Blueberries are a great home crop.  With a handful of bushes, you can potentially grow enough for your family's year-round consumption!  Blueberries are grown commercially in 38 states, so odds are good you are in a decent location for blueberries.

For starters, the most important things to note when planting blueberries:

• Blueberries need full sun.
• Blueberries require acidic soil.  A pH of 4.5 to 5.2 is best for optimum plant nutrition. If soil pH is too high, sulfur may be added to lower the soil pH (i.e. elemental sulfur, peat moss, mulch with pine needles  or oak leaves, apply coffee grounds or ground lemons, or use a fertilizer with ammonium sulfate).  If the pH is above 5.5, blueberry leaves will yellow, fruit production will be poor, and plants could die.
• Plant two or more varieties for successful pollination.  To learn which varieties do best in your location, check out your local cooperative extension service center.  Find your local extension service center: College Partners Directory | National Institute of Food and Agriculture (usda.gov)

Other considerations:

• Dormant blueberry bushes can withstand sub-zero temperatures, but flowers and berries cannot tolerate a frost.  Choose a site that isn't in a frosty site, and keep watch on low temperatures when the flowers open to ensure a good summer harvest.  You may have to cover the bushes during late-season cold snaps.  We planted our bushes in a row, put in a T-post on either end, and draped the bushes under cover (agribon or fabric) to protect from a light frost.
• All weeds should be removed before planting, as blueberries do not compete well for nutrients due to their lack of secondary root hairs.
• Choose or make well drained soil.  If you naturally have a sandy loam, great.  If not, add sand and organic matter.  You might even try planting in a raised bed if your soil has an especially high clay content.
• Blueberries need between 1 to 3 inches of natural rainfall or irrigation per week, depending on temperatures and evaporation rate.
• Mulch 4-6" deep with pine needles or oak leaves.  This can insulate roots in the winter and help divert excess rainfall, protecting against root rot, while also working to maintain proper soil acidity.
• Prune adhering to the following principles: Fruit is produced on one-year-old wood. The largest berries are produced on the healthiest wood, so a good supply of strong, one-year-old wood is desirable.
  • Keep the bush fairly open by cutting out any weak, old stems that no longer produce strong young wood.
  • Remove these older stems at ground level.
  • Keep four to six healthy older stems and one to two strong new shoots per mature bush. The new shoots will eventually replace the older stems.
  • Take care not to prune too aggressively, as this can greatly reduce yield.

• Pest control: There are insects and diseases that can attack blueberry bushes.  So far, our peskiest pests are birds - chickens and songbirds.  You may have to cover your plants with netting to protect your ripening fruit.

Blueberries can be easily stored by freezing on cookie sheets (to prevent clumping in a mushy ice block) and then poured into freezer bags.

A note on timing

It's often advised to plant fruit trees and bushes when dormant - late fall to late winter.  Following a devastating tornado in May 2019, we went to our local nursery in June and purchased 8 (discounted and fruiting) blueberry bushes.  Ours are still doing great despite the ill-advised planting time.  So as Johnny often says, just start.  Put something in the ground and see what happens.  Hopefully it will be worth your time and effort!