We are not supposed to be able to grow blueberries here. Blueberries ideally like a PH of around 4.5- 5.0 and our native soil is close to PH of 8.0!
Even my amended garden soil hovers slightly under 7.0.
Yet they still sell blueberry plants at the nurseries and big box stores in our area. Go figure!
I cannot seem to help buying them {ha!} and now have 3 blueberry plants, varying from 2-3 years old.
Here’s how I grow them in our alkaline soil: When digging a hole for the plant, I dig it larger than necessary and remove all the soil from the hole, to be used elsewhere. In place of the native soil I use a mix of about 75% moistened peat moss and 25% compost.
And every 3-4 weeks I water the plants with coffee “tea.”
It’s just a packet of the icky ground coffee they sell at the dollar store, mixed with about 4 gallons of water, in a 5 gallon bucket. It sits in the sun to brew for a few hours or up to a day, if the weather is cool.
Some leaves/twigs/whathaveyou always make their way into the brew, but I don’t worry about those :)
When the “tea” turns dark and rich in color, I just give it a stir and give each plant a drink – grounds and all.
So far they have produced only a few berries, but I’m okay with that. The plants are so pretty! I consider it a small miracle that they return each spring and any blueberries that come along will be a huge BONUS!
If you have slightly better growing conditions for blueberries, I think coffee tea would be even more beneficial. Let me know if you try it!
Have a blessed weekend!
How interesting! I don't grow blueberries but they say coffee grounds are good 'food' for even house plants plus they keep bugs away. May try this on my other vegetable plants.
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