BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit

Subject: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 02:33 PM

http://www.virginiaberryfarm.com/growing_guide.htm

At $30 for TWO 3 foot fruiting plants is pricey but will pay for itself in no time. Rwmwmber you have to have 2 different varieties to get lots of fruit.

The antioxident characteristics of the blueberry is excellent.

The 2 plants I bought today at Giant Supermarket look great and the early fruiting Patriot variety tastes delicious. The midseason Bluejay variety has not yet ripened but is full of fruit. They both should not grow over 7 feet tall.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Kaleea
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 02:36 PM

Will blueberries grow in a pot, say on a balcony?

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 03:18 PM

The blueberry is Juneau, Alaska's best berry. It grows wild and just about everywhere you don't dig it out. Along mountain trails is an especially good spot- although you might share the bushes with the black bear. I have a friend who leaves the berries in her backyard for the bears and picks for her own needs elsewhere.

Including the huckleberry, we have six variets of blueberry and they ripen at staggered times, which means that from early summer to frost we can count on having fresh berries.

Some years the bushes are absolutely loaded- which means that the berries tend to be small and very sweet. Other years the berries are as large as marbles.

People here freeze them for cereals and baking and jams and jellies so that they have them year 'round.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: open mike
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 03:56 PM

i remember hearing that the blueberry prefers coastal climate,
and a moist foggy area. The agricultural college near here
was working ondeveloping a strain that would thrive in hot
dry climate...

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Peace
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 04:12 PM

"Will blueberries grow in a pot, say on a balcony?"


Blueberries after pot with balogna--delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 04:47 PM

Wild blueberries are an important crop in Maine. We have thousands of acres and ship them all over the world. It's our oldest export except ballast rocks.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: LilyFestre
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 06:31 PM

Blueberries grow quite well in north central Pennsylvania which is not coastal by any stretch of the imagination. We do have humid summers though....anyway....we have 8 bushes of different varieties and ages. Our neighbor has about 20 mature bushes that yield tons of blueberries every summer and less than 12 miles away, there is a blueberry farm.....so...that gives me hope for our little patch.

BTW, $30.00 for 2 healthy blueberry bushes that are 2-3 feet in height is not expensive at all....that's average price in my neck of the woods.

Make sure your soil has the right acidic levels, do something to keep them safe from the birds, remember that blueberry bushes attrack snakes and you'll be set! :)

Michelle :)

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:02 PM

We have hunreds of wild blueberry bushes on our property. Being wild and genetically diverse, they bear at various times from mid-May until early September, with the peak being in early July.

Each year's crop is different, depending upon a number of weather factors. Because the bushes bloom at different times, a late frost won't kill all the blooms, but two late frosts ten days apart can be bad news. And conditions which cause the plants to bloom too early are a problem because the blueberry's principle pollinator is a species of bumble bee called, oddly enough, the "blueberry bumble bee" whose mouth parts are specifically adapted to the blueberry's flower. If plants bloom before the bees hatch, they don't get pollinated.

This year's crop is off due to a severe drought. Only the plants in shaded areas have nice plump berries and many of them are too high to reach because shaded plants tend to grow vertically, reaching for sunlight. The easy-to-pick plants out in the sun have hard, small berries.

Last year's crop was the best we've ever had. The plants had been defoliated by Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004 and stressed plants tend to compensate by growing and fruiting with extra vigor.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:12 PM

I don't think they grow out here, but we do have many vineyards, apricots, peaches, cherries, apples and pear orchards as well as a long growing season for all kinds of veggies.

I use frozen blueberries, all natural, in a fruit smoothie for lunch, everyday. I use rice milk, half a banana, about 1/2 cup blueberries, three organic dried figs (no sulfur dioxide), 3 tbsp. of rice protein, blend it up and enjoy!

I know they grow well on Cape Cod!

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST,harpgirl
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:41 PM

I have six plants which I put in last year. They did okay last year but this year, NADA! I guess I either didn't have any blueberry bees or the drought just kept them from blossoming. I never saw any blossons. Thanks for the info BWL. I just found out about blueberry bees. Can you get them in a hive? I might put in a hive this year.
My three fig tress are loaded but the fruit is puny and it is taking longer than usual to ripen.
harp

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: LilyFestre
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:51 PM

HarpGirl,

    Have you tested your soil? How are the pH levels? Also, did you trim it back at all? From what I have read, it is suggested that you do some pruning the first year you have berries...don't pick those...prune them off...the following years will be much more productive (I wanted to pick the first ever berries in the WORST way.....patience...patience....LOL).

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:55 PM

Isn't it true that individual blueberry bushes rest periodically?

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 08:03 PM

We put in three 3foot bushes last fall and all of them are now loaded with blueberries... Not quite ripe yet... Maybe another few days will do the trick... Yummy...

But growing next to a long section of our 3/10 mile drive way are what look and taste like raspberries but the P-Vine swears they are like, ahhhh, gooseberries... Whatever they are, they are yummy and when they come in ya' there's more than two folks can pick so we let the local farmers come up and pick at 'um...

Yummy...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: LilyFestre
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 08:11 PM

Bobert,

   How old are your bushes? I suspect you and your wife know all about pruning things back as suggested since you moved all those plants.....gotta be a plant lover.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: bobad
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 09:38 PM

Bobert

Gooseberries don't look or taste anything like raspberries.

Gooseberries

Raspberry

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 09:45 PM

The gooseberry was my father's favorite berry, as in pie. He was from North Dakota and I think it was about the only wild berry they had. I never have learned to like it, frankly.

You've got the raspberry down pat, Bobad!

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 10:13 PM

This website put out by Maine and eastern Canadian growers expands a bit on the post by Kendall about wild blueberries. Wonderful in pancakes as well as the recipes given at this website. www.wildblueberries.com
Commercial blueberry production has proven unsuccessful here in Alberta.
Soil should have a pH of 4.5 to 5.5. Our main problems in Alberta are lack of snow cover in winter and alkaline soils.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 10:19 PM

Should have noted that frozen wild blueberries are found in the freezer section of stores here.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 11:09 PM

Ah hah...

They are raspberries!!! Thank you, Lord!!! I told her they were raspberries but wouls she listen to me???

Michelle,

We bought these plants last fall... We didn't have enought sun back in Wes Ginny so we never had 'um...

Prunin'???? Hmmmmmm??? The P-Vine is ther master gardener... I'm jus the hole digger, mulcher, waterer, bug-picker-offer, driver, etc so I don't know 'bout prunin''um yet.... But I will soon as I get my prunin' orders...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST,harp
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 11:31 PM

Naw michele, I haven't tested my soil. It's north Florida red dirt. Ya think it's any good? I didn't prune them. They seemed too small but I'll do it. I do think the drought and a freeze at the wrong time kept the bushes from blossoming. I'm not sure about the blueberry bees.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 12:07 AM

How I miss good Northwestern blueberries and huckleberries (blue and red)! One summer when I lived up in North Cascades National Park I'd stopped during the day and picked some blueberries, but since it was July 4 and I was heading to a picnic dinner that evening, after work I walked up the Sourdough Mountain trail (the trailhead was a couple of hundred feet from my house) until I found some red huckleberries. I baked a batch of muffins with white flour and put in blue and red berries--and they were very well received.

A note as to berry bushes (at least, in the Northwest). As a forester and a mountain climber, one learns very quickly what to grab if you're slipping or falling. Don't grab the Devil's club, you'e probably rather plummet to your death than deal with those nasty stickers. If you're climbing near elderberry, don't bother to grab it is you slip--the whole shrub is likely to pull out or break off in a stinking mess and join you in your fall. But if you're near any of the vaccinium plants (blue and huckle varieties) you can grab even a twig and find it is strong enough to stop your fall (and has for me on many occasions). Truly!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Barry Finn
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 01:31 AM

Woe betide you who grab at the bushes. Leave the brush alone.

Annan Water

"And he has tried to swim that stream, and he swam on both strong and steady
But the river was broad and strength did fail, and he never saw his bonny lady.
Oh woe betide the willow wand, and woe betide the bush of briar,
For it broke beneath her true love's hands, when strength did fail and limbs did tire".

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: dianavan
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 03:13 AM

I live in berry heaven.

We have every kind of berry in B.C. and lots of em.

Picking berries is traditional in my family. My daughter asked me just the other day when we were going strawberry picking.

Bobert - Raspberry jam is the absolute best!

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 06:23 AM

But jam isn't as good as raspberries straight from the bush to the mouth.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 11:21 AM

IF you put them in pots just make a nice bog enviorment with wet peat moss and black compost soil. Sort of in between a swamp and a meadow.
Acid Miracle Grow is good. Acid aluminnum or sulfer fertilizer (like those for Hydranges) will kill bluberry bushes.

I'm off to get some peat moss and richer soil for my new bushes.
In Binghamton we had dozens of 20 ft high blueberry bushes that did well in the shade. These new ones get full sun from 8 until 2 and then have total shade. I hope its not too much sun.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 11:31 AM

"Vegetable climbing" is frowned upon in climbing circles, you're always better maintaining good balance and staying upright. But slips happen, and then it's good to know your botany.

I lived in West Seattle until I was 11, and had access to an overgrown yard two doors up from our property. The old man who lived there hadn't worked on it since his wife died many years earlier, but her legacy had been to direct him to plant apples, peaches, plumbs, pears, and raspberries. There was probably more, but those are the ones I remember grazing on every summer. Pick the raspberries, blow off any bug, and pop them in your mouth. Mmmmm!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: MMario
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 11:37 AM

Ebbie - some varieties and a pretty good percentage of "wild" blueberries tend to fall into alternate year bearing - bumper crop one year, light the next.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 02:30 PM

Thanks, Leo.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 03:20 PM

Everyone seems to be discussing highbush blueberries. Here in Alberta, we have four lowbush species of blueberry (Vaccinium), the tallest being about 24 inches. We gather the berries, but seldom get more than enough for a couple of pies.
Unfortunately for us, the best place to get blueberies is the frozen foods section.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: EBarnacle
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 05:01 PM

Just remember. Dark Berries mean anti-oxidants. Eat well and keep cancer at bay at the same time. Sounds good to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Scoville
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 10:01 AM

My grandparents' Norwegian elkhound was notorious for getting up early on camping trips and picking all the best blueberries (with her teeth--they swear she never picked a green one). Lived to a ripe old age, too . . .

I think there are even varieties that would grow here in Texas but I'd have to rig up something to keep the birds and raccoons out of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 11:10 AM

I bought a plant in a garden centre a couple of years ago. It is in a container, kept moist, with acid soil. This year it has lots of berries, still green at the moment but if they stay on until ripe I should have enough for a pie.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 12:14 PM

I don't know what the variety is but there are blueberries here in Texas. They have much larger leaves, grow relatively low to the ground, and are in people's gardens. I don't know if there are any wild ones here. I think there is a large agricultural center near Houston that grows them commercially.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 01:57 PM

They started growing blueberries commercially in Texas in the 1980's, and have been successful. The website of the Texas Cooperative Extension is here:
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/blueberries.html

I would not doubt that there are local species as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Scoville
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 02:54 PM

COol! I'll look for them. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 07:07 PM

That link didn't work, but I found this.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST,harpgirl
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 08:16 PM

The best blueberries were the ones I picked for pancakes in the North Channel of Georgian Bay. They grew close to the ground. We would be cruising aboard our sailboats and mom would take us out to pick them in the morning when we were in gunk holes like South Benjamin or Covered Portage Cove. Then she would make blueberry pancakes on a gimble stove which she had to pump to build up the fuel and light with a kitchen match. Our refrigerator had big blocks of ice that we carried aboard with tongs in Little Current. yummm Childhood was the bomb!

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 08:23 PM

pH levels, Pruning and other good info


Picture of How to Prune Blueberry Bushes

LQF

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 09:00 PM

Just returned from my nightly walk and stopped by the blueberry bush fir a yummy snack....

Yummy...

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 09:14 PM

I Lived in Canada for about a year in '75 - '76. I had just arrived when I got invited to a home cooked meal. Blueberry pancakes, with ice cream and blueberries for dessert.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jun 06 - 11:29 AM

Even if you can only get your hands on frozen blueberries, if you let them thaw just a tiny bit they're wonderful to eat plain, like little bites of sorbet.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST,freidasr
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 11:25 AM

I just bought 2 blueray blueberry bushes. Will I have to buy another different variety or will those two pollinate each other? If another is necessary what variety do you recommend for No. Carolina sandhills location.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 12:46 PM

freidasr, visit your state or county agriculture extension office (they probably have a robust web presence, most of them do now). They're going to be the best ones with that information. Good luck!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 04:59 PM

The one I bought from a UK garden centre is called "Bluecrop". It is fruiting on its own without the help of a 'friend'.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 07:46 AM

I have just received my copy of "Gardening Which?"
It has blueberries on the front cover and four pages of information inside.

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: Beer
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 08:26 AM

Off to spend another 3 to 4 hours in the swamp picking the wild ones. It is a bumper crop around here(Here being south west on Montreal).
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: GUEST,Sister Maria Philomena
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 06:41 PM

To all you berry lovers:

Making plans for the summer? Why not plan to come out to the fourth annual Richmond Blueberry Fiddle Festival (Richmond, NH) to be held August 12 at the Pavilion (behind the fire station, NH Rt. 119/Rt. 32)! We welcome juried vendors and crafters, auctioneers, blacksmiths, bakers, candlestick makers, historians, jugglers, old pictures, old stories and blueberry items for displaying . . . Maybe you'd like to come and relax with your family all day while listening to GREAT music, or bask your taste buds in creamy blueberry madness ice cream delight while your children play with some of the oldest folk toys and games New Hampshire has to offer. You could try your hand at baking a winning entry for the Blueberry Bake-off, or watch your children take a free fiddling class. And don't forget about dancing at dusk to live music! Whatever your pleasure, you'll find something of interest for all ages. This is the only festival of its kind in New England with FREE admission! For infblueberryfiddlefestival.comormation, call 239-6495 or check us out at blueberryfiddlefestival.com . See you there!

Subject: RE: BS: Blueberries a most healthy fruit
From: LilyFestre
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 09:47 PM

'Tis blueberry season here in North Central PA...first week into it and OH MY are they WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!! I took a bag of them to class with me tonight to snack on and everyone wanted some...who can blame them? Next time, I'm taking a bigger bag!!! :)

Michelle