine needles or saw dust really helps keep the weeds down and I let the chickens run through the rows in early spring to eat the weeds.
After top dressing with fertilizer, if you don't expect any rain in the forecast, be sure and water your plant. You want to make sure and water the fertilizer into the soil.
Here's a few tips on how to do some pruning for the season. It;s siple really. Just be sure to prune off anything that was damaged during the winter, be sure and clip off any dead twiggy or blotchy branches, and trim off any low growing side shoots at the base.
You want to keep the nice bright green upright stalks and get rid of the dead or dying dried up branches.
Blueberry Daiquiri
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 1/2 cup light rum
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- 1/2 cup crushed ice
- 1/4 cup superfine sugar
Directions
In a blender, combine all ingredients and process for about 30 seconds. Pour into a chilled glass.
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Turn on a little music and lay out in the summer sun and enjoy a fresh blueberry daiquiri. You'll love them!
Blueberries Are Healthy
Blue berries are very healthy to eat and snack on without gaining weight. A whole pond of blueberries only contains about 50 calories but is loaded with vitamins and minerals.
The iron, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and vitamin K in blueberries all contribute to building and maintaining bone structure and strength.
Blueberries are naturally free of sodium and contain potassium, calcium, and magnesium, all of which have been found to decrease blood pressure naturally.
One cup of blueberries contributes 3.6 grams of fiber. The fiber in blueberries helps lower the total amount of cholesterol in the blood and decrease the risk of heart disease.
Vitamin C, vitamin A, and various phytonutrients in blueberries function as powerful antioxidants that help protect cells against free radical damage. They inhibit tumor growth, decrease inflammation in the body and help ward off or slow several types of cancer, including esophageal, lung, mouth, pharynx, endometrial, pancreatic, prostate and colon.
Blueberries also contain folate, which plays a role in DNA synthesis and repair, thus preventing the formation of cancer cells from mutations in the DNA credit
Blueberries are also beautiful in the ornamental garden. They have pretty white flowers in the spring and they have beautiful red color in the fall. So plant some blueberries and grow organic for life!
All images are mine unless noted and credited.
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