Blueberry Plants and Bushes from the Experts
Our 108 year-old family blueberry farm sells and ships the best certified blueberry plants at the lowest prices. DiMeo blueberry plants grow more blueberries per bush. Buy ultra-heavy bearing ORGANIC, Non-GMO, Heirloom blueberry plants. Ready to Fruit this Summer 2024. Order now in April to secure current spring sale pricing and guarantee limited inventory availability. We now have over 98,000 likes and 101,000 followers on Facebook. Grow your own healthy organic blueberries at home and save money. Pick-up order now and buy up to 4’ foot tall BIG 3 year-old organic blueberry bushes. Only $15 each. CALL NOW (609) 561-5905 to get a fast April 2024 shipping quote, or schedule a drive-thru pick up appointment to buy super cold hardy blueberry plants.
We ship BIG bearing ORGANIC, Non-GMO, Heirloom blueberry plants all across America. Choose from these best selling sizes.
1.5 Year-Old Blueberry Plants (Only $1.95 each) (minimum 50 per order) these are beautiful starter plants. You can plant them directly out in your blueberry field, blueberry patch, or pot them up first to grow them into large blueberry bushes before direct field planting them in the ground. It’s totally up to you. You can start off with 600 blueberry plants (1/2 acre) or 1,200 blueberry plants (1 acre) or whatever amount of plants is meets your current budget. Remember now, these are not greenhouse grown plants, which is a big deal because today, all these online nurseries, big box stores and local nurseries are all using greenhouses, which makes weak plants that lack cold hardiness. Because they will have never experienced a real actual real winter before you bought them.
2 Year-Old Blueberry Plants (Only $10 each) (minimum 25 per order) Perfect for replanting, starting a blueberry patch, pick your own organic blueberry farm, or roadside fruit stand which will be profitable with now high demand for “locally grown” organic blueberries. Ready to Fruit this Summer 2024. We can ship you a nice mix of blueberry plant varieties for an extended blueberry season, good cross-pollination, large tasty, better flavor blueberries. Shipped farmer direct to your door, or schedule a drive-thru pick up appointment. Planting a nice big patch of organic blueberry bushes will increase your property land value and can give you a big tax advantage by qualifying you for farmland tax assessment and reduce your high property taxes.
3 Year-Old BIG Bearing Blueberry Bushes (Only $15 each) (minimum 5 per order) these are the organic blueberry bushes that homeowners and home gardeners buy. Perfect for growing your own organic blueberries at home in your own little blueberry garden, patch, edible landscaping, blueberry bush hedgerow, or in large pots. We recommend ten (10) blueberry bushes per household, so you have enough blueberries for fresh eating and freezing. Ready to Fruit this Summer 2024. We can ship you an "all-season variety pack" for a nice extended blueberry season all summer long. Shipped direct to your door now in April 2024 for Spring planting season.
8 Year-Old Fully Mature Blueberry Bushes ($100 each) (no minimum order required) these are the “Rolls Royce of blueberry bushes.” Hand-dug per order, balled and burlapped (B&B) and they are top favorite choice of high-end landscapers who like to incorporate them as part of sustainable edible landscaping projects for their high net worth clients. Our current inventory stock is up to 9’ feet tall in big burlap bags. They weight about 150 to 180 pounds each. If you homeowners, gardeners and growers think this size category is too heavy or big for you to handle, then just stick with our 3 year-old blueberry bushes instead for only $15 each.
All-Season Organic Blueberry Variety Pack for Home Growers
Ask about DiMeo's All Summer-Long 2024 Variety Pack. Our NJ family blueberry farmers can ship you ten (10) blueberry bushes that can fruit early, mid and late blueberry picking seasons. Grow fresh, large, tasty, more flavorful organic blueberries all summer long this Summer 2024. Ten (10) blueberry bushes is what we recommend for an average household of five (5) people. Two bushes, per person, per household. So you can have enough blueberries to enjoy all summer long, and some extra to freeze and enough throughout the winter, without having to buy them at the local supermarket. Like this happy DiMeo Farms customer from Ohio. He picks his own fresh Non-GMO, heirloom organic blueberries in his backyard blueberry garden all summer long.
Plant each blueberry bush 2.5' feet apart. They will grow beautiful, as part of your sustainable organic garden and edible fruit landscaping, in large pots, or in raised beds. CALL NOW (609) 561-5905 to get a fast April 2024 shipping quote on our ORGANIC, Non-GMO, Heirloom blueberry plants. If you prefer to pick-up your blueberry bushes order, which we always recommend, we can schedule a pick-up appointment just like we did with these happy DiMeo blueberry plant gardeners who drove hours from the tip of Long Island, New York, to buy organic blueberry bushes direct from real expert blueberry farmers with a 108 year-old family farming history as pioneers in the American blueberry industry. Remember, the “cultivated blueberry” as the world knows it today, started right here in the heart of the NJ Pine Barrens and we grow them without the use of greenhouses so our plants are super cold hardy.
DiMeo's 2024 All-Summer long ORGANIC, Non-GMO, Heirloom Blueberry Plant Variety Pack offers what home blueberry growers and gardeners are looking for, which is #1) a nice extended blueberry picking season, all summer long #2) good effective cross-pollination to increase yield and production #3) large blueberries, not small #4) sweet blueberries, not sour #5) more flavorful, better tasting blueberries. CALL NOW (609) 561-5905 to get a fast April 2024 shipping quote. We ship all sizes to all sizes of organic blueberry growers. Big or small. Everyone from small home gardeners, commercial growers, edible fruit tree landscapers, fruit wineries and pick your own organic blueberry farm start-ups all across America. Just like the happy gardeners who chose to buy blueberry bushes direct from our family blueberry farm in Hammonton, New Jersey. The video below is an example of ultra-heavy bearing DiMeo blueberry bushes for sale at our NJ family blueberry farm.
Blueberry Plants Ready to Fruit this Summer 2024
Organic blueberries are easy and healthy berries for you to grow. Enjoy picking your own organic blueberries with blueberry bushes from our NJ family farm. Our BIG 3 year-old ultra-heavy bearing SUPER COLD HARDY blueberry plants are easy to grow. We give you organic blueberry planting instructions and free blueberry farmer tips when you purchase our fast growing blueberry bushes. When you buy farmer direct from us, we custom dig your organic blueberry plants order. Watch the video below to see that our DiMeo blueberry bushes are the best that any backyard organic blueberry gardener or commercial grower can buy. We sell at low blueberry plant prices with higher ultra-premium quality direct from our Hammonton, NJ area blueberry farms. Notice that we don’t use greenhouses to grow our blueberry plants. That’s because they ruin the cold hardiness of the plants. Today all these big box stores and online nurseries grow in greenhouses so they can push the plants with heat all winter long to grow them faster, but that’s bad for you because the berry plants will not be cold hardy because they never experienced a real actual winter before you bought them.
Higher Yielding and Super Cold-Hardy Blueberry Plants
Our New Jersey blueberry farm sells and ships the best certified blueberry plants and large blueberry bushes direct, all year-round. Our BIG bearing 3 year-old ORGANIC, Non-GMO, Heirloom blueberry bushes are ready to fruit lots of healthy organic blueberries this Summer 2024. Only $15 each. One of our family blueberry farmers can give you expert advice for pick your own organic blueberry farm site selection, blueberry soil preparation, watering, mulching, fertilizing and harvesting your healthy organic blueberries. Our DiMeo family is known as America's oldest source for the best organic blueberry plants. This happy DiMeo Farms customer from NY featured below was so happy with her blueberry plants order. She is going to grow organic blueberries to sell them at her own little New York roadside fruit stand. We helped make her dream come true with the best organic blueberry plants at low wholesale prices and REAL blueberry expert advice.
We do not list all of the up to 32 or more, new or rare heirloom blueberry plant varieties that we may have in stock or can have access to because our inventory can frequently change. CALL NOW (609) 561-5905 if you are looking for a specific blueberry plant variety. Chances are we may have it. Yes, we promote older heirloom blueberry plant varieties because the blueberries are better tasting vs. regular commercially grown blueberries. But, you either can go with our farmer’s recommendation, or you can request another blueberry plant variety of your choice. Over the years, our NJ blueberry farmers have farm tested most, if not all of them. So we know which blueberry plant varieties have the best crop yield, production, taste, flavor, vigor, etc. Our NJ blueberry plants are just like our beautiful blueberry plant nursery farm properties, a first-class blueberry farm operation that carries forward 108 years of blueberry growing family history.
Up to 85% of the pick your own organic blueberry farm business “customer demand” lasts from early season until mid blueberry picking season. Because as soon as it turns into late summer, public interest level drops when most Americans are taking their final summer vacations and parents are starting to get their kids ready to go back to school. So unless you have a contact with a local restaurant chef, juice bar, CSA, or local farmers market that wants to buy your “locally grown” organic blueberries until the very end of summer, this is why we recommend that you invest the majority amount of your investment dollars into early season and mid-season blueberry plant varieties. When you buy organic NJ blueberry bushes direct from real expert blueberry farmers like us, this is the kind of valuable expert information you can get. Buy from us to get low wholesale blueberry bush prices for hand-dug fully mature blueberry bushes.
DiMeo Blueberry Bush Grow Better Blueberries
You can plant our blueberry plants an edible blueberry hedge row on your property. You can let them grow bigger, or higher if you choose. Simply keep your blueberry bushes trimmed to your desired height or size. When planting blueberry bush rows for an edible blueberry hedge row, plant each blueberry bush 2' feet apart. The blueberry bush leaves will turn a beautiful vibrant red wine color in the fall. This fall foliage is perfect if you want to enjoy blueberry bush fall colors at your home with blueberry plant fall foliage that can last through winter with solid red colored blueberry cane branches that will look beautiful as part of your winter landscape design. Put your land to work for you. Grow your own organic blueberries. Make a smart edible landscaping investment that will “pay you dividends” of free blueberries for a lifetime and generations of your loved ones will benefit. CALL NOW (609) 561-5905 to ask questions.
Below is a new field of NJ blueberry plants that were planted during fall planting season and they were starting to lose their leaves just before winter. But the reason we are sharing the below photo with you is to show you exactly what your field should look like when you finish planting. Notice the spacing. Only 2 1/2 feet between each blueberry plant and 9’ feet between each row. Like we always say, when you buy the best blueberry plants from real expert blueberry farmers at DiMeo Farms, you get higher quality organic blueberry plants from long time NJ farmers in the American blueberry industry. Buy New Jersey blueberry bushes direct from the real experts to get better results. Planting goes a lot faster than most people think it does. Once you get the hang of it, you will have them all planted in no time. Just make sure you use lots of peat moss. Blueberry plants love peat moss.
When you become a customer, we can spend some time with you and teach you how to plant organic blueberries the right way. Just look at our happy DiMeo blueberry plants customers on our Facebook photo gallery which features just a few of the countless satisfied gardener customers. Just like this happy DiMeo Farms customer who received his beautiful small starter organic NJ blueberry plants shipment. He was so excited to plant them. It totally made his day. His son sent us a little thank you note along with this memorable picture of his excited 89 year-old father planting his new little organic blueberry patch with cane in hand.
How to Prune Blueberry Bushes in the Winter
Let DiMeo blueberry farmers teach you how to prune blueberry bushes, the right way. Our happy DiMeo customers asked for an instruction video on how to trim blueberry plants and bushes, so here's a video with a little blueberry pruning instruction. We want you to be successful and properly prune your blueberry bushes just like our DiMeo family does during the winter months of December, January and February once all the leaves fall off the blueberry bushes. This blueberry farmer video should give you an idea of just how hard you should trim or prune older mature blueberry bushes once the blueberry bushes are getting some age on them. Grandpop DiMeo had blueberry bushes up to 60 years old, that his father planted. More videos to come on how to properly fertilize blueberries bushes, watering, cultivating and mulching blueberry bushes properly with organic pine bark mulch that you can buy at Lowes, Walmart, Tractor Supply or Home Depot.
Farmer DiMeo Replanting Old Blueberry Bushes in NJ
Our DiMeo family members have some blueberry fields well over 60 years old. DiMeo blueberry bushes can be passed on from generation to generation. Watch the below video of 83 year-old New Jersey blueberry farmer Michael “Bootie” DiMeo, Sr. replanting in a field of old DiMeo blueberry bushes. He decided to start replanting blueberries in his blueberry fields during early fall blueberry planting season after the seasonal blueberry harvest was complete every years. He loves working on the family blueberry farm. Just a few blueberry plants are removed, here and there, depending on which ones he felt needed to be replanted. He is not replanting the entire blueberry field, just a small percentage of the Duke and Bluecrop variety blueberry bushes. This is done every fall or winter when the berry bushes are dormant. This management process keeps the blueberry field acreage more productive with pounds of blueberries and yield per acre.
How to Plant a New Field of Blueberry Plants
Many of our customers ask how to cultivate blueberries using the best old fashioned farming methods for both draining blueberries fields and working the blueberry soil to reduce weed growth and increase blueberry plant vigor. Some ask "what causes that ridge" the blueberry plants sit on top of, well here is the answer. Over time, as the bushes grow, you go up and down the blueberry field rows, in 2nd gear (high) on your standard utility tractor and gradually throw dirt up around the base of your blueberry bushes. Commercial blueberry growers use this special offset disc harrow. We not only have time tested blueberry farming and best blueberry growing methods, but we can get you farm equipment at our cost. We have the top contacts in the American blueberry industry, which is another good reason why growers choose to buy blueberry plants direct from DiMeo Farms.
Pruning Blueberry Bushes Post-Harvest Season
We can even teach you how to prune blueberry bushes properly after harvest is completed. There is a old fashioned blueberry pruning method to trimming blueberry bushes to increase blueberry crop yield per acre and maintain strong hardy blueberry bush growth that can produce more pounds of blueberries per acre. Watch below video of the DiMeo farmers brush cutting and trimming blueberry bushes in this video on how to care for blueberries after the annual blueberry harvest. Notice the 9' foot wide blueberry field rows, so when the standard 6' foot brush hog goes down the row, it has 1.5' clearance on each side. Notice the bushes are only 2.5' foot apart. Our family plants them that close because thats proper spacing. Spacing blueberry bushes farther apart will not increase your blueberry yield or field production. If you are homeowner who just wants to plant blueberry bushes in your backyard, then of course you can space them farther apart. Sometimes farmers are forced to prune while the leaves are still on the blueberry bushes because that is when the farm labor is still available.
Wholesale Order of Blueberry Plants for Customer
As a DiMeo blueberry plants customer, we can help you with proper organic blueberry farm land selection and teach you what to look for before you purchase farm land for growing wild blueberries. With an expert DiMeo blueberry farmer, you are in experienced hands. We restored an old farm property to start a new pick your own blueberry farm and u-pick blueberry farm as an example for our customers. We want you to be successful growing your own organic blueberries. Our DiMeo blueberry farming family is often buying new blueberry farm properties to be restored into u-pick blueberry farms in New Jersey. Now our fourth generation continues growing New Jersey blueberries. Watch the below video of 83 year-old NJ blueberry farmer Michael “Bootie” DiMeo, Sr. working with his business partner, fourth generation DiMeo farmer Anthony DiMeo III to prepare a wholesale bare root blueberry plants order for our happy DiMeo customer at his blueberry bushes nursery in New Jersey.
Increasing Blueberry Field Yield of Blueberries Per Acre
If you have an old blueberry patch, or farm and want to learn how to plant organic blueberries or how to replant organic blueberry bushes, we can teach you the right way to replant your blueberry patch or fields. For generations, our DiMeo family has been replanting blueberries as the productive blueberry fields age. In the video below you will see our family replanting blueberry plants at a 60 year-old blueberry farm field that needed some replanting. Now these dosen't mean that the entire field is replanted, just a low percentage of the bushes. You might be surprised just how hard Farmer DiMeo, Sr. cuts back his blueberry replants, but this "agressive cut-back" its what he recommends and what the DiMeo family has done for years. The new blueberry bushes should be substantially cut back for proper transplanting of blueberry plants to minimize transplant shock. Watch the video below and listen to the old-fashioned DiMeo Farms recommended blueberry replanting method. Notice not to plant your blueberry plants too deeply when planting or replanting, like these shown in Farmer DiMeo's old blueberry farm fields. It takes place right after blueberry season is finished.
Blueberry Planting Instructions for Home Growers
Blueberry Farmer Tips and Advice
How to Grow Healthy Organic Blueberries
How to Plant Blueberry Bushes
Blueberries are a tasty and healthy berry borne on a plant beautiful enough to be an ornamental in your backyard or backyard organic berry garden. Blueberries are easy to grow and require very little space. Only 2.5' feet between each blueberry plant. They can increase the value of your property. Home builders and realtors buy blueberry bushes direct from our DiMeo blueberry farm, because it’s always “that little blueberry patch in the backyard” that becomes a selling point. Home gardeners love the idea of having a sustainable organic blueberry patch in their own backyard. They will even grow beautiful in pots or containers
How to Grow Organic Blueberries Plants at Home
With a few basic steps, planted correctly, your new blueberry plants can “pay dividends” for a lifetime, with fresh healthy organic blueberries. Let DiMeo Farms teach you how to plant and grow organic blueberry bushes in your garden or as part of your sustainable edible landscaping. Follow all of our easy farmer blueberry planting tips and blueberry planting instructions for success.
Best Tasting Blueberry Plant Varieties
We may have or have access to up to 32 or more rare heirloom, and or other new blueberry plant varieties. But we recommend the most popular and productive blueberry varieties to grow, based on our own experience and farmer test trials. Of course, our inventory can frequently change. We recommend at least two (2) blueberry bushes per person, per household. For example, if you are a family of five people, we recommend at least ten (10) blueberry plants for a household that size. This way, you can have enough blueberries to not only eat fresh during the summer, but you can also have enough to freeze over the winter, so that you are not paying big money at the supermarket or grocery store during the winter time when they are even more expensive for just a tiny half-pint of organic blueberries.
Blueberry Plant Site Selection and Planting Preparation
Select a sunny location. As sunny as possible. They prefer full sunlight, but they will still grow beautiful as long as you get at least 4 to 6 hours of sunlight per day. If you have mostly shade, then consider buying aronia berry plants instead, as they will thrive in shady areas. Blueberry planting soil should be well drained. The blueberry plant roots should be kept moist, but not soaked or saturated, throughout the blueberry growing season. You should only ridge up your blueberry field rows with a “row hipper” if you have a drainage problem. Otherwise there is no need to create elevated rows if you are a home grower.
Simply incorporate 50% peat moss into your existing soil. Dig a hole three (3) times the size of a bowling ball. If your soil is not sandy, then just discard it and replace it with a mixture of 50% course grade concrete sand mixed with 50% peat moss. And it must be just a straight peat moss. No pearlite. No Pro-Mix or any other kinds of blends or mixes. Peat most is important for long-term successful blueberry plant growth. If you don't have peat moss, we can sell you the best growers grade blueberry peat moss, but for pick-up orders only. We do not ship peat moss. But, you can easily buy it locally in 3.8 cubic foot bales. This is our recommended DiMeo Farms recommended blueberry soil mix. Remember that blueberry plants thrive in acidic organic soils, which you can create very easily with a simple mixture of sand, peat moss, top dressed with “Holly Tone” which is a granular acidifier that you can purchase online or at Lowes, Home Depot or Walmart. The same goes for the course grade sand, both Home Depot and Lowes sell it in the masonry section of the store or you can call your local concrete or masonry supply store and tell them you need course grade concrete sand.
Once you become a DiMeo Farms customer, if you are planting at least several acres of land, we can connect you with an organic peat moss supplier who can ship you peat moss by the tractor trailer load. We will get you our low wholesale peat moss prices. Our DiMeo family has been dealing with the same privately owned peat moss bogs in Canada for decades. FYI. Their minimum order is 24 pallets of peat moss. 30 bails per pallet. 720 bails of peat moss per tractor flat bed trailer load. With recent price increases, it will now cost you about $14,400 and that does not even include the current flat bed or diesel fuel surcharges. So this only applies to those of you who are planting measurable blueberry field acreage that would require a lot of peat moss.
Proper Spacing for Blueberry Plants
Plant blueberry bushes only 2.5' feet apart between the actual plants in the row. If you are planting an edible blueberry hedge row then space 2' feet apart. The spacing of your blueberry plant rows will depend on what kind of tractor implements you are using. For example, if you are home gardener you might want to just plant grass and mow between the blueberry rows with a lawn mower. If you are a small farmer or have a small PYO berry farm, you might want to cultivate between the rows with a 6' wide disc, cultivator or mower brush cutter which means that you will need 9' between rows. Just because you space your blueberry bushes farther apart, does not necessarily mean that you will see an increase of blueberry yield, production or productivity. Its a cosmetic thing depending on your individual yard design and intent with your organic blueberry patch.
Planting Your Blueberry Bushes Properly
Dig a hole three (3) times the size of a bowling ball. Then mix 50% course grade concrete sand with 50% peat moss. Do not use play sand either, because it’s too fine, and will restrict proper drainage. Use just regular sand, or the sand they use to make concrete with, because it has the little stones in there that promotes good drainage. You can contact any place that sells concrete, bricks, blocks or anything to do with masonry. Home Depot sells it. Every town and city has a place that sells concrete products. It’s very easy to find. Just ask them for course grade concrete sand. They all know what it is. This 50% sand and 50% peat moss mixture should be measured by volume, not by weight. Place this mixture in the hole to plant your blueberries plants. Then take the “Holly Tone” for acid loving blueberry plants and put two (2) tablespoons of it in a circular band around the base of your blueberry bushes during the month of October once they start to go dormant for the winter. You can find “Holly Tone” at Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart garden centers. If not, you can easily buy it online on Amazon and have it shipped direct to your home. The purpose of using Holly Tone is to add acidity since they are acid loving plants. If you want acidity, just buy the $20 bag of “Holly Tone” and it will last for years if you only have 10 or so blueberry bushes.
Mulching Your Blueberry Plants with Organic Pine Bark Mulch
Pine bark mulch is good for water retention and improves berry plant health. We recommend up to 3 to 4" of untreated fully composted pine wood chips. Avoid using leaves, grass clippings or sawdust as mulch as they inhibit hydration. If using these mulches, you may want to use a little extra nitrogen to maintain blueberry plant growth. Blueberry bushes do best with 3'“ to 4" inches of fully composted cedar, or fully composted pine wood chips and pine needles on top of the roots to conserve moisture, suppress and prevent weeds growth, and to simply add fully composted organic matter into your soil. If you use organic peat moss then you are giving your blueberry plant the long-term organic matter it loves. You can also put pine needles around the base of the plant.
How to Plant Your Red Raspberry and Blackberry Plants
Keep raspberry plants well watered to maintain moisture and establish raspberry bushes with little stress. For raspberries planting is 18" inches between each raspberry or blackberry plant for spacing. Spacing between your raspberry rows will depend on what type of machinery you are using to cultivate or mow between your raspberry rows. We recommend yearly fall raspberry pruning for increased raspberry bush health. Fall pruning your organic raspberry plants also helps to prevent winter damage. We have reduce winter damage by pruning our raspberry plants in late fall and cutting them down to around no taller than 21" inches. We try to be aggressive with our blueberry pruning and other raspberry pruning strategies. As soon as summer blueberry harvest ends, we usually begin pruning blueberries as soon as the leaves fall off in early fall. Its important to wait until all the leaves fall off so you can see what you are pruning off the bushes. Otherwise, it can be difficult to see. We know many of you would like to know exactly how to properly prune blueberry bushes and we are still working to put together a new YouTube video to show our blueberry plant customers exactly how to prune blueberry plants the right way.
Drip Irrigation for Blueberry Bushes
We recommend using drip irrigation placed at the base of the blueberry plants. Then you can apply water at your convenience and know the water is getting to the blueberry root zone where it is needed most. Because of blueberries shallow root system, they may require frequent watering. Maintain moisture, and keep the soil moist, not soaked. Do not allow the roots to dry out. But do not over saturate them. For example, if you only have 1/2 acre of blueberries to water. That's only 600 blueberry bushes to that half acre. You can literally break that area up into two different watering zones and then water it with a garden hose spigot off your house. Once again, it's all low pressure irrigation so it does not take a complicated or costly system to power your blueberry irrigation. To water an entire acre of blueberries bushes (1,200 blueberry plants) spaced 2.5' feet apart, so a total of 3,000 feet of field rows needed to be irrigated, divided by 1,000, because drip irrigation comes in 1,000' foot rolls, so that means, you only need 3 rolls of drip irrigation to water your acre of blueberries plants. Each roll of drip $150 per roll, so that only $450, which is cheap. Of course you will need some fittings and some extra stuff like that, but its not expensive.
How to Prune Your Blueberry Bushes
The only purpose of pruning a blueberry bush is to promote good health, vigor and increase the size of the blueberry in older blueberry bushes. If you just bought blueberry plants from us then you don’t have to worry about pruning for years. But once they get old, then those older mature organic blueberry bushes should be pruned once a year during the month of January or February to avoid over-fruiting, which results in small fruit or overall lack of plant vigor and growth. Remember to always keep the soil moist throughout the establishment period of blueberry plants. Especially during the first 6-8 weeks after planting. Invest in a small automatic timer that you can attach to your drip irrigation hose so you don't forget to water. It's easy. Drip irrigation hose is cheap. If you buy drip irrigation hose commercially, it comes in 1000' foot rolls of drip irrigation hose which should only cost you about $150 per roll. You can order it online and have it shipped. Remember that drip irrigation hose is all low pressure so that means it doesn't take a big irrigation pump or a big irrigation well to water a small patch of blueberries. In many cases, you can just use a drip garden hose. Remove any dead blueberry wood that might develop over time as the blueberry bushes age. Also take off any non-vigorous or twiggy wood. Remember, the biggest and greatest number of blueberries will come off the young blueberry cane. First year and second year new growth. Keep the bright colored healthy, young blueberry wood. Remove blotchy-colored or short growth. If 1/3 to 1/2 of the wood has not been removed by the above steps, thin out the fruiting laterals and small branches until this balance has been obtained on the entire blueberry bush. Many people don't understand how to properly plant a blueberry bush, so we make a blueberry pruning video below for you to watch. Keep in mind that the berry bushes shown in the video are older mature blueberry bushes.
Fertilizing Your Blueberry Plants and Bushes
Never fertilize blueberries plants at the time of planting. Give them at least a few weeks to get settled in. We recommend using organic, slow release fertilizers that work well if you want organically grown blueberries. Just go online and have a bag shipped to your house. It will last you for years. Use an acidic additive such as Rhododendron food (Holly Tone) for acid loving plants like blueberry bushes. Do not confuse Holly Tone with fertilizer. Holly tone is an acidifier, not a fertilizer. You can buy it at Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart. If they are sold out then you can buy it online on Amazon. If you are a home grower with a small number of blueberry plants, one small $20 bag of Holly Tone will last for years. It’s cheap. Use the good stuff. Avoid using any kind of manure on any of your blueberry plants and always water well after fertilizing in early Spring. FERTILIZE JUST ONCE A YEAR in Spring or Summer. If using non-organic fertilizer on newly planted berry stock, use just two tablespoons of 15-09-12 (slow-release fertilizer only) once your plants are established. You can easily buy it online. Just buy one bag of it and it will last you for many years. But be careful because blueberry bushes are sensitive to over fertilization, which is why you need to buy only the slow-release fertilizer, so you don’t burn them up with the 10-10-10 fertilizer that most people use. For subsequent years, use one ounce of fertilizer for each year of blueberry bush age, for a total of eight ounces per blueberry plant.
Proper Soil pH for Your Blueberry Bushes
For best success with your blueberry plants, we recommend you measure and maintain your soil pH levels regularly. Keeping your soil pH levels around a 4.8 is important goal for your blueberry bushes. This is just the best optimal range for soil pH. It does not mean that you soil pH needs to be exactly between that range to be successful. For example, our DiMeo family has many fiends of blueberries plants with a pH of 5.5 or 5.6. Yes that’s a little high but they are still growing well and being productive. Adding peat moss and slow-release garden sulfur is the best material to use to quickly reduce soil pH levels. Just don't put it down too heavy. Never use more than 400 pounds per acre. Start off with a light application, then take another soil sample in about 6 months. You can easily find certified organic sulfur online and have it shipped to your house, just be sure to buy the special garden sulfur for blueberries. One last thing, remember that peat moss has a very low pH of about a 3, so when you mix in 50% peat moss in with your soil it’s going to instantly adjust your soil pH to where it needs to be. Use one 3.8 cubic foot bail of peat moss for every 10 blueberry plants. One more thing, now if your soil pH is too low (below a 4.0) then you will need to add lime to raise your soil pH. You don’t need to “play soil scientist” any worry about your soil pH. Just use straight peat moss and it will immediately bring down your soil pH. Frankly, you should just forget about using and putting down sulphur. Just buy the peat moss and call it a day. No blueberry farmer has a perfect soil pH and the range we suggest is just that, it’s a range. Now remember if your pH levels are too low (below a 4.8) then you should hit them with some limestone during the months of October and November.
Common Blueberry Bush Planting Mistakes
Pack soil firmly around the blueberry plant roots when planting. Water your berry plants well, especially during the first 4 to 6 weeks of establishment period. Keep your soil moist, not soaked or saturated. Avoid plant fertilizer burn by fertilizing only after berry plants are established with slow, time-release non-organic or organic fertilizer. Do not soak the roots of the berry plants in water for more than one (1) hour after you receive them. If you can't plant them right away, then just temporarily pot them up until you are ready to plant. But you should plant all of your DiMeo berry plants immediately upon receiving your shipment. Of course, there is no rush if the berry bushes are potted and you pick them up at our NJ family blueberry farm. In that case, you have plenty of time to plant. Just keep them well watered and don’t let the pots dry out.
The number one mistake that people make with blueberry plants is that they don’t use peat moss when they plant because they don’t want to spend the extra money to buy the bag of peat moss. Why invest your hard earned money in buying blueberry plants and then not do things the right way? Just buy the peat moss. One 3.8 cubic foot bale for every 10 blueberry plants and use 50% sand mixed with 50% peat moss. That’s it. And remember, the sand is for the drainage, but you don’t need the sand if your soil already drains well.
Choosing the Best Bees for Proper Blueberry Plant Pollination
As professional blueberry growers, we give expert farmer advice to people when they become a customer. Our advice includes things that only real blueberry farmers know. One of these many things is how to pollinate your blueberry field with the best bees possible for maximum pollination potential. We recommend the Quad bumblebee because they fly in windy, rainy weather and cold conditions. They are the best bees available on the market. They come with four bumblebee hives in one easy to transport box. Now, a home gardener or grower does not need to worry about buying or renting bumblebees to get better blueberry crop pollination. This paragraph on bees only applies to those of you who have a u-pick organic blueberry farm, or those of you who are our commercial blueberry growers customers. But remember, home growers do not need to worry about renting bee boxes every season. Which are now insanely expensive by the way. This paragraph is only for commercial blueberry growers who have a measurable amount of blueberry acreage that is not close to natural honeybee habitat. But for you home growers who want a tip out of this paragraph, ok we we will throw something in here for you, plant some wild flowers that will attract bees to your blueberry bushes.
Tips and Advice on Planting Your Own Pick Your Own Organic Blueberry Farm
Let’s talk about how you can go about starting a new pick your own (PYO) organic blueberry farm. The u-pick organic blueberries business, as well as pick your own organic raspberries, blackberries and other small fruit plants can be a very profitable business during your upcoming retirement years to bring in additional income. Agritourism and agritainment will be two very big “buy local, and buy organic berries” kind of businesses in the future. If you get ahead of the curve, and get blueberry plants planted in the ground now, it will greatly benefit your financial life in the coming years. Organic blueberry prices will continue to rise in the supermarkets and grocery. Now in 2024, we have all the Baby Boomers, Gen X and even young Millennials from all across America who call us to discuss how they want to increase the value of their land, reduce their property taxes and get farmland tax assessment, start their own little organic blueberry farms, and set up to get ready to plan for your upcoming retirement years with an additional passive income strategy that will supplement their monthly social security check. Here at DiMeo Farms, we don’t just have a lifetime of experience growing blueberries, but we have family generations of blueberry growing experience. We live and breathe blueberries. Without a doubt, we are the best source to help you be successful growing blueberries. Drive out to personally pick-up your first load of organic blueberry bushes. If you live too far away, no problem. We can ship direct to your door. We have everything you need right here at our historic NJ blueberry farm. And yes, we are very passionate about what we do here. To us it’s not just about making money, but it’s about helping people like you to be successful growing our blueberry plants using methods at the DiMeo’s have perfected over generations.
