The blueberry is a small shrub, up to half a meter high in the wild, that originally lives in forests, the soil of which protects from erosion. It prefers coniferous forests and heaths.
Its fruits have always been highly appreciated as food in countries such as Poland, where they can serve you a plate of spaghetti with sweet blueberry sauce. However, in the last decade, the demand for these fruits has grown dramatically thanks to their properties: they are very rich in vitamins and have anti-inflammatory properties; It is curious that fresh are laxatives and consumed dry have just the opposite effect.
How to grow blueberries
We can grow blueberries in our garden or orchard, as it is a very grateful shrub. It requires slightly acidic soils, with a pH between 4 and 5, which will remain to acidify the irrigation water if necessary (if it is irrigated often with calcareous water, the soil becomes alkaline).
You need a lot of light, but you don’t like excessive heat; that is why it is a plant typical of northern places. Nor does he like the wind; Thus, if our land is located in a windy area, it may be necessary to protect it with shrub hedges, or plant them between trees to protect them.
The soil must always be moist, although not puddled. They resist frost well; What’s more, the low temperatures of cold winters mean that flowering does not come ahead and thus it will be more abundant and uniform.
Characteristics and care of the blueberry
There are many sub-varieties of blueberry within the basic three: black, red, and blue. As it is a self-pollinating plant, we do not need to plant more than one variety for it to bear fruit, although these will be of higher quality if we plant several species.
Blueberries are planted in autumn at a distance of 3 meters between rows and 1.5 meters between plants. The fruits ripen in summer and the average production is 1 kilo per square meter.
Do not forget to protect the fruits with mesh! Birds find them so tasty that they cannot resist them.
