How fast blueberry grow

University of Minnesota Extension. Emily S. Tepe, horticultural science researcher; Emily E. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

Home Yard and garden Find plants Fruit Growing blueberries in the home garden. Quick facts about growing blueberries Blueberries need full sun. Blueberries require acidic soil. Plant two or more varieties for successful pollination.

Plants won't have much fruit the first 2 to 3 years. Harvest is bigger after 5 years. Blueberry plants grow slowly and reach full size in 8 to 10 years. Each winter, prune out old, weak and dead wood. Preparing to plant Blueberry plants require acidic soil pH 4. If pH is too high: Growth of the plant is slowed. Leaves discolor.

Plants may die. Open all Close all. Soil testing, fertilizer and mulch. Selecting plants Blueberry plants are widely available at local and online nurseries. If buying plants locally, find potted plants that are at least two or three years old. Caring for blueberry plants before planting. Best blueberry varieties for Minnesota. Ripen mid-season Chippewa 4. Firm texture, sweet flavor. Ripen mid-season. Northblue 3 x 4 ft Excellent to good 3 to 9 lbs Large, dark blue, firm berries.

Northcountry 2. Sweet, mild flavor. Ripen early. Northland 4 x 4 ft Excellent to good 3 to 12 lbs Medium, mild flavored berries. Northsky 2 x 3 ft Good to fair 1 to 5 lbs Medium, sky-blue berries. Sweet and mild. Patriot 4. Ripen early to mid-season. Polaris 4 x 4 ft Very good to good 3 to 8 lbs Medium, firm, crisp berries. Intense flavor. Cloud 5 x 4 ft Very good to good 2 to 7 lbs Medium, dark blue, firm berries. Sweet flavor, crisp texture.

Superior 5 x 4 ft Very good to good 3 to 8 lbs Medium, sweet-tart berries. Ripen late. Planting Blueberries grow best in full sun.

Choose a sunny location Avoid areas surrounded by trees. Trees provide too much shade, compete with plants for water and nutrients, and interfere with air movement around plants. Poor air movement increases danger of spring frost injury to blossoms and favors disease development. Space blueberry plants about 3 feet apart. If the variety you purchase is listed as growing larger than that, then space them a little further apart.

Plant young blueberry bushes in late April or early May. There is a waiting period of years before the plant reaches maturity to produce a viable crop. The number of months you need to wait during the year for an established bush to produce berries will depend on the type of bush you have planted. Climate also plays a role in the amount of time it takes for these plants to produce berries.

Blueberry bushes grow best in U. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 8. A blueberry bush is at least two or three years old before it is mature and established enough to bear fruit. Blueberries should be fertilized sparingly in the spring, once the leaf buds begin to swell and again when the fruit starts to form.

Soil is the key to success with any plant. Have yours tested and see what nutrients it lacks and what the pH is. Blueberries need acidic soil to grow and produce well.

If the pH is too high the leaves will be yellow and the plants will struggle to grow. A site with full sun is best. They are very sensitive to drying out so they need plenty of water, especially in the early years.

Mulching with wood chips or pine needles will help protect the roots and conserve moisture. It takes a few years for the plants to become established and begin to pump out the berries so after you have made any necessary soil corrections be patient.

Eventually you should start to get the berries you are eagerly looking forward to! How do I overwinter my blueberry plants? Because containers do not provide adequate insulation from the cold, be sure to protect container-grown blueberries during the winter to prevent root damage. In mid- to late October, bury containers in the ground at a site where snow is likely to accumulate and where plants will be protected from cold winter winds.

Mulch the soil surface with four to eight inches of straw in mid-November or cover the bushes with burlap. Prevent rabbit damage by placing chicken wire fencing or hardware cloth around the bushes. During early to mid-spring, remove containers from the ground and place them in full sun.

Alternatively, containers can be left buried in the soil as long as the containers have proper drainage holes and the site where the containers are buried is well drained and exposed to full sun. You will notice some redundancy amidst the info; the bottom line—we think—is to protect the plants in a garage or basement until spring. Please take the time to read and note the advice these sources offer. And good luck! I moved into my home about a year ago.

While outside yesterday, I found a few blueberry bushes with soon to ripen berries. They are in the yard near the edge of our woods.

They are small but given that the previous owners lived here for 11 years, I do not think they are young. What can I do to cultivate them in hopes of making them healthy and fruitful in the future? The best advice we have in above. Read it all, but especially how to care. And peruse thee Qs and As below.

Good luck! I was able to pick ripe blueberries for 2 weeks. Now there are many berries but they are not ripening. The temp has been in the 90's. Food and water are not on the menu here; scientists are learning that high temps such as you describe can affect pollen development and pollination. We just bought our home in December of and we have an amazing backyard full of flowers, a nice small pond, walkways..

Amid all the greenery and flowers, we have a tree and 2 of the same in the front. We were told they are Blueberry trees, which I have never heard of.

However, the berries came in and we were told that they are ready to pick when the are easily removed from the stem. They are not a typical "blue", but a deep maroon color. Are these indeed blueberries, maybe a different variety?

I know our bluebirds are loving them!! We did harvest them and they have exceptional flavor. Any info I could have would be great!! It could be that you do have a type of highbush blueberry, as they can get quite tall and tree like. However, the description also sounds like deerberry, which have berries that are more red than your usual blueberry.

They also have reddish flesh, rather than the pale flesh of a typical blueberry. The area at the top of the blueberry fruit. Mine are new. A few weeks old and seem to look rusty inside of the crown area. Is that a bad sign? Blueberries are not just a northern crop anymore. Fairly recently, several cultivars of low chill blueberries have been developed.

There is a thriving commercial blueberry industry even in south Florida. So, don't think that you have to live in a cold climate to enjoy this wonderful fruit. Both Rabbiteye and Southern Highbush blueberries perform well in southern gardens see Recommended Varieties , above.

The finest roots ranging from 40 to 75 microns in diameter are white or light brown and take up water and nutrients from the soil. The finest roots are often colonized by mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi help the blueberry plant take up nutrients. These shed roots are replaced by new root growth. The roots are sensitive to plant and environmental factors. Irrigation, fertilization, mulch type, and raised beds can all influence blueberry root system growth and development.

Blueberry plants produce new roots throughout the year. We often find two peaks in root production in Oregon. The first peak occurs in late spring or early summer and is triggered by high water and nutrient demands for fruit production. The second peak occurs in mid- to late summer, after harvest, as the plants begin to accumulate carbohydrates and nutrients in preparation for dormancy.

In general, blueberry roots do not extend very far from the plant. However, this rooting pattern can depend on management factors. For example, plants irrigated by drip have roots concentrated near the emitters, while those irrigated by sprinklers tend to produce a uniform layer of roots.

Plants also produce more roots when grown on raised beds than on flat ground and produce deeper roots with weed mats than with sawdust mulch. In sandy soils, roots will grow deeper than in clay or silt loam soils. In Florida, where a pine bark system is often used, blueberry roots will only grow in the upper pine bark layer, which has the preferred lower soil pH and a higher organic matter than the sandy soil below.

The number of whips per plant is affected by pruning severity and light exposure to the base of the plant. Growth will often continue from an adjacent bud. Most highbush blueberry cultivars have one to three flushes of growth per growing season. Whips often have more growth flushes than lateral shoots. The number of flushes varies with cultivar, length of the growing season, vigor pruning severity or crop load , and management particularly fertilization with nitrogen.

Growth must slow in late summer for flower buds to develop. Late flushes of growth are also more sensitive to frost damage in autumn. This wood has vegetative buds small, scale-like buds that will only produce a shoot with leaves.

It may contain flower buds larger and wider buds that only contain a flower cluster. Flower buds, if present, are located at the tip portion of the 1-year-old wood. Shoot growth occurs rapidly in the spring and begins to slow in midsummer. Flower buds develop in late summer to early fall as days get shorter and night temperatures cool. Flower bud initiation starts at the tip of a shoot and progresses downward. Shoot growth must slow or stop before initiation can occur.

Factors that promote late shoot growth reduce fruit bud set. Other factors that affect flower bud initiation include light intensity less in shade , plant carbohydrate status see below and cultivar.

Once flower buds have initiated, differentiation development of flowers and flower parts within the buds occurs. The number of flowers that develop within each bud depends on the cultivar. When temperatures become too cool for plant development, flower bud differentiation will stop.