Finally Getting the Ball Rolling
I’ve wanted to buy blueberry plants and wanting to get started with berry growing since long before we took the berry class in September. Taking the class just strengthened the goal and gave us a path to take to accomplish it. On Veteran’s Day, we called Bluegrass Berries back up, asked if they had plants left (they had plenty), and headed over to start the next area of the mini homestead!
As a side note, I only anticipated buying about 3 plants. Their website shows the plants costing about twice as much as what they charged in person, so I had a plan to buy my favorite snacking berry from the U-pick, a pie berry bush, and a pink lemonade plant because we’re curious about it. Finding out the plants were much more affordable in person is dangerous knowledge for me.
But I only bought twice as many as the initial plan. My favorite berry at the u-pick is a chandler berry, a large, sweet blueberry great for snacking on. I bought two, one for our land and one for Marcus’ sister. Elliot berries, they told us, are good for making pies, so I bought two of those as well. But they’ll both be staying with us. The chandlers and elliots are all two years old already and should give us berries in the coming growing season. Lastly, we got two pink lemonade bushes. They’re the youngest and will take the longest to produce berries, but they’re supposed to actually taste like pink lemonade!
There’s a good chance I’ll be going back for more of the other varieties to fill in the whole season. The ones I bought are only late season, after all.
Setting Up the Plants
Marcus mowed the yard and used a weed eater to cut the grass down to the roots. Then, we took turns tilling the rows for the plants. Thinking on it now, the rows are supposed to be spread further apart, but I think it should still be okay. At worst, I may lose the second row, which will be basically a copy of the first. After all, this is all trial and error. We dug a small hole for each of the lemonade bushes and a larger one for the remaining plants. Next, we spread landscape cloth over the holes and cut an “X” over each hole.
Finally, we placed each plant into its designated hole and replaced the surrounding dirt. Jeff at Bluegrass Berries told us about this almost wonder fertilizer called Calusolv. We bought a box to give it a go and sprinkled some on each plant before giving them all a heavy watering. I can’t wait for the growing season!
The Plans for the Plants
During the class, we were handed a paper that had the fertilization schedule Bluegrass Berries follow for their plants. It’s extensive, so I’m not sure we’ll be able to follow it completely, but we can try our best and see where it gets us!
- Calusolv in fall, and every 45 days after February
- Berry Mix (Granular) 4-6 oz at base of plant in March
- Worm Casting Tea in March
- Weekly alternation of Regalia, Sporequell, Stargus, and Oxidate 5.0
- Tritek monthly beginning in April-September
- Sulfate of Potash- apply during heavy fruiting
As always, wish us luck!