Planting

My husband Clayton bought an auger to make the holes as we have very hard clay soil. This speed up the process and made the ground loser for the roots of the new plants. For a video on planting see http://www.gardenguides.com/video-64400-digging-blueberry-bush-hole.html

We added peat moss to the soil to help the acidity levels. The blueberry bush will not survive in PH levels higher than Ph 5.5 –these plants do best in a ph of 4.0 – 5.0. You can get a soil test kit from the local Agricultural Exchange office and the test is generally very inexpensive. This is extremely important for blueberries. They recommend waiting a year to plant as you need to get your ground ready. Of course, we were too excited to do that in the beginning but we now understand how important that preparation time is for the final results.

We planted our bushes about six feet apart with rows ten feet wide for mowing. You want to make sure you space them adequately as they will grow very wide and tall some up to ten feet tall if not pruned.  If you purchase bare root stock, you will want to soak them in water before planting to hydrate the roots. We found this year that potting them and keeping them water to grow a little more before planting has been most beneficial.

We now have a new implement that will mound the dirt and lay out a layer of mulch fabric along with the irrigation tubing, as it knocks the hill level. The last step in this process is for the blades to turn earth back onto of the mulch to hold down the fabric. Wow what a time saver! The person that designed this was a genius! http://youtu.be/TEXhO8XYAsM Check out the video!