Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Blueberry – the antioxidant super hero
I’ve talked about blueberries before, in fact, a long time before as you’ll see from this video I did YEARS ago! Cut me some slack! 😉
The Blueberry is a tasty antioxidant superhero and a lovely shrub with rockin’ fall foliage.
It does offer gardeners in the upper midwest a bit of a unique challenge as they like a more acidic soil, a pH of 4 to 5.5 is ideal. For those of us in the Upper Midwest, we “generally” have more neutral to alkaline soil (that’s a higher number). But get a soil test to know for sure.
I talked with Lee Reich, author of The Ever Curious Gardener, a guy with a lot of credentials and a great book!
He says, it’s important to modify your soil using elemental sulfur. It’s often powdered and used as a fungicide but Reich says for soil use, use the pelletized kind, it’s compressed into what looks like little lentils.
Select what’s called a “half high” variety, a cross between a high bush and a low bush blueberry. ‘Polaris’ is a U of M introduction with good flavor and ripens early. For a mid season blueberry, ‘Northblue’ is a great option and one of the most popular varieties. ‘St. Cloud’ is the tallest half-high at 4 ft. ‘Northsky’ is also a great selection growing just 3 feet tall at most. PS these links are not a recommendation to purchase your plants there, only to give you more detailed information. Purchase locally if possible.
Check out this extensive article from the University of Minnesota Extension – Blueberries for home for a LOT more information.