Content
- Planting culture blueberries in the garden
- The problem with the lime
- The right time to fertilize blueberries
- Choose the right fertilizer for the blueberries
- Tips & Tricks
Planting culture blueberries in the garden
Forest blueberries bear a certain number of fruits each season in the wild even without artificial fertilization. The cultivated blueberries in the garden must be fertilized for a correspondingly high amount of fruit.
The problem with the lime
Cultivated blueberries, like their wild relatives in the forest, are very sensitive to calcareous soils and watering. Therefore, care should be taken not only when planting blueberries on an acidic and preferably lime-free soil substrate, but also in the selection of irrigation water. Many common garden fertilizers contain certain amounts of lime and are therefore very poorly suited for the fertilization of cultivated blueberries.
The right time to fertilize blueberries
Cultivated blueberries need a lot of energy primarily for two uses, for the formation of new branches and for the fruit stocking in the summer. Accordingly, a first fertilization should be done already in the spring before the sprouting of new branches and leaves. The second fertilization in early summer then ensures sufficient energy supply for the formation of a rich harvest from the beginning of July. Fertilization in late autumn, on the other hand, would be of little use, as it would stimulate late shoot growth in the year and thus significantly reduce the winter hardiness of the plants.
Choose the right fertilizer for the blueberries
When using commercially available fertilizer for blueberries in the garden, you should definitely pay attention to choosing a lime-free special version especially for blueberries or rhododendrons.You should, however, avoid administration of manure and fresh compost, since these may contain much lime and adversely affect the pH of the soil for the blueberries. But you can also use certain materials from your own garden to provide a biological fertilizer and at the same time for an acid soil environment. Ideally, use the mature compost of:
Tips & Tricks
In order to avoid over-fertilization of blueberry bushes, sparingly dosed nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonium sulphate and ammonium saltpeter are recommended in the private garden. Administration of about 40 to 50 grams of sulfuric acid per bush in the spring stimulates the formation of new branches.