How to Plant Blueberry Bushes

Blueberries are a tasty and nutritious fruit borne on a plant beautiful enough to be an ornamental in your backyard or berry garden. Blueberries are easy to grow, require little care, little space and are seldom bothered by pests.

How to Grow Blueberries

With a few basic steps, planted right, your blueberry plants will pay dividends of a lifetime of fresh fruit. Let DiMeo Fruit Farms & Berry Plant Nursery teach you how to plant blueberry bushes the right way. Follow our blueberry planting guide and blueberry planting instructions for success.

Selecting the Best Blueberry Plant Varieties

We sell over 32 blueberry plant varieties, but feature the most popular blueberry plant varieties to grow. Allow at least two (2) blueberry plants per family member in your house. For example, if you are a family of four, you should buy at least eight (8) blueberry plants, althought we recommend 10 to 12 plants for a household of that size. The average homeowner buys at least 10 berry plants. Most buy 15-20 berry plants for sale by DiMeo Fruit Farms.

Blueberry Site Selection & Preparation

 Select a sunny location. As sunny as possible. Blueberry plants prefer direct sunlight but many of our customers have been successful with only 4-5 hours of sunlight per day.
 Soil should be well drained, free of weeds and well worked.
 Locate berry plants where water is available, as blueberry roots should be kept moist (not soaked) throughout the blueberry growing season.
 If soil is poor or marginally drained, raised beds 3' feet wide and 16" inches high works well.
 Incorporate peat moss into the soil. Dig a hole 2' foot wide by 12-16" inches deep. Remove 1/2 of the soil, mix in an equal portion of pre-moistened peat moss and work in well. PEAT MOSS IS CRITICAL FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESSFUL BLUEBERRY PLANT GROWTH. If you don't have peat moss, DiMeo can sell you the best quality commerical grade peat moss (FOR PICK-UP ORDERS ONLY. We DO NOT ship peat moss) Just ask us for the peat moss in advance.
 For raised beds, mix equal amounts of peat moss with acid compost or planting mix. Proper mix is 70% soil and 30% peat moss. Remember, blueberry plants thrive in acidic soils.
 For soil that is not acidic enough, amend it with Rhododendron planting mix (Holly Tone) or peat moss. Once you become a DiMeo berry plant customer, if you are planting high-volume, we will connect you with our peat moss contact who will sell you premium peat moss by the tractor trailer load. We will get you our low peat moss prices. Our DiMeo family has been dealing with the same private peat moss bog for over 40 years!

Proper Blueberry Plant Spacing

Plant blueberry bushes about 2.5' feet apart between plants in the row. If you are planting an edible blueberry hedge row then space plants 2' feet apart. Row spacing will depend on your cultivating or equipment. Everyone spaces differently. Be careful not to plant too deeply. Reember that the spacing of your rows will depend on what kind of machinery you are using. For example, if you are home grower you might want to just plant grass and mow between the rows. If you are a small farm or have a small PYO you might want to cultivate between the rows with a 6' disc or cultivator which means that you will need 9' between rows - from center one one plant to center of next plant in next row. 

Planting Blueberry Bushes

Simply dig a small hole hole about 1'x1'x1' and mix soil and peat moss together at a ratio of 30-40% peat moss to 60-70% soil. Place this mixture around each blueberry plant. If you use peat moss, make sure that it is thoroughly saturated with water, because peat moss that is not saturated can wick moisture away from the blueberry plant and cause the roots to dry out quickly. WARNING: Manure has too much nitrogen for newly planted young blueberry plants.

Mulching Blueberry Plants with Peat Moss 

A heavy mulch is good for water retention and improves plant health. We recommend 3" to 4" of untreated, older woodchips. 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 growth.

Blueberry plants do best with a 3" inch peat moss layer over the roots to conserve moisture, prevent weeds and add fully composted organic matter. Pine bark, acid compost, sawdust, etc. Repeat every year. If you use high-quality Canadian peat moss (whch is the right way to do it) then you are giving your blueberry plant the long-term food it needs. Avoid using treated or colored bark mulch.

Many people don't know this, but cranberry leaves harvested from cranberry plants after cranberry picking season (in the fall) is a great item to "top dress" with every fall season. We sell the cranberry leaves, but for pick-up only at our berry farm.

How to Plant Raspberries - Raspberry Planting Tips

Avoid planting the roots too deep. Keep the plants well watered to maintain moisture and establish plants with little stress.

Spacing: For raspberries is 18" to 24" inches, but we recommend 18" inches for plant spacing. Space between your rows will once again depend on what type of machinery you are using to cultivate or mow your rows.

We recommend summer pruning for increased raspberry plant health. Fall pruning to prevent winter damage. We have reduced winter damage in summer by pruning our raspbery plants in late fall.

Pruning the raspberry plant mass reduces the surface area of the plantings, decreasing winter damage due to plant desiccation.

We have seen virtually no winter damage in our summer red and black raspberries. Most recommendations suggest it is better to wait until spring to prune off the winter damage on summer bearing brambles. We believe that decreasing the amount of came the raspberry plants have to support increases the chances it has to survice the winter season.

At DiMeo Fruit Farms & Berry Plant Nursery we have been very agressive with our blueberry pruning and other berry pruning strategies. As soon as the summer berry harvest ends, we begin pruning blueberries with our migrant workers.

Yes, we know many of you would like to know exactly how to properly prune blueberry bushes and we are 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 & How to Prune Blueberries

We recommend using drip irrigation placed at the base of the blueberry plant. Then you may apply water at your conveniene and know the water is getting to the root zone where it is needed. Because of blueberries' shallow fibrous root system, they require frequent watering. Maintain moisture, and do not allow roots to dry out. Water at least 1-3 times per week. Once you become a customer, if you are planting high-volume of plants, we will hook you up with our own personal irrigation guys who will not only take care of you but who will give you our low pricing rate for irrigation! Our DiMeo family has been dealing with them for over 20 years now. 

Every year your blueberry bushes should be heavily pruned to avoid overfruiting, which results in small fruit or poor growth. Follow these steps after the leaves have dropped during the winter months. Keep soil moist throughout the establishment period of blueberry plants.

 Remove low growth around the base. If it doesn't grow up, prune it.
 Remove the dead wood, and non-vigorous twiggy wood. Keep the bright colored wood with long (at least 3" inch) laterals. Remove blotchy-colored 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.

Fertilizing Blueberry Plants & Blueberry Bushes 

Never fertilize at planting. We recommend using organic fertilizers. A mixture of 1 part kelp, 3 parts fish meal and 3 parts bone meal works well. Apply in early spring. Or use an acidic commercial preparation, such as Rhododendron food (5-5-3) for acid-loving plants like blueberry bushes or Holly Tone. Avoid using fresh manures on any of these berry plants and always water well after fertilizing.

If using a non-organic fertilizer, on newly planted stock, use two tablespoons of 10-20-10 (or similar slow-release fertilizer) in late spring or once plants are established. Be careful! Blueberry bushes are very sensitive to over fertilization. For subsequent years, use one ounce of fertilizer for each year of blueberry bush age, to a total of eight ounces per blueberry plant. Apply in early spring and again in late spring for best results. However, our farm practices and supports supports organic blueberry plant growing, and strongly encourages you to stay organic.

Wait 4-6 weeks after planting your blueberry plants before fertilizing. Don't fertilize after July as this could lead to new growth, which is susceptible to winter injury. Organic sourse of nitrogen is Blood Meal 12-00 instead of ammonium sulfate.

Blueberry Plant pH Requirements - Sulfur & Blueberries 

Fo best success with your blueberry plants, we recommend that you meature/maintain pH levels regularly. Keeping pH levels between 4.5 to 4.8 is very important for your blueberry bushes. Adding some garden sulfur is the best material to use to reduce pH levels. Just dont put it down too heavy. Start light and then take another soil sample about 6 months later.  We will sell you the certified organic sulfur if you need sulfur just ask one of our DiMeo farmers. We sell our garden sulfur in large 50lb bags or in smaller amounts for home growers that need to buy garden sulfur from DiMeo berry plant nursery.

Birds or Deer and Blueberries

Not many of our customers have issues with birds, but some do. Here are some helpful tips from DiMeo Blueberry Farms on dealing with birds and blueberries.

Buy a professional quality 3/4" mesh neeting with UV protection. The netting can be drapped over the blueberry plants, but we recommend installing a light, yet simple support structure. This will avoid entanglement of the net in the blueberry branch tips. Always remove netting at the end of your harvest to extend the life of netting. Some of our customers even paint the corner post poles and decorate them as to become more of a decorative piece in the garden. Here's an example of how much you will need: For 12 bushes you will need 17' x 100' of bird neeting. For 6 bushes you will need 17' x 50' of neeting. Sorry, we do not sell the netting at this time. For deer just use small soap bars hung next to young plants which will successful deter deer until plants get bigger. Remember that our DiMeo blueberry bushes are more established "hard wood" plants and not the "soft wood or tissue culture plants" that deer love to eat. 


Blueberry Planting Trouble Shooting

Yellow leaves on blueberries can be quickly corrected with a foliar application of 1-table-spoon iron chelate in a gallon of water sprayed over the leaves. You should see greener leaves in a few days. However, the real culprit may be that the soil pH is probally too high.

You should be getting 12-18" inches of new blueberry bush growth each year. If not, re-check your soil pH and/or use a little more fertilizer. Of course we always recommend using organic fertilizers. A slow-release fertilizer is best - this way you won't burn your plants.

Avoid Common Blueberry Planting Mistakes

1/ Pack soil firmly around the roots.

2/ Water your berry plants well one to three times a week, not every single day. Keep the soil moist, not soaked.

3/ Avoid fertilizer burn by fertilizing only after plants are established with SLOW RELEASE fertilizer.

4/ Do not soak berry plants in water more than 1 hour

5/ Plant immediately upon your receipt of berry plants.

TIPS AND ADVICE FOR COMMERCIAL GROWERS AND PLANTING A PICK YOUR OWN BLUEBERRY FIELD

We would like to take a moment to speak directly to some of you who are starting a Pick Your Own (PYO) blueberry farm for the very first time. We get many of the same frequently asked questions so let's just answer some of them now.

The PYO blueberry business as well as pick your own Aronia black chokeberry and other "super fruit plants" is a very big business. It will only get bigger as fuel prices continue to rise and people move more and more toward buying only "locally grown" fruits such as blueberries which currently tops the list!

Agritourism and Agritainment are going to be two very big businesses in the future and those of you who are "ahead of the curve" and "get berry plants in the ground now" will greatly benefit by this trend in the coming years. Food prices will continue to rise and more people will by local.

We have many "baby boomers" from across America who call us almost every single day to discuss how they want to have their own little farms "set up" and ready to go for their retirement. DiMeo Fruit Farms & Berry Plant Nursery as well as our DiMeo family blueberry farmers are very experienced with this - and like many of our other existing berry plant customers, our farm can help you be successful in your goals.

If you are serious about starting your own berry patch or farm, fly out to see us. We will spend time with you and teach you how to plant blueberries the right way. Many of our prospective customers fly out to see us, only to end up canceling their flights home, so they can rent a huge 28" U-Haul truck to drive blueberry plants home from our blueberry plant nursery here in "the blueberry capital of the world" Hammonton, New Jersey.

Just look at many of our satisfied DiMeo berry plant customers on our photo gallery which features just a FEW of the many repeat DiMeo customers with no complaints!