Blueberry Bonanza

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Blueberries are loaded with nutritious compounds, such as antioxidants, anthocyanins and vitamin C. MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER

Take a midsummer walk through most any state park in the country, and you’re bound to find blueberries or their first cousins tucked between pines and oaks or lining the sunny edges of marshes. Campers, hikers and weekend explorers alike covet the sweet blue treats for pancakes, cobblers and simply to savor them straight off the bush. Gardeners throughout most of the United States and southern Canada can grow these tasty berries right in their yards.

Of course you can buy them at the local supermarket, too — if you’re willing to pay up to $5 a pint. Many folks gladly do just that, not only for blueberries’ sweet flavor, but also for their incredible health benefits. Blueberries are loaded with antioxidants, compounds that researchers think protect against the harmful effects of aging. (See “Great News About Blues!” for more.)

But why pay grocery store prices when you can have a blueberry bonanza right in your own back yard? These native American beauties are highly productive, wonderfully ornamental and relatively trouble-free once established. With proper preparation and a little patience, you’ll be rewarded with 10 to 25 pounds of delicious, nutritious “blues” per bush, each and every year.

Choose Your Blues

Cultivated for about the last 100 years, blueberries are available in dozens of garden varieties. For the longest harvest season, plant early, mid- and late-bearing varieties. Planting at least two different varieties also will encourage heavier crops.

Most varieties stem from three native species: highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum), rabbiteye (V. ashei) and low-bush (V. angustifolium). These three types, as well as several crosses between them, are loosely adapted to either cool or warm climates. If you live where the minimum winter temperature ranges between minus 10 and 10 degrees, you can probably grow any type!

Down-Home Blues

The best way to get a bountiful crop of delicious blueberries is to follow nature’s lead and give your plants a home like one they’d choose in the wild. Keep in mind that blueberries belong to the same family as azaleas, rhododendrons and heather: They all thrive in acidic soil that is rich in organic matter and moist but well-drained. And they’ll produce more fruit if planted in full sun, says Dan Finch, owner of Finch Blueberry Nursery in Bailey, N.C.

Probably the trickiest part of the blueberry’s requirements is providing that acidic soil. Actually, it’s not that blueberries need acidic soil, says Finch: “Blueberries need iron but are very poor at taking it up, so they’ve adapted to acid soil — like that often found in wooded areas — which makes the iron more available to the plants.” Highbush blueberries do best in 4.5 to 5.5 pH soil; rabbiteyes and Southern highbush varieties (crosses between highbush and various heat-tolerant Southern species) will tolerate a slightly higher pH of 5.5 to 6.0. Low-bush species prefer a range of 4.0 to 5.3. If a test shows your soil pH to be higher, you’ll need to lower it. Although some growers use elemental sulfur to reduce soil pH, you should wait at least three months after applying sulfur before planting. And sulfur will damage beneficial soil microorganisms, including the mycorrhizae that are essential for blueberry growth. Blueberries, which have shallow roots, form a symbiotic relationship with the mycorrhizal fungi in soil: The fungi help blueberries absorb soil nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates.