Garden blueberries - the secrets of successful growing

The plant is a blueberry garden native to the USA, it came to Europe in the last century and was firmly established in summer cottages and industrial plantations. Berries are known for their sweet and sour taste, they have optimal proportions of acids and sugars. They are suitable for preservation and freezing, while retaining their taste and medicinal properties.

Garden blueberry - description

Dark blue, almost black, covered with a whitish bloom of berries of blueberry, many like. They are large and fleshy, grow on bushes, have an outstanding taste. Fruits are saturated with useful elements, 100 g of berries contain 0.81 g of potassium, 0.01 g of iron and 0.14 g of vitamin C. They have a therapeutic effect on the kidneys, the heart, improve vision, reduce blood sugar levels , encourage the secretion of gastric juice. Therefore, many people want to cultivate this miracle-berry in the garden.

Brief description of the culture:

• the roots of the plant are umbilical, without lateral branches;
• shoots - erect, covered with bark;
• The bush, depending on the variety, has a height of 1-2 meters;
• leaves smooth, whole, lanceolate, up to 3 cm long;
• flowers five-toothed, with pink or white whisk;
• berries have a blue color with a blue bloom, weight - from 1 to 25 grams, depending on the variety.

High-yielding bushes of garden blueberry, in summer abundantly covered with berries of heavenly color, durable. They are larger than forest and resistant to many ailments. The plant enjoys decorativeness all year round - it blooms in the spring, beautifully fructifies in the summer, the leaves become coral in autumn. In the people, another quality of the plant is noticed - in the heat it emits essential oils, which when inhaled cause a feeling of easy intoxication. Therefore, the culture was nicknamed "drunkard".

Varieties of garden blueberries

Breeders produced a lot of varieties and hybrids of garden blueberries (about 20), differing in their characteristics. The early fruits are sung in July-August, late - by September. There are tall and low crops, most of them are resistant to frost, the spring cold presents a danger to the flowers. Not all foreign hybrids get along in the northern conditions - the late ones manage to mature by only 30%. Therefore, mid-ripening and early species are better cultivated in the middle latitudes.

Blueberry garden - the best prolific varieties:

1. Blueberger Garden Northbloom. The variety is short, the bush reaches a height of 90 cm. The berries ripen from the beginning of August, the crop - up to 3 kg from the bush. Fruits are large, stored for a long time, recommended for industrial processing and fresh consumption. The Northblo variety is characterized by frost resistance, it does not disappear at -35 ° С.
2. Blueberry garden Elizabeth. Tall culture, has a branchy upright bush height of 1.8 m. Its dignity is easy reproduction by cuttings. Berries begin to keep up in early August, fruiting lasts about two weeks, yields - 4-6 kg per bush. They are large (up to 22 mm.), Have a blue skin, sweet and odorous. Elizabeth - one of the best late varieties for flavor and taste, despite the fact that the share of the crop may not have time to ripen.
3. Blueberry Garden Bonus. This is the largest and tallest culture. Berries reach 30 mm. in diameter, ripen in July-August, sweet to taste. They are suitable for fresh consumption and for freezing. The variety tolerates cold.

Early varieties of garden blueberries

Berries of blueberries can be enjoyed already in the middle of summer. The most popular early varieties are:

1. Blueberries Garden Blugold. Early variety, has a spreading bush. Fruits are light blue, with a fragrant dense flesh, ready for use in early July. Berries wither, they need to be collected quickly. Productivity - 4,5 kg from the bush. Culture is normally experiencing frost, suitable for northern latitudes.
2. Garden blueberry Duke. Tall, yielding (8 kg from the bush), an early variety that is not afraid of frost in the spring - the flowers are tied up late, the berries appear by the middle of July. Shrubs of blueberry garden Duke must be cut so that the fruits are large. The berries have an excellent taste and smell.

How to grow blueberries on a garden plot?

When deciding how to grow a garden blueberry, it is important to take into account the basic requirements for the conditions of its cultivation:

• choose a solar place, covered from the wind (in the shade the harvest will be sour and small);
• to clarify the acidity of the soil - an indicator is required within the limits of 3.5-4.5 (for the strengthening of the parameter, sawdust from coniferous wood is added);
• the site for planting should stand for several years "under steam" (nothing to sit down);
• the soil needs a loose, air-permeable (clay soils are not suitable for roots);
• planting time - spring or autumn. Early rooting is more reliable for the future wintering.

How to plant a garden blueberry?

Recommendations - how to plant a blueberry garden:

• Planting holes are digging in diameter of 60 cm and depth of 40 cm;
• lay the prepared substrate - sphagnum peat, coniferous sawdust, moss;
• in the pit put 2 tbsp. spoons of sulfur for soil acidification;
• seedlings from the pot, together with an earthen lump, are lowered into the water for half an hour, then the root system is gently kneaded and the shoots are planted in pits;
• After instilling the young, the soil around the stem is rammed and moistened.
• From above, the earth is covered with sawdust 5 cm thick, when encrusted, it is enriched with nitrogen and acids.

How does a garden blueberry grow?

Culture is a shrub. Therefore planting blueberry garden is carried out in rows with intervals from one seedling to another 1.5 m, between rows - 1 m. Such parameters were chosen because of the characteristics of the plant, which can grow to large sizes, and the branches lie on the surface of the soil. Under such a scheme, the culture receives high-quality lighting and fructifies as much as possible.

Care of the garden blueberry

Weed removal is the most important rule of cultivation. No alien plants are allowed - they clog pores in the soil and slow down the feeding of the bush. Depth of loosening - 10 cm, so as not to damage the roots. Favorable growth of berries depends on competent watering - garden blueberry is moisture-loving, the top layer of the substrate should always be moist. In the heat, it is required to irrigate the crown with warm water in the morning or in the evening. In addition, maintenance provides for pruning and fertilizing, for blueberry garden is suitable only for mineral fertilizing. For the winter the bases of bushes are showered with sawdust.

Soil for garden blueberries

The plant likes sandy, peaty soils, easy to penetrate water and air. The culture grows well only in acidic soil with a pH of 3.5-4.5 - it is needed for the fungus that cohabits with the bush and plays the role of root hairs, which are absent in the plant itself. After planting, during which sulfur and needles are added to the hole for acidification, care of the garden blueberry provides systematic watering. At least twice a week, citric acid (50 grams per bucket) is added to the liquid. It can be replaced with vinegar - 50 ml. for 10 liters of water.

Garden blueberry - watering

The plant is very hygrophilous, it needs frequent moisturizing. Bushes of blueberry garden need to develop a scheme of irrigation, in which the roots will suffice moisture, but it will not stagnate for more than a couple of days. Moisten the blueberry twice a week, pouring a bucket of water under each adult plant in the morning or evening. Especially the bush needs moisturizing in July and August, after the flower buds of the future fruit are born.

Feeding for garden blueberries

Fertilizing the plant starts from the second year of cultivation and is carried out right after the winter only with mineral compounds. Add organic fertilizers ( compost , ash, manure) is prohibited - they negatively affect the bush. What to feed the blueberry garden spring in order to promote its growth:

• superphosphate (100 grams per bush);
• ammonium sulfate ;
• zinc sulfate (2 g. per bush);
• sulfate of potassium (2 g. per bush);
• Sulfuric magnesium (15 g. per bush).

Ammonium sulphate is introduced in three phases - during the swelling of the soil, in early May and June. On average, put on 90 g. Per bush. The garden blueberry itself tells you which feeding is necessary:

• If the leaves blush in the spring, phosphates are needed;
• if they become faded and small, nitrogen is added;
• the blackening of the leaves indicates a lack of potassium;
• yellowing - a lack of boron.

Pruning of garden blueberry

To every year to eat juicy berries, in the spring, before the buds swell, or in autumn after the fall of the fall, the bush should be cut. How to grow a blueberry garden in terms of crown formation:

1. Primary molding pruning is carried out 3-4 years after planting the crop. This cuts all low, weak and densely growing shoots. Leave strong and evenly placed;
2. Every year, regulatory pruning is conducted. For this:

• get rid of damaged, weak, uncomfortable branches;
• large shoots serve 5-6 years, after they are cut at the ground level;
• at the end of summer, the tops of the abundantly growing branches are plucked;
• remove bundles of small branches at the ends of the shoots.

Diseases of garden blueberry

Shrubs are sometimes affected by fungal, bacterial diseases. The most common ailments:

• Fungal diseases:

1. gray rot ;
2. Stem cancer;
3. late blight;
4. fomopsis;

They are caused by stagnation of water in the roots and poor permeability of the soil. To correct the situation, it is necessary to ensure proper watering and loosening. As a treatment 2-3 times spraying plantations with an interval of a week by a preparation Topaz (Topsin, Fundazolum) is applied. Care for the garden blueberry in terms of disease prevention provides for the treatment of bushes Bordeaux mixture in the spring and after harvesting.

• Viral diseases. Sometimes the plant is affected by microplasma infections: mosaic, dwarfism, thinning of branches, necrotic spotting. To cure a bush it is impossible - it is necessary to clean up the fallen ill specimens.

Reproduction of blueberry garden

You can increase the plantation of berry bushes in different ways. How to propagate a blueberry garden:

1. Seeds. They are obtained from the fruit, dried, kept for 3 months in the refrigerator and plated in a substrate mixed with sour peat. Seeds covered with cellophane, watered, loosen. You can plant seedlings in the soil after 2 years.
2. Cuttings. Woody shoots are prepared in autumn or spring. The optimal length of the appendage is 8-15 cm. For survival during a month, it is stored in a cool temperature of 1-5 degrees, then planted in a composition of peat and sand in a combination of 3: 1. Cuttings are placed under a film and watered three times a week. For a year, grow strong seedlings, which can be rooted in a permanent hole.
3. Layering. Branches are bent down, buried in a substrate (peat, sawdust, sand) and covered with a film. From the mother's bush the layers are separated for the next year, but the term sometimes increases.