garden news-planting blueberries where they dont want to be

GARDEN NEWS-PLANTING BLUEBERRIES
WHERE THEY DONT WANT TO BE

if you could pick a fruit to grow or a fruit to eat
it would be this one
a blueberry

it will make you live longer
it may help protect you from getting cancer
it may help protect you from getting alzheimers disease

it has anti-inflammatory properties eg that may help in alzheimers disease

blueberries like to grow in a moist and acid environment
in texas and in santa barbara that doesnt exist
our soil here and in central texas at the country n is very alkaline

now my rainwater brother grew a great crop of big ole blueberries when he lived in san antonio
he raised his in whiskey barrels that had in the soil a lot of compost and oak leaves and pine straw
all have acid properties
he also watered his with rainwater which is acid

he gave me a couple barrels of blueberries and i killed them
knowing what i knew now i didnt keep them moist enough and didnt provide enough acid materials for them to grow

in the four years i have been at the community garden i have helped plant blueberries once in the garden bed and another time in a raised bed
now that i know better i realized we didnt do two things to make blueberries grow and produce well
keep them moist and keep the soil acid


we have this bed that is 3 ft x 10 ft and about 2 ft deep
we tried to grow them in this bed but they died
yes i helped plant them but i wasnt the caretaker of the plant after that

remember
moisture and acid soil for blueberries


recently a friend of the community garden dug up these blueberries from her yard and left them in the greenhouse for us to plant if we wanted them
we dont know what type of blueberries they are
but we hope to know after we start picking and eating them
i hope they are a big full of flavor variety




so i did research on the internet and watched several youtube videos from gardeners in southern california
they recommended 
you got it 
moisture and acid soil

here is what i came up with

in the soil in that raised bed there was 2 bags of peat moss incorporated into the soil
it holds moisture and makes the soil more acid

i normally dont use peat moss since its not a renewable product
there is only so much in the world and when its gone there will be no more but this was donated to us

3 bags of azalea potting soil which is an acid potting soil
since we ended up planting 3 blueberries each plant got a full bag of this potting soil
a large hole was dug and filled with the soil
the plants were planted into this hole

before we did the planting
we did a lasagna bed or layering of 

oak leaves which are acid
mulch we grind ourselves which is acid
compost we make ourselves which is acid
composted mulch from my walkways that has been a trench there for about 2 years
the walkways were dug out and placed in the beds
that composted mulch had a lot of coarse mostly composted material
definitely it was acid
it gets the run off from our two rainwater tanks so its been soaked real good with acid rainwater this winter

then
i added a sprinkling of a good organic fertilizer
then
i soaked it real good with a good liquid fertilizer called medinas garrets juice with fish emulsion molasses seaweed and apple cider 
its an acid mixture also


then
 i planted each plant in its azalea potting soil hole
watered it in real good with the medina garrets juice mixture
then 
i covered the area around the plant with a thick layer of pine straw
remember pine straw is acid as it breaks down
then
i covered the rest of the bed with the mulch we made ourselves
then
as the season progresses we will add more oak leaves and pine straw

then
i added besides the drip line for the bed a dripper that goes to each plant
so it will stay moist but not too wet

our goal is to have some big juicy organic blueberries to eat this year

i plan on keeping a close eye on them and will do a frequent test tasting 

so thats how to grow blueberries here in southern california and in central texas

the organicgreen doctor