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Spring Blueberry Care. Everything You Need to Know for a Big Harvest
22.01.2023 02:00
Updated: 13.04.2023 13:49
Blueberries are native to North America and have a pleasant taste and medicinal properties.
The plant is capricious, it loves high-quality soil, fertilizers and certain growing conditions. However, caring for the plant itself is not difficult.
Carrying out pruning
Pruning is done with a sharp pruning shear. It is necessary to remove those shoots growing inside the bush that have not had time to ripen.
Only 2-3 shoots are left on a bush that is 2-3 years old, and 4-5 shoots on older plants.
From young trees, it is necessary to remove small lateral branches from which it is impossible to collect a quality harvest.
However, the middle lateral branches, located at a height of 50-70 cm, produce the best fruits.
You also need to cut off branches that are more than five years old. They are thicker and produce a small harvest. You need to cut them at the level of the mulch.
Pruning is done before the sap starts to move and the buds open. During this period, the bushes should be mulched with acidic high-moor peat and pine bark of 10-20 mm fraction. This way, the plant will be provided with a normal level of acidity and moisture.
Top dressing
1. From the beginning of sap flow, you need to start feeding the bushes.
2. You cannot feed blueberries with organic fertilizers - manure, compost, humus and liquid organic fertilizers.
3. It is better to use prolonged fertilizers containing an optimal level of nitrogen and low pH. The product "Mivena" for blueberries is suitable.
4. Gardeners also use physiologically acidic fertilizers - ammonium sulfate, monopotassium phosphate. However, in this case, the bushes will not have enough nutrients.
5. It is better to start optimizing the acidity of the soil in early spring. In Russia, the soil most often has a higher pH than that in which mycorrhiza develops. Because of this, over time, the pH of the planting hole will equalize with the pH of the soil around it, even with proper preparation of the plots, and then the plant will not give a rich harvest.
6. To prevent this from happening, you need to add a special acidifier containing sulfur once every six months. You also need to water the bushes with water acidified with monopotassium phosphate or pecacid. Fertilizing in early spring helps the plant grow and produce flower buds, as well as develop the root system.
