Grow Your Own

From humble beginnings in Australia in the 1970’s, there are now plenty of varieties of blueberries available for the home gardener.  The varieties that can be grown in Australian climates are broken down into three main groupings.

Northern highbush: these are cold climate blueberries that must have cold winters in order to set fruit. They are relatives of Vaccinium corymbosum that comes from the Great Lakes area of northern America. These bushes lose all their leaves in winter and can put up with very cold winters.  These are the varieties that are mostly grown in Victoria and Tasmania as well as other cooler regions. Fruit from these varieties grown in cooler climates with ripen in December and continue until about April.

Southern highbush: These have the lowest need for winter chilling. They come from the southern USA and are mixed or ‘hybrid’ varieties mainly resulting from crosses between Vaccinium darrowii with Vaccinium corymbosum. Southern Highbush varieties grow well in coastal and warm inland regions from Sydney all the way up to far North Queensland. These are the most tropical-loving of the blueberry varietal families.

Depending on the location, these bushes will keep all of their leaves over winter – or just shed a few.  The plants are generally semi-deciduous or evergreen depending on the climate. Fruit from this variety starts to ripen in late winter an continues through into mid-summer.

Rabbiteye: This funny-named family are low chill varieties, but can cope with moderately cool climates. They are derived from Vaccinium ashei  and when the fruit is fully ripe it is similar in colour to the other types, but when immature it is the soft pink colour of a rabbit’s eye – hence the name!

Rabbiteye varieties are known to be strong & sturdy plants that start to fruit slightly later in the season that the Southern Highbush types. Like their Southern Highbush cousins, Rabbiteye plants can lose some of their leaves or remain evergreen through the colder months depending on their location.  Fruit starts to ripen in late spring and continues throughout summer.

Watering Blueberry plants have a shallow and really fibrous root system and do require regular watering throughout the growing season. They are simply not a drought-tolerant plant and will stop producing flowers and fruit if they are left to dry out. When they are growing and fruiting, water 3 times per week, ensuring that the plants are not sitting in water – the soil needs to be free-draining remember.

Feeding If you added lots of organic matter when you planted your bushes you probably don’t need to add too much fertiliser.  Once a year in spring, top dress or mulch the bushes with a good quality compost mix – keeping the mulch away from the stems.  If you do want to use a liquid fertiliser, select one designed for acidic soil plants and apply it at about one-quarter of the recommended rate as blueberries have sensitive roots.  And one nifty tip, feel free to throw your waste coffee grounds around you blueberry bushes – they’ll love you for it!

Pruning  Luckily for most home gardeners, blueberries don’t need much pruning. In fact, don’t even bother to prune for the first five or six years. As the plant matures, in late winter-early spring time you will want to prune out some of the dead wood to make space for new, vigorous growth.

Prune with large cuts, removing any wood that is more than six years old, any branches that are reaching to the ground or are getting crowded in the middle of the bush. You can have a good clear out of any spindly looking twigs and any stems that will bear fruit right at the ground level.

Protecting  There are lots of creatures who love blueberries as much as we all do.  Yes, that’s right, birds and possums especially will get in and have a feast on your beloved blueberries if you don’t protect them.  You’ll need to use bird netting or even keep your blueberries bushes in a caged in area if your local creatures are especially pesky!