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Growing Container Blueberries

Compact berries for containers are popular, and more and more varieties are being developed for container culture. Compact blueberries are particularly good for growing in pots, with good care. The northern native berries have specific growing needs. Follow the guidelines here, and you will have bountiful berry pots in no time. The best blueberries for containers are shorter species, such as lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) rabbiteye blueberries (Vaccinium ashei), and new compact designer blueberries (Vaccinium hybrids).

Growing Blueberries in Containers

With good care, blueberries will produce berries each year. Plant more than one pot of berries for cross-pollination and best fruiting.

Compact blueberries of all types grow beautifully in spacious pots. With good care, the long-lived shrubs can survive for years, so choose strong, thick, weatherproof ceramic pots big enough for them to grow to maturity–18″ pots or larger depending on the final size of the plant. (click here to read more about the best weatherproof pots)

Blueberries naturally grow best in more acidic soils (pH 4.5-5.5) with good drainage, often sandy soils, so we recommend a peat-based mix amended with some sand and perlite. Of our product line, we recommend Fafard Natural & Organic Potting Mix, which is OMRI Listed for organic gardening and also provides good aeration and porosity. Because blueberries are acid-loving, I like the look of mulching the soil surface with fine, dry white pine needles. They hold moisture, keep weeds down, and look good.

Place your blueberry pots in a location with full to partial sunlight for the best fruiting and growth–more sun is tolerated in areas with milder summers. Blueberries will tolerate shade, but they will not set as much fruit in a shadier site. During the high heat of summer, protect them from the scorching midday sun.

Water blueberries regularly. The soil should be allowed to become slightly dry between watering. Feed blueberries as directed using a fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants. Repotting is necessary every few years and the shrubs should be pruned if they develop dead growth or crossing, ungainly branches.

Pruning Blueberries

Even compact blueberries need occasional pruning. Here are four guidelines to follow when pruning blueberries.

  1. Prune just after berry harvest.
  2. Maintain one strong fruiting cane (branch) for each year of growth, starting in the shrub’s fourth year.
  3. Older canes can be replaced by stronger, newer fruiting canes after the shrubs have reached 8-10 years.
  4. Remove smaller, weaker, lateral branches to encourage stronger fruiting branches.

The Best Blueberries for Containers

Peach Sorbet® blueberry has a beautiful habit, good fall color, and tasty berries. (Image thanks to Bushel and Berry)

The best blueberries for containers are shorter species, such as lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium, USDA Hardiness Zones 2-8) rabbiteye blueberries (Vaccinium ashei, Zones 7-10), and new compact designer blueberries (Vaccinium hybrids).

Two choice rabbiteye Blueberries are ‘Tifblue’, which has large berries midseason, and ‘Brightwell’, which produces large clusters early to midseason. Bushel and Berry® arguably sell the finest designer Blueberries on the market. Their boxwood-like Blueberry Glaze® and cute, round Jellybean® (Zones 4-8) have delicious fruit, tidy habits, and bright fall color. Finally, Pink Icing® (Zones 5-10) produces loads of tasty fruits on shrubs with pink new growth.

The largest blueberry in the group is the hybrid lowbush blueberry, Northsky®, which forms a tiny round shrub reaching 2-3 feet. The 1-2 foot ‘Tophat‘ is a common favorite. The tidy round bushes product loads of berries once mature and producing.

I encourage blueberry growers to watch the following video to learn more about blueberry cultivation.

Fresh Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

Blueberry SconesThere’s nothing like the smell of fresh-baked blueberry scones , especially when a key ingredient is from your own garden. Market or garden-fresh blueberries make this recipe taste great, and freshly grated lemon zest gives that extra pop of flavor. For even more sweetness and decadence, drizzle with fresh lemon glaze while the scones are still warm.

Scone Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing on top
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Lemon Glaze Ingredients

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salted butter, melted

Directions

For this simple recipe, start by adding all of the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk them together. Cut the cold butter into the mixture until crumbly. Whisk together the cream, egg, and lemon zest in a liquid measuring cup. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry until the dough just comes together, fold in the blueberries. Turn dough onto a well-floured surface and lightly knead, gently turning and folding the mix eight to ten times. (Too much kneading will result in tough scones!) Roll the dough to 1-inch-thick, 4-inch-round circles and cut them into quarters. Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, and voila!

A Bucket of Blueberries

Grow a Bucket of Blueberries Featured Image

Whoever claimed that life is just a bowl of cherries was seriously misinformed. Life, at least a good life, should be more like a bucket of blueberries—sweet, plentiful and full of good things.

Blueberry flowers
Blueberry flowers look like small bells and bloom in spring. (Photo by Kurt Stüber)

The list of blueberry virtues goes on and on. Given acid soil, reasonable moisture, and sunshine, blueberries can grow about anywhere, as long as you chose a variety congenial to your climate. The pale pinkish spring flowers are extremely pretty in the garden and the fine foliage turns bright red before leaving the scene in the fall. If you—or the birds—don’t eat them all, the waxy berries are highly decorative. In one public garden, a double row of highbush blueberries frames a wide grass allée, an old-world design idea worked out with a native New World shrub

Blueberries have never really gone out of fashion, but they are even more modish now because of their nutritional benefits—lots of antioxidants, plus helpful fiber and useful amounts of vitamins A and C. They also taste a lot better than vitamin pills.

Blueberry Types

Low-bush blueberries
Low-bush blueberry

To know blueberry types is to love them even more. Lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) are the wild blueberries native to eastern Canada and New England. Small and intensely flavorful, lowbush varieties are borne on low, spreading shrubs. They are sometimes harvested commercially and frequently harvested by eager berry pickers. Highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) are the titans of commercial production, but can also grow well in home gardens. The shrubs can be large, topping out at six to twelve feet tall and nearly as wide. These are hardy from USDA Hardiness Zone 3 through Zone 7, depending on variety, and produce big, blue fruits from July through August. Their relatives, southern highbush blueberries, have been bred for warmer climates and include varieties like ‘Avonblue’ and ‘Southland’.

Blueberries in pack

Another good blueberry species for southern climates is the whimsically named rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium ashei). While their namesake animals may be relatively small, rabbiteye bushes can grow up to eight or ten feet tall. Home growers can choose from many available cultivars.
And those home growers can harvest buckets of blueberries no matter whether the available space is a standard garden bed, raised growing area or even a large container. In recent years, with more consumers crying for small-space and container varieties, breeders have come up with dwarf blueberries, like the bushy Blueberry Glaze™, which grows only two to three feet tall, with a neat, mounding habit. Container growing is also useful for blueberry lovers with alkaline soil.

Planting Blueberries

Ripening blueberries
Beautiful blueberries ripening on the shrub. (photo by PhreddieH3)

To get growing, read plant tags carefully to ensure that you have sufficient space for mature height and width of the variety you choose. If you live south of USDA Zone 7, make sure that your blueberry will receive enough “chill hours” to fruit successfully in your garden. Your local cooperative extension agent should be able to help with that, but chances are, if the blueberry variety is on sale in a nursery near you, it will probably survive in your area. If you are ordering from a catalog or online vendor, call and ask about climate-suitable blueberry choices.

If you are planning to plant your blueberry bush in a container or raised bed, fill with a quality medium like Fafard® Ultra Container Mix with Extended Feed. The sphagnum peat moss content in the mix provides the acidity that blueberries crave.

Fafard Ultra Container Mix with Extended Feed and RESILIENCE pack

Before you plant anywhere, make sure that your chosen site receives five or six hours of daily sunlight. Sink the root ball so that its top is level with the top of the planting hole. Water in the young blueberry, and once it is planted, mulch with two inches of organic material, arranged doughnut-style, so it does not touch the blueberry canes. Water regularly while the plant establishes itself.

Blueberry Care

Experts advise pruning off the flowers of your blueberry in the first year, so the plant puts all its energy into growth. This may not be as necessary with dwarf varieties. Water during dry spells, especially with container-grown bushes. Since birds and sometimes small mammals love blueberries as much as humans, cover the shrub with netting as soon as the green berries start to take on a blue cast. Harvest your berries when they are deep blue and come off easily, checking the plant every couple of days for additional ripe berries. If you can resist eating the blueberries out of hand, use them within a few days or freeze for later.

Highbush blueberries
Highbush blueberries

In the fall, fertilize the shrubs according to manufacturer’s directions with a product designed for acid-loving plants like azaleas and rhododendrons. Highbush types should be pruned in late winter to eliminate dead branches and thin out old wood. Cutting back one old cane (stem) for every new one keeps the blueberry healthy and helps ensure a good harvest each year.

Author Jacquelyn Mitchard said, “You’ll never regret eating blueberries or working up a sweat.” You can argue about the sweating part, but just about everyone can agree on the berries.