Grow Blueberries In Containers the RIGHT Way!)

Over my years gardening, I've grown a ton of different types of berries in containers and I've had varying degrees of success. My raspberries and blackberries did really well and you can see right here, this blueberry, it has seen better days. Whereas that blueberry over there is actually doing really well. So in today's video, we have a grower in the Epic Gardening ecosystem all the way over in North Carolina, Meg, who has grown fantastic container blueberries. She's going to take you through the way she does it from start to finish. And a huge thank you to Bushel & Berry for sponsoring today's video. I've been growing not only their blueberries, but their blackberries, raspberries and evergreen strawberries for about three or four years now. Some awesome container varieties that do really well and they're available nationwide. So check them out in the video description and let's get over to Meg. Hello everyone. And Kevin, thank you so much for having me back on the Epic Gardening channel. I'm so excited to be here. And today I'm going to tell you guys about all the failures that I've had over the years trying to grow blueberries. There's been a lot of them. You will have learned from them too. And you guys are going to be growing the best blueberries around in containers. Yeah. I said in containers, blueberries are definitely something that you should be growing in your home garden. One, because they are delicious and nutritious, unless you're allergic to they're actually native to North America. So if you live in North America, you automatically have the perfect environment for growing blueberries. Although there aren't many places that you can't grow them either. And three, they're perennials. So you only have to plant them once and they come back year after year. And with proper care, blueberries can live 50 plus years. Although the ones I'm going to tell you about today lived much, much shorter than that. But that was my bad. Now that I've hopefully convinced you to grow blueberries, it's important to talk about what kind of blueberries to grow, because there are hundreds of different varieties. Remember when I said, almost everyone can grow blueberry plants, no matter where you live, it all boils down to the variety. Some varieties are more suited to colder climates. Some are more suited to warmer climates. It all depends on how many chill hours that variety needs. And chill hours are simply the number of hours per year that the temperature drops below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. And if your blueberries don't get those required amount of chill hours in the winter, they're not going to bloom in the spring and you're not going to get any blueberries. So that's why it's so important. So for instance, one of the blueberries I'm going to plant today, this variety is called Berry Bucks and everything that I need to know is right here on the label. So the chill hours that are required for this variety are 600. And so it's suited to zones five through eight. I'm in zone seven B kind of right on the cusp of zone eight. So I know that this variety is going to perform well in my area. The good news is if you're shopping in your local garden center, you don't have to worry about all this because they're going to be carrying varieties that are suited to your area. Anyway, most modern blueberry varieties are self fertile. They're self pollinating. This variety is self pollinating. And that just means that they don't need another plant to cross pollinate with in order to bear fruit. Some varieties do require cross pollination, which means that they require that you get a different variety of blueberry plant and plant them next to each other. So that's something to look out for, especially if you're a balcony gardener and you just want one plant, make sure that you're getting one that is self fertile because the more cross-pollination you have, the bigger your harvests are going to be, the more fruit you're going to get. Now that we know how to choose a variety, let's talk about when you should plant them. We've basically got two prime times for planting blueberries. We've got spring and we've got fall and I've planted at both of these times. And I'm going to say that fall is by far my favorite time to plant them because I just feel like it gives you a little bit of a headstart right now. It's mid November and in my zone, it's still the perfect time to plant blueberries because we haven't had any really hard freezes yet. Our soil is still very loose. It's very workable, and it'll probably be that way. Well, planting in the fall allows your plant to establish a really good root system right before it goes into that winter dormancy. It goes ahead and gets those chill hours that it needs out of the way. And it will be ready to rock and roll come spring time when the plant regrows all of its foliage and it blooms and starts creating those berries. Blueberries are long lived perennials. So with each passing year, as your plant matures, you're going to get bigger and better harvests every year to explain to you how containers became my preferred method of growing blueberries. I have to tell you a story about a funeral that I had for four blueberry plants. This was my very first year of gardening. I'd never grown blueberries before and I tried to grow them in the ground. And let's just say they passed very quickly. I was devastated. I was heartbroken. And most of all, I was really confused because I had no idea what happened. And back in my beginner gardening days, I had absolutely no idea that blueberries thrive in an acidic soil. They prefer a soil pH of 4.5 to five. And that very specific pH can be very hard to obtain and control in an in-ground environment. I ended up going to the hardware store. I picked up an at-home soil test kit and I tested the soil and the soil was actually alkaline. So those blueberries were definitely not happy at all. And unfortunately, before I realized what was going on, it was too late. And I opted to try to grow my blueberries in containers. This time I picked up some more blueberries, some large terracotta pots, some organic potting soil, some compost, and I got some soil acidifier. This way I had total control over the soil that my blueberries were growing in and it worked. I got a bumper crop the next year. I was so happy. I was over the moon. And it's really what made me fall in love with growing not only my blueberries, but fruit trees and other fruit bushes in containers. But I still made a tiny mistake in choosing the right containers, which would eventually cause another blueberry tragedy the next year. These terracotta pots that I chose were much too small. I mean, this is like a five gallon container, if that. And while it did okay the first season that the plants were in there, got lots of berries. As the next season came around, they started to quickly decline and I got zero berries. Terracotta is a porous material that very quickly dries out, especially in the Southern heat. And at first I could get away with watering these every few days or so. But the problem came when the plants started growing more and more, they very quickly became root bound in these really small containers. And when a plant becomes root bound, this happens because the pot is too small and the roots keep growing and growing and they run out of room. So they just start wrapping around and around and around in the pot. And this can actually start to make your plants hydrophobic because the roots are taking up all of the room. There's little to no soil left. And what soil is left is really compacted. And so it starts to not hold water well at all. And eventually your plant really starts to suffer because it's not getting enough water. It doesn't have the space that it needs to grow. And they'll die. And that's what happened to a few of my blueberry plants. I was able to save some of them by repotting them in the right container. So today we're going to plant a few blueberries and I'm going to show you what I learned and how to choose the right container. When you're choosing a container for blueberries, you want to go for something that is fairly large because keep in mind, this is a perennial that can live for over 50 years. So it needs all the space that it can get. So we're going to go with something that is 20 gallons at least at the very least. And don't forget to keep those varieties in mind, because while you can grow any variety of blueberry in a container that you want, it's always best to go for those container specific varieties because they have been bred over time to perform well in containers. So that's always better if you can get your hands on some. I'm going to be using these 20 gallon lined grow bags from Epic Gardening. And I've become a huge, huge fan of growing pretty much anything in grow bags because they have this permeable fabric, which allows the plant to breathe and allows for better water drainage. But they're also lined with this extra material that keeps the moisture in at the same time, but not too much. And these bags allow your plants to air prune. Meaning when the roots grow and they reach the edge of this bag, they just prune themselves off instead of becoming root bound and wrapping around and around and around. And that makes for a much, much healthier plant. We're just going to fill this grow back up with this organic potting soil. This is a locally made potting soil that I really like. And then I'm going to add in a bit of compost as well, just for a little boost. Most fruit trees or bushes really enjoy a healthy dose of compost at least once a year. Then we're just going to plant our blueberry. Then we're going to add in some soil acidifier to bring that pH down. And this is organic and it's made for acid loving plants like blueberries and hydrangeas. And you just follow the package instructions to make the proper amendment. And it's going to bring that pH down to the acidity that blueberries love. I'm going to top it with some mulch. I love a good weed straw mulch, but any mulch will work. We just want to make sure that we're giving it a nice two to three inch layer. So the soil will stay cozy over the winter and it's done easy. You might want to pick up an at home soil testing kit and just test the soil every once in a while, just to make sure that the pH remains at the preferred level of blueberries. You can always use more of that soil acidifier if necessary. You might also want to consider a raised bed for your blueberries, which still counts as a container. And here's some that I planted earlier this fall in this patio birdies bed. This is a great idea if you have some more space. I also really like the look of these berries in here. I feel like it's kind of elevating my patio a little bit. I've also made sure to add some irrigation to my patio and most of my containers have a little drip line going to them. And another thing I really like about these grow bags is that they come with this little sleeve on the side that you can put your drip line through to hold it in place and to kind of hide it as well. Blueberries need about an inch of water per week, whether you're hand watering or you're using drip irrigation, but they like to stay consistently moist. They don't like to dry completely out, but they don't like to be sopping wet either. So you just kind of have to play around a little bit and find that right balance of watering. And it really depends on what kind of drip system you have going on. But for instance, I run my entire container garden drip for about 10 minutes every day in the peak of the summer. And that seemed to really work well for me last year. Blueberries also love sunlight. They can tolerate part shade, but they really prefer more full sun about six to eight hours per day. And blueberries are deciduous. So if your blueberry drops all of its leaves, don't freak out. It's totally and completely normal. The leaves of your blueberry plants will start to change color with the rest of the leaves in the fall. Like you see this one doing here. This one actually has some really pretty, really beautiful coloring going on over here. They're actually really pretty bushes in the fall and it'll eventually drop all of these leaves with the rest of the deciduous trees. So just nothing to be alarmed about in very early spring, right before these leaves start to grow back. That's when I like to fertilize and blueberries really only need fertilizing once a year in the spring. I really like to use an organic fruit tree fertilizer. Like Espoma has one called Berry Tone. I really like that one. Some compost would work nicely as well. I always like to add some compost in the spring and then the plants will come out of their winter slumber. They'll start to grow those leaves back. They'll start budding up. Then they'll flower and form those berries. And usually the harvest window for blueberries is anywhere between April and September. It really just depends on what variety you plant. Some are early bloomers, some are late bloomers and you'll know your blueberries are ready to harvest when they've swelled up and they've developed that really deep blue color that we all know and love. And they'll go from being very firm to just a little bit squishy. But you don't want to let them get too squishy because that's a little bit overripe, but they'll also be very fragrant and they'll just kind of pull off the plant very easily. That's how you know when they're ready to harvest. Blueberries do have some pests to look out for. And in my experience, the main pest is birds. Birds love, love blueberries and sometimes they can just gobble up every single blueberry before you even get a chance. But there are a few things you can do to deter them. The first one is bird netting. This just kind of creates a physical barrier between your blueberries and the birds. And that seems to work well for a lot of people. I've tried this method and I definitely have had my issues with birds and I found that bird netting didn't really help that much. This is what I like to do. And this is what has pretty much protected my entire garden from birds. I just feed them. I have multiple bird feeders set up throughout my entire property. I put most of them in the front yard. So basically instead of going to battle with the birds, I just kind of gave in to their antics and started to spoil them and keep them constantly fed. So I really hope that me sharing my failures with you has given you some valuable insight and you feel prepped and ready to grow the most amazing blueberries in containers next year. So if you haven't grown container blueberries guys, I actually think you're really missing out. They are so delicious, so nutritious and really so productive once you understand how to grow them successfully. Thanks again to Bushland Berry for sponsoring this video. If you want some container berry tips that include more than just blueberries, check this video out right here. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.