Horticulturist Tom Ogren explains how easy it is to grow delicious blueberry and strawberries from container plants.
- Look for low-growing (3 to 4 feet) blueberry bushes for northern climates and taller bushes (6 to 8 feet) for warmer climates. Snow will cover the lower plants, insulate them and keep them from freezing.
- Blueberries need acid soil (Ph 5). Try a mixture that includes leaf mold for acid, perlite for drainage, peat moss, time-released fertilizer (try the three-month type) and coffee grinds. Combine ingredients well, then add to pot or hole for the blueberry bush. Fill in with regular soil.
- If blueberries have yellow leaves and don’t seem to thrive, try adding wooden match sticks with sulfur tips to the potted plants (about 20 per pot). Simply insert them all the way into the soil. Nails added in this way will add iron to the soil.
- Once a month, treat the plant to a solution of one cup apple-cider vinegar added to five gallons of water. Straight vinegar will kill the plant, so be sure it is diluted. Diluted vinegar also acts as an herbicide.
- Drainage is important for blueberry bushes. Don’t set a saucer under the plant because it will hold excess water and kill the plant. Set the pot directly on the ground or deck.
- There are two types of strawberries--June-bearing plants, which produce fruit in the spring, and ever-bearing plants, which produce all year long. This is the best type to grow in a pot.
- Use a strawberry jar for multiple plants. Cover the bottom of the pot with potting soil and begin to layer in the plants, pushing the plant from the inside of the pot out through the hole. Sprinkle on some time-released fertilizer, add soil and insert the next plant. Sprinkle with fertilizer and add soil. Continue until the pot is filled. If you forget to add fertilizer to each layer, you can just sprinkle some on the top of the soil.
- To protect plants from birds, drape a piece of bird netting (held off plants with a small stake) over the top of the pot .
- Never let a berry pot go dry. This will require daily watering in the summer and less in the winter.
Resources Allergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping
by Tom Ogren
Ten Speed Press, 2000
Order this title from Amazon.com.
Guests Tom Ogren
Horticultrist / Allergy-Free Gardening Consultant
San Luis Obispo, CA
Phone: 805-541-0452
E-mail:
tloallergyfree@earthlink.net
Website:
www.allergyfree-gardening.com
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