Learning about the class
This summer, Marcus and I went berry picking at Barren River Berries. While we were there, we asked the owner for tips growing our own berries, and he suggested the farm where they buy their plants. He said they were very knowledgeable and could tell us the best plants to pick for our area and how to care for them. We looked into Bluegrass Berries and discovered on their webpage that they offered a 2-hour class on how to grow blueberries well. Naturally, I signed us up and in September, we headed to Oakland to see what we could learn!
Class Day
Bluegrass Berries isn’t actually very far from where we’re located, but somehow, we’ve never been before this day. We turned onto a long gravel driveway that led to a barn surrounded by berry plants. We were greeted by Jeff, the owner and a handful of other attendees. He took us into a store area off the side of the barn and handed us each a packet of PowerPoint slides to help guide the class.
The Class
The class started as most do- Jeff told us about himself and how he ended up at Bluegrass Berries. Then about his family and how the farm grew, becoming organic, and why they started teaching the berry class. Then he dove deep into the berries. There was way more to blueberries than I could’ve imagined! He used every bit of the 2 hours and then some in his teaching. He went into:
- caring for the plants
- soil health (Mineralization)
- recipes (Worm Casting Tea)
- and harvesting
The Takeaways
Caring for the plants:
~Full sun ~pH between 4.5-5.2 ~well-draining soil
~4 feet spacing ~10-12 feet row space
~>70 feet from a different color berry plant (Blackberries)
~Add 50/50 mix of peat moss and pine fines
~use wood chips, sawdust or peat moss as mulch (NO CEDAR, CYPRESS, OR WALNUT)
~old canes are dead weight, cut them off (Jan-Feb)
~Keep the plants watered well, about an inch of rain a week
~Set up a drip irrigation system if you can
Soil Health:
~INSECTS LOVE WEAK AND UNHEALTHY PLANTS
~Soil tests check for NPK, but little else
~”Mineralization” aids the other minerals in soil to release for plants to use
~Jeff suggested Calusolv, fish emulsions, manure, and compost to improve the health of your soil
~Soil health is the key to plant health
~Compost and manure are the most natural and cost-efficient ways to build up your soil.
Worm Casting Tea:
~2/3 C worm castings
~1 G. Non chlorinated water
~1 Tbsp Molasses
Place castings in a nylon sock and steep in water for 24 hours with aeration.
Filter tea into a sprayer
Shake in molasses
Spray base of plants within 18 hours of mixing.
Harvesting:
~Pick all the berries at the end of each season to prevent fungal infections
~Beat the birds, once they show up, they’ll be hard to beat to ripe berries
~Plants are in full production between 7 and 10 years old
~Berries that are pink/green are not ripe enough to pick and will be very bitter (aim for blue/purple but not about to mold)
~Cross pollination will cause bigger berries
~There are early, mid, and late season varieties in each of “Northern High Bush,” “Southern High Bush,” and “Rabbit Eye” blueberry types
These are only the major takeaways I got from the class. There was so much more information I don’t even know how to include. I absolutely recommend signing up for Jeff’s course if you have the freedom to. We’re going to be starting our blueberry journey with this knowledge very soon! Good luck if you’re there too!