{"id":111,"date":"2011-03-12T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=111"},"modified":"2011-03-12T12:29:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T17:29:22","slug":"blueberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2011\/03\/12\/blueberries\/","title":{"rendered":"Blueberries"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Blueberries (<em>Vaccinium spp<\/em>.) are healthy for you and exceptionally easy to grow organically (without pesticides). Why?- because\u00a0blueberries\u00a0are\u00a0bothered by\u00a0very few disease and insect problems. Success in growing blueberries\u00a0depends upon\u00a0pre-plant soil preparation. If you&#8217;re thinking about growing blueberrues for the first time, then allot this\u00a0 calendar year\u00a0for soil preparation. Put off planting blueberries until the early\u00a0fall or next spring. Good bed prep\u00a0includes:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>soil pH of 4.8-5.2 -achieved by an application of elemental sulfur plus acidic organic matter sources such as peat moss and old sawdust<\/li>\n<li>raising and maintaining an organic level\u00a0of 3% (and higher)\u00a0incorporating composted leavs and yard clippings, old sawdust and peat moss<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Good garden prep\u00a0takes 12-18 months, so plan ahead. Add another two years for plants to become established and ready for picking. Spacings between plants are\u00a05-6 feet apart for rabbiteye and 4-5 feet for highbush. For large plantings, allow 10-12 feet between rows for mowing, pruning, picking\u00a0and other maintenance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended varieties for the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6 and 7):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Highbush:<\/strong> ready for picking from mid-June for 4-6 weeks, cross-pollination not required but recommended. Duke is\u00a0highly recommended, an early, big berry, excellent quality, and does not tend to overbear. Others are Bluecrop, Echota, Blue Ridge, Berkeley, Jersey.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rabbiteye:<\/strong> ready in mid-July for 6-8 weeks, cross-pollination with 2-3 varieties is required. Plant Tifblue, Climax, Powder Blue, Centurion, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) are healthy for you and exceptionally easy to grow organically (without pesticides). Why?- because\u00a0blueberries\u00a0are\u00a0bothered by\u00a0very few disease and insect problems. Success in growing blueberries\u00a0depends upon\u00a0pre-plant soil preparation. If you&#8217;re thinking about growing blueberrues for the first time, then allot this\u00a0 calendar year\u00a0for soil preparation. Put off planting blueberries until the early\u00a0fall or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[357,681,605,8,599,74,630],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}