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Pitchfork © 2010
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Freely quote with attribution

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PITCHFORK’S BLUEBERRY BUSH BUYING AND PLANTING GUIDELINES

#2  Follow the planting directions, especially the one about well-drained medium for the roots – no standing water for roots – and the one about acidic soil (of course, spacing, too). 

Blueberry bush planting guidelines vary. 

• Generally, raise or mound the bed in which each plant is set, say 6” or so, in order to assure no soaking wet feet

• Bed contents:  (Lots of versions to this)  Per blueberry bush plant, Pitchfork well-mixed 25# play sand (not mason sand, a/k/a mason's sand, masonry sand): ½+ bushel Peat Moss (for acidic, compacts to nearly nothing once damp and in the mix); ½+ bushel organic compost; eventually to be dressed with pine bark mulch (for acidic).

• Don’t you dare: fertilize for at least a couple of months after planting; cast fertilizer not closer than within a half-foot of plant stem; restrain yourself.

• Be prepared:

  • To water some most every day until second growth is full

   

  Keep 'em looking like this and all shall be well with you

  

   

• To trim when you’re told, where you’re told, and how you’re told

• Pay attention to getting sun exposure, but maybe don’t obsess – The Missus harvested buckets as a kid from two humongo blueberry bushes under majorly overhanging tree growth (i.e., way less than ‘partial sun’) from plants that had been there for decades and decades presenting the same harvest to her mother and her mother’s mother

• To lose some up-front mostly from hard handling in transit (in Pitchfork’s experience, common to shipped flora) and at least beginner’s bad luck – overfertilize, under-water, domesticated bigfoot, etc. 

     Pitchfork’s first-time experience = 12 delivered w/ 1 smashed in three and saved for a short while - 5 done-in (1 was too broken on arrival to save, too acidic medium, bad joss).

Next to last resting place for a finished-for-it plant straight out of the box

• To extend the surface area of each planting mound or raised bed over time