Growing Oregon Blueberries

We have worked very hard since 1995 to bring you the best U Pick Blueberries in the Willamette Valley!  Growing highbush or cultivated blueberries can be very rewarding. You can eat the berries fresh, make them into pies and other desserts, or freeze, dry, or can them for later use.  In Oregon, the blueberry fruiting season extewnds from late June through September, depending on the type of blueberry and cultivar. The fruit on each cultivar ripens over a 2- to 5-week period.  The most common type of blueberry grown in Oregon is the northern highbush blueberry. Other types of blueberries include southern highbush, rabbiteye, lowbush, and half-high.

Highbush Blueberry Plants 

Highbush blueberries are perennial, long-lived (40 to 50 years), deciduous shrubs with a mature height of 5 to 9 feet. Attractive as ornamentals, they progress from a profusion of white or pink blossoms in spring to colorful foliage (fall) and wood (winter). You can grow plants in beds, rows, hedges, or individually. Dwarf and semi-dwarf cultivars (varieties) are available for growing in containers.

Selecting Blueberry Site

Blueberries require a sunny location for full production. Avoid areas surrounded by trees. Trees can provide too much shade, compete with plants for water and nutrients, encourage birds, and interfere with air movement around the plants. Poor air circulation favors the development of diseases.

Soils

Blueberries have very specific soil requirements. Plants grow best in well-drained, light, sandy loam soils that are high in organic matter and have a pH between 4.5 and 5.5.

Avoid planting on heavy soils that drain slowly. Water standing on the soil surface for more than 2 days during the growing season can damage roots. The soil water table should be at least 14 inches below the soil surface, or roots will suffocate.

If your garden has only coarse, sandy or gravelly soils, pay careful attention to watering and fertilizing.

You can modify many soils that are initially unsuitable to make them suitable for blueberry production (see “Preparing the soil”).

Selecting a cultivar

It’s a good idea to plant more than one cultivar. Although most northern highbush blueberry cultivars are self-fertile, cross-pollination produces larger berries. Also, if you plant two or more cultivars that ripen at different times, you’ll lengthen the harvest season. To ensure adequate cross pollination, plant more than one cultivar within each type of blueberry you select (northern highbush, southern highbush, and rabbiteye). Within each type, cultivars have sufficient overlap in the bloom period for adequate cross pollination.

Northern highbush cultivars grown in home gardens in Oregon include (in order of ripening): ‘Duke’, ‘Earliblue’, ‘Spartan’, ‘Patriot’, ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Blueray’, ‘Legacy’, ‘Chandler’, and ‘Elliott’. See EC 1308, Blueberry Cultivars for Oregon, for descriptions of these and other blueberry cultivars.

Preparing the soil

Blueberries require an acid soil, relatively high organic matter content, and good drainage. If your soil is not naturally suitable for blueberry plant growth, you’ll need to modify it before planting. Blueberry plants are long-lived, so considerable time and expense in preparing the soil can be justified.

If you plan on growing several plants, it’s better to group them in a bed or row than to scatter them around your garden. You’ll obtain better results if you prepare an entire bed, rather than digging holes for individual plants and preparing soil to fill the holes. Be sure to eliminate all perennial weeds before planting.

Soil pH adjustment

An acid soil with a pH between 4.5 and 5.5 is considered ideal for highbush blueberries. Poor blueberry plant growth resulting from soil pH that is too high is the most common problem when growing blueberries in the home garden. In this situation, plants often have yellow leaves with green veins (Figure 1). These symptoms are most likely on younger leaves.

For most soils, the pH must be lowered (made more acidic). Test soil pH a year before planting because acidification, if necessary, takes more than 6 months. (For more information about soil testing, see Laboratories Serving Oregon: Soil, Water, Plant Tissue, and Feed Analysis, EM 8677, and Soil Sampling for Home Gardens and Small Acreages, EC 628.)

If the pH is between 5.7 and 6.5, acidify the soil by adding finely ground elemental sulfur (S) to the soil before planting. The amount of S needed depends on how much the soil pH needs to be lowered and the soil type.

Source : Oregon State Extension Service | Bernadine Strink | March 2008