In the Garden: Growing Blueberries

10 October 2011

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Blueberries are generally grown in northern climates with cool winters and mild summers. But some newer varieties do well in very cool or very warm climates.

The major kinds of blueberry plants are highbush, half-high, lowbush and rabbiteye. Highbush plants can grow almost two meters tall.

Rabbiteye plants like warmer temperatures. Some of these bushes grow three meters tall.

Blueberry plants do best in soil that is acidic.

Plant expert Steve Renquist at Oregon State University says blueberry plants can grow well in containers. He says dwarf varieties are a good choice. These plants are often less than half a meter tall.

STEVE RENQUIST: "Blueberry plants have a pretty shallow root system. It is not particularly vigorous. And so that is why they do well in pots, because of the light soil mixture. But they also require, then, fairly frequent watering because they are going to dry out a little faster. With any plant, a pot dries out faster, the pot does, than any plant that is in the soil.”

If you consider growing blueberries at home, you might think about placing some shorter plants in pots. Steve Renquist says potted blueberries should be watered almost every day if temperatures are twenty-one degrees Celsius

and above. He says potted blueberry plants should also be given fertilizer.