Planting Blueberries In Carolina Clay Soil

A few years back my parents made the move from the dc area to the piedmont of North Carolina. When they were finally able to move into their forever home, I decided to get them set up with a nice blueberry patch. The first step in picking where you will locate your blueberry patch will be picking a spot with enough sunlight hours for the plants to produce a heavy harvest of berries.

After Picking the location we fenced the area off, and drew up a partial garden plan. My dad likes to grow lots of annual vegetables, so the majority of the space would be dedicated to beds for that kind of stuff. The blue berries we decided to plant in the back of the garden where they would not shade out other plants.

Over the years I have done multiple experiments with blueberries, planting directly into the native soil, making up custom topsoil mixes, growing bushes in containers and so forth. However, the best results I have received with the least amount of effort came about with the following steps.

Breaking up the sub soil. Because my parents place was new, and construction had just finished the topsoil had been completely stripped from the land, and the native clay had been compacted to the point where you needed a mattock just to dig a hole. These are not ideal growing conditions. A blueberries root mass typically is most concentrated in the first 6-12" of soil, and planting in compacted soil will result in a slow growing shrub that struggles to make it through the hot humid north carolina summers we experience in the piedmont. I broke up the first 8 or so inches of topsoil with the mattock in the space of a 3 foot diameter and then grabbed our little garden tiller.

I tilled up the clay until the pieces of clay were about the size of golf balls. After prepping each planting area as mentioned above, peat moss was added and tilled into the native soil. For each 3 gallon shrub, we added about 1.75 cubic feet of peat moss. After tilling everything together as evenly as possible, The 3 gallon blueberry shrubs are planted in the prepared holes leaving the top 3-4 inches of the existing root ball above the grade of the ground outside of the prepared 3' diamater. The added peat moss adds volume to the existing soil and allows you to slope the prepared soil from 3" below the top of the root ball down to the perimeter of the planting area.

Adding peat moss to the soil improves drainage while simultaneously improving drainage, helps make the soil more acidic (which blueberries definitely need, and improves soil structure in general. A small amount of acid fertilizer can also be added to the peat moss and native soil before the last tilling if desired. I never recommend applying fertilzer according to the manufacturers suggested rate. I instead recommend starting out applying half of the recommended dose and watching how your plant reacts. Smaller doses less often is better for your plants health then too much too fast.

The blue berries were also installed with a drip irrigation system and timer. This allows the gardener the ability to enjoy their garden without worry. A properly installed and controlled drip irrigation system can allow you to establish a brand new zone of plants with only the initial cost and effort of installation. The Drip irrigation line was outfitted with one one gallon per hour emitter per shrub. An easy to count system if you are watching your water usage.

Each blueberry uses one gallon of water per hour every hour the system is running. We ran the system with as little water as possible to keep the shrubs healthy. The initial establishment period we ran the timer for 1.5 hours twice a week for the first month (blueberries were planted in the spring). After The Blueberry roots had moved into the prepared soil and were mostly established we reduced the time on the blueberries to 1 hour once a week. After the second season, the automatic timer program was turned off and now the bushes only receive water through the irrigation system as needed.

The first year the blueberries were in the ground we got about 4 quarts of berries off of 8 plants. The second year we collected about 2.5 gallons of berries, and this past summer 4 gallons of berries. The blueberry plants are still young and have not been pruned yet for production. I plan on pruning for production at the end of february.

There are several pests that can damage blueberry bushes here in north carolina. The pest we have encountered most often is Schizura ipomaeae. This is a moth caterpillar that feeds on the leaves and is hard to spot, but the damage is clearly visible. We collect these insects by hand, because only crazy people put poison on the food they will also consume. I believe the most likely reason we encounter this pest repeatedly is because Schizura ipomaeae uses morning glory vine as a host plant, and my parents live in the country surrounded by cornfields ect, and there is always morning glory vines growing at the edge of every field.

Anyways, keep your soil moist but not soggy, give your plants plenty of light, fertilize responsibly and enjoy your blueberries.

Hard Labor is not for everyone, if you would love to do something like this but just aren't physically capable or willing Contact us to find out how we can help. (contact links are at the bottom of the home page that this link will direct you to.)

-Ed Ducrest

Owner Celestial Landscaping

Chapel Hill, NC 27516