{"id":206,"date":"2024-01-02T12:13:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T12:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/?p=206"},"modified":"2024-01-02T12:13:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T12:13:24","slug":"blueberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/blueberries\/","title":{"rendered":"Blueberries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blueberries are another delicious fruit which is easy to grow at home!  There\u2019s no problem at all growing these little beauties in pots!  If possible, try to make sure the pots are in an area where the rain can fall on them.  Rainwater tends to be a bit more acidic (pH 5-6) than tap water (pH 7-8).  Another option is to install a water butt to trap rainwater and use that for irrigation (which is good advice anyway as rainwater is free and I\u2019m on a meter for tap water!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d had a blueberry plant for a while but pollination tends to be better if you have plants of different varieties so I bought 6 additional plants (Bluecrop) in 2020.  I experimented with one in a hydroponic bucket with bubbled air, but I found it really difficult to control the pH.  I\u2019d adjust it in the morning down to 4ish, and by next day it had risen again to 8ish.  By the end of the summer, it was obvious that the plant was much weaker than its siblings, so I transferred it to a normal pot.  Unfortunately, it never recovered and was a casualty in the following winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Weak blueberry (Bluecrop) after a season in a “bubble-bucket” – likely due to poor pH control (April 2021)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the plants developed well in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Blueberry plants in June 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The plants started to blossom at end of April 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Blueberry blossom – April 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Harvest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As there seemed to be potential for getting fruit, I moved the plants into a netted cage to deter the birds and squirrels!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Blueberry plants in fruit cage – May 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’d had to gamble on the bluecrop plants being a different variety from my original plant (which had a faded label). The gamble paid off, as it usually fruits about a month after the bluecrop plants. So it’s definitely a different variety and the combination allows the blueberry harvest to stretch from July to end of September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yield Summary Table<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crop<\/td>Year<\/td>Soil
area
(m2<\/sup>)<\/td>		Soil
depth
(m)<\/td>		Annual
harvest
(kg)<\/td>		Mass
Yield
(kg\/m2<\/sup>.d)<\/td>		\u00a3
yield
(\u00a3\/m2<\/sup>.d)<\/td>		Calorie
Space*
(m2<\/sup>)<\/td>		Protein
Space*
(m2<\/sup>)<\/td><\/tr>
Blueberry
(unknown)
1 plant<\/td>		2022<\/td>0.096<\/td>0.25<\/td>0.283<\/td>0.00806<\/td>0.0967<\/td>445<\/td>862<\/td><\/tr>
Blueberry
(unknown)
1 plant<\/td>		2023<\/td>0.096<\/td>0.25<\/td>0.125<\/td>0.00356<\/td>0.0427<\/td>1007<\/td>1951<\/td><\/tr>
Blueberry
(bluecrop)
5 plants<\/td>		2022<\/td>0.245<\/td>0.25<\/td>0.668<\/td>0.00746<\/td>0.0895<\/td>481<\/td>931<\/td><\/tr>
Blueberry
(bluecrop)
5 plants<\/td>		2023<\/td>0.245<\/td>0.25<\/td>0.774<\/td>0.00864<\/td>0.1037<\/td>415<\/td>804<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
* space required to supply annual nutrition for 1 adult<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blueberries are another delicious fruit which is easy to grow at home!  There\u2019s no problem at all growing these little beauties in pots!  If possible, try to make sure the […]","protected":false},"author":6888,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grow-your-own","category-urban-farming"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6888"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/green-futures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}