legacy blueberries, natchez blackberries

[shanti]

i got one of each today, but have never grown them before. I read that they like acidic soil, which is good, because my backyard neighbor has a huge pine tree in his yard that drops needles constantly.

i'm kind of nervous about the blackberries, because the ones i've seen can take over an area very quickly, but these are a newer, thornless variety (the only kind i would buy). could i plant them in a wine barrel?

tips, anyone?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. You'll want to get another blueberry of another variety

you'll get more berries on both. I don't know why that works, but it does. full to mostly sun, so don't plant it so far under the tree that it doesn't get enough.

You'll want the blackberries to spread enough to give you more than a few berries a day. I say plant them and let them spread for a few years. You can kind of control where they grow by bending a cane tip down to the ground and burying it so it shoots off roots.

When my wild blackberries start coming back, I lop them off at just above ground level, then paint the open cut with roundup (it's the only reason I go near the stuff), that will kill of most of the roots.

[shanti]

2. thank you so much for the info

guess i'll have to get another blueberry bush. the blackberry, i planted in my wine barrel for now, but that's good to know about how to stop the suckers. i'm just kind of afraid to apply roundup because there are so many cats that wander my yard (including one of my own).

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. it takes very little, no spraying

so the cats should be fine.

[TuxedoKat]

4. Blueberries

I've been trying to grow them the past two years without much success. Finally I decided to do a little research on how to grow them successfully. I knew they liked acidic soil (ph-4.0-5.0) and I thought mine was, but a soil tester showed that my soil's ph was 6.0. Unfortunately you are supposed to prepare your soil for 6-12 months in advance to get it up to the proper PH level. So what to do with the new plants I've already bought? The experts all suggest growing them in containers so I plan to do that while I try and amend the soil. Looks like they will do very well in containers. Unless you are in a warm climate year around though, you have to put them in a garage or something to overwinter them. There are alot of good videos on you-tube on how to grow blueberries. Here's a few:

I had to buy the fish, feather and cottonseed meal online from amazon. Sulfur you can buy locally at a hardware/garden store.

FYI, if you order plants online, be sure to check out their reviews here first. I was going to order some more blueberry plants from a place in NJ but they had bad reviews so I'm glad I didn't order from them.

http://davesgarden.com/