Content
- How to fertilize your berry bushes properly
- Prepare the soil well
- The best fertilizers for berry fruits
- Do not fertilize soft fruit trees with blue-grain
- When should be fertilized?
- Tips & Tricks
How to fertilize your berry bushes properly
Most soft fruit shrubs can do without fertilization. Prerequisite is that the soil was well prepared before planting. Blueberries and cranberries need no fertilizer at all. What has to be taken into account when fertilising soft fruit.
Prepare the soil well
The best way to provide nutrients to berry bushes is to use mature compost. Before you plant the bushes, you should loosen the soil and add compost or well-rotted manure.
In such a soil improvement, you can completely dispense with the fertilization of berry fruit.
The best fertilizers for berry fruits
If fertilization can not be avoided, the following fertilizers are suitable:
Stinging nettle is an excellent fertilizer for many plants. But you should not treat berry fruits with it. The manure has too high nitrogen content. Too much nitrogen endangers the berry shrubs, because it promotes the fungal infection.
You should use finished berry fertilizers only if the soil is very heavily drained.
Do not fertilize soft fruit trees with blue-grain
Blue Grain is a chemical mineral fertilizer that contains a wide range of nutrients. These are released immediately when the fertilizer is distributed among the plants.
For berry fruit bushes there is a risk of over-fertilization. The shoots shoot up and stay thin and weak.
When should be fertilized?
If fertilization is necessary or you do not want to give it up, it takes place before the flowering of berry fruit. Basically, you should not add any additional nutrients to blueberries and cranberries.
Some counselors recommend a second fertilizer before the berries start to ripen. Experienced hobby gardeners advise against it, since the fertilizer can affect the aroma of the fruits.
It is better to provide the plants again with fertilizer in the early autumn. However, that must not happen too late. If the fertilizer is used shortly before the frost, there is a risk that the roots of the shrub will be driven out again and then freeze.
Tips & Tricks
Especially with soft fruit is a mulch cover of leaves, compost or straw ideal. The blanket keeps the weeds away and provides consistent moisture. The mulch material will degrade over time and release important nutrients that significantly improve the soil.