This past year we were notified that the local pick-your-own blueberry farm was going out of business. We had been picking blueberries there for a very long time. Now what could we do? Well, grow our own, that’s what! So I searched the internet and found a blueberry farm in New Jersey that sells mail order blueberry bushes. After researching the varieties that are hardy in New Hampshire and produce well, I decided on Northblue and Northsky. They are half high bushes, growing to three or four feet high, but will still produce a significant harvest of berries. I expected the shipment to arrive at the end of March, but we received and earlier order than anticipated. So I had to hop to it and get the soil ready for planting.
I had five whisky, half-barrels left over from plantings over the last twenty years. Unfortunately two of them bit the dust, so off I went to Home Depot to buy two more, plus plastic pots to act as inserts. Blueberry bushes can grow and produce for forty years or more but the oak barrels don’t last that long so the plastic pots will keep the bushes going for as long as we are around.
At this point you might be asking yourself, why I go to the trouble of planting in containers when I could just plant them in garden soil. Blueberry bushes grow well in highly acidic, well draining, but moist soil. That is just the opposite of what I have for soil in my yard. They also need full sun to do well and they produce far more berries if there are two or more different cultivars close to each other for cross pollination. Picky, picky, picky! Containers with specially formulated soil was my best bet.
It seems that most of my gardening blogs involves my Tacoma pickup truck sooner or later. I went to the local sand and gravel operation in town and for $7 I came home with 680 pounds of sharp sand. I combined that with peat moss in a 50/50 ratio. I watched endless Youtube videos about planting blueberries in containers for the soil mixes they used. The combinations were quite varied. In the end I chose to (mostly) go with the recommendation of the farm that sold me the blueberry bushes, with one exception. A few weeks ago I collected bark from dead white pine trees on my property and put it through my shredder to create a fine bark mulch. I added some bark mulch into the bottom of the pot for drainage, some into the soil mix and some on top as a mulch to conserve water and reduce weeds.
Blueberry roots are sensitive to heat, so the wooden barrels will help insulate them from the sun. The pavers under the barrels elevate the pots to increase drainage. I had to drill holes in the bottom of the barrels to let excess water out. The five plants in the middle pots came through the mail. The much greener, robust and cheaper plants (Chippewa variety) came from Home Depot. I hope the mail order plants catch up and become good producers. This was a good deal of work and not inexpensive. At the rate we picked berries in the past, we should break even financially on this project around 2035! Oh well.
New Hampshire Gardening 
Good luck with your blueberry adventure. I hope it works out just as you planned.
I have a good feeling about this planting. I just have to vigilant about keeping them watered. Oh, and figure out how to keep the chipmunks from eating all of the berries!
Sad that yet another U-Pick farm bites the dust…..You’d think business would be on the increase with the new awareness of the benefit of outdoor activity, eating local, etc…
In this case I believe it comes a s a result of the farmer and his wife intending to retire. I suspect that the blueberry field will be taken over by another local farmer, but not as a pick your own operation.
I didn’t know about the cross pollination. It’s in a pot, fairly shaded on the bottom by raspberry bushes but I only have one. I think I’ll have to top dress it with some compost too.