In nature, blueberries grow primarily in the sparse undergrowth of moorland forests. In order for these to thrive in your own garden, the soil usually needs special preparation.
Which soil is suitable for blueberries?
For optimal blueberry cultivation, the soil needs an acidic pH value between 4.0 and 5.0. The soil should also be loose and humus-rich. To acidify the soil, bark humus, sawdust, leaf and bark compost or coniferous litter can be used.
Acidic soil for delicious fruits
Blueberries are lime-reducing plants and therefore thrive best in soil with a relatively acidic pH value between 4.0 and 5.0. The soil should also be fairly loose, as garden blueberries are also very sensitive to waterlogging. So you can decide whether you want to grow blueberries in a pot or replace the soil in the planting hole at the desired location with acid peat.
Fill the planting hole with acidic soil
The cultivated blueberries for the garden also have rather shallow roots, like their wild relatives in local forests. Therefore, it is important to replace the soil at the planned location more wide than deep. To ensure that there is no lime ingress from neighboring beds, a planting tray or a large pot with drainage holes for water can also be embedded in the ground. Since peat extraction is ecologically controversial, you can also use the following materials to “acidify” loose and humus-rich soil:
- Bark humus
- Sawdust
- Leaf and bark compost
- Fir and spruce needle litter
To care for the blueberry bushes, you can also add a certain amount of compost and needle litter to the ground around the bushes every year. Since these have very shallow roots, they can absorb the substances released during decomposition with rain and irrigation water.
Buy suitable ready-made soil commercially
If you want to buy suitable potting soil (€11.00 on Amazon) for planting blueberries, you should use mixtures for rhododendrons and azaleas. These plants place similar demands on the soil as blueberries. However, these types of substrates are also usually made with mined peat.
Tips & Tricks
If you plant a row of blueberry plants in a slightly raised wall of acidic soil, the irrigation water will flow away from the root balls rather than towards them. This will help you avoid sideways entry of lime from other areas of the garden.
