Planting blueberry plants from suckers

Hey ya'll in this video I'm going to show you how we plant blueberry plants in our field from the suckers of existing plants. Each year we always have blueberry plants die from one reason or another. We fill in those empty spaces starting in late November through March. If you enjoy this video
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[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

If you have any blueberry farming related questions I’ll be happy to try to answer them for you. Thanks for watching

[@Sana-je2wy]

Can we directly plant our blueberry plants directly into the garden soil or we need an acidic version? Thanks

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@Sana-je2wy You will need to make sure your soil is acidic. I would check the ph first to see which way you need to go. If it’s too alkaline you may want to grow them in raised beds or in large pots. Thank you for taking the time to comment 👍

[@Sana-je2wy]

Thanks a lot for your reply, Sir.I really appreciate.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@Sana-je2wy 👍

[@CardiacCat]

Perfect info. I have 3 blueberry bushes and they have about 4 smaller plants that have grown up away from the main bushes. I want to relocate them but wasn't sure how tough it would be. I already promised one to my nextdoor neighbor.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

They work great for us here in our farm. Especially if they have a lot of roots. Sometimes if they don’t have many roots I’ll put the in pots and let them get more established and plant them the next fall. Thank you for taking the time to comment 👍

[@TheBrightenDay]

Wow thanks for teaching this and interesting they sucker! Never knew 😅

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

You’re welcome. I appreciate you taking the time to comment 👍

[@FourDRanch]

I’m amazed that you can grow blueberries here. Im trying to start fruit and vegetable garden this year and plan on doing blackberries. I’ve always thought blueberries were a northern plant. I might try a few myself after watching this. Thanks!!

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

They do great in this area if you have the right soil. I had to amend ours with pine bark and a little sulfur every few years helps as well. Thank you for your comment 👍

[@angelahodack]

Thank you! This video was very informative.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Thanks for the comment Angela. 👍hope you found something useful in there.

[@wpchastain]

Thanks, this was just the info I needed

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment William. I really do appreciate it 👍

[@thedailywitness]

Really awesome video.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch 👍

[@alekzagat]

Thank you. I have a couple one is been in the ground for about 5 years and last year it bared lots of bluberries. This year we had a hard freeze and was very sparce. It does have a sucker and is allowed to grow as it wishes with minimal involvement from me. Letting Mother Earth do its thing.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Yeah we had freeze damage this year as well. Maybe next year will be better. I’m going to be moving some more of the suckers this fall to fill in where some have died in recent years. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it 👍

[@stefanmilanovic85]

Your channel is really good, lot can be learned from you! I am from Serbia (=Southeastern Europe) and I wanted to plant blueberries, but the trend is that prices are going down for blueberry so I don't know whether I will invest in the plantation. Probably will grow some for myself. Have a good one ❤

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@stefanmilanovic85 thanks a bunch for taking the time to watch I really appreciate it. Is there a big demand for blueberries in your country?

[@stefanmilanovic85]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer Not really, blueberries are pretty expensive, and people in my country are rather poor. But there are a lot of blueberry plantations in my country, they are mainly for export in Western Europe, problem is the wholesale price of blueberry which has dropped significantly. And people have invested a lot of money in plantations, and they can't return the money invested from their plantations. I am the one of the people that wanted to invest in blueberry business, but I am not sure anymore I want that. I will for sure grow some for myself. I have always been fascinated by the blueberry plant and I admire it deeply. My main variety that I want to grow is Top Shelf, Valor, and Duke. Maybe some late variety like Last Call and Aurora. That's it.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@stefanmilanovic85 our wholesale prices fluctuate throughout the year here. Are there any pick your own farms in your area?

[@stefanmilanovic85]

​@@TheBlueberryFarmer If "pick your own farm" is a farm that you grow for yourself, then the answer is no. I have seen that people are complaining that the prices will only go down in the future, in European market, I don't know how things are in the USA. Point is that the producer is the last in chain of getting the money, and he takes all the risk and all the investment. At least this is how it is here in Serbia, I can not speak about other countries.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@stefanmilanovic85 so here wholesale prices are terrible. We have a u-pick farm which means people come and pick the blueberries themselves and pay for what they pick. There are many selling points as in better quality fruit and no chemicals. We actually have some customers that are from your country but now live here come to pick.

[@spoolsandbobbins]

Great video! I’m up in Canada and we only have low bush blueberries. They’ve taken 3 years to really bear any fruit. Is that normal? We put new, homemade compost and wood chips around every year. We water when it’s dry.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Hi Heidi thank you for taking the time to comment. We can get a pretty good yield down here by year three due to our long growing season. As long as your wood chips aren’t hardwood you should be good. We use pine bark. The ph is 4 to 4.5 which is perfect.

[@darrellmartin157]

May I ask what blueberry varieties do you grow. I'm in Louisiana I have only about 40 plants. Just for my family use. I have Climax and Tifblue. Considering planting a few of other varieties. All mine are rabbiteye.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

We have climax , brightwell, alapaha, powder blue and Vernon. If I were going to recommend any additional to you it would be brightwell. They are fantastic

[@growingoutthebox]

Stunting the growth stuck. Removing those barriers is the hardest part. I have 1 an 2 years plants. I removed all the berries last year. Growth is beautiful with buds everywhere! Would you suggest removing all the berries in year 2 as well.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Hey thanks for the comment 👍. Removing any blooms is always beneficial especially if the particular variety is high yielding. I prune our plants every year from the time of planting. Summer pruning promotes more growth and winter pruning promotes larger berries. I hope this helps.

[@growingoutthebox]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer thanks. So tempting to leave all those big buds for the second year. My main 4 are southern high bush Hello Darlin with 2 Bless your heart between for companions. A pink lemonade, sweetheart, 2 brightwells and a Northland that I think I planted by mistake. The Hello darlin and bless your heart is out performing the others. I was thinking giving them 3 years to see which produce best in Georgia zone 8a. I’m going into the 2nd year. Any tips for a newbie?

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@growingoutthebox I actually drove to Georgia to buy my plants. The brightwell is the only variety you have that I’m familiar with. Very good berry and high yield plants. Really the only advice I can give is pretty generic. Monitor soil moisture and ph. Slow release fertilizer with micronutrients and keep fighting the birds, bugs and weeds lol

[@mightyminifarm]

Here’s to hoping for NO late frosts this year!

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

We have one coming in the next couple days. I will loose several berries 🤦‍♂️

[@TsRVideos8042]

I am wondering why my blueberry bushes don't seem to grow suckers? Some do, while others look more like a small tree with one 'trunk'. They are planted in peat and pine bark mulch.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Hmm that may be the variety. Do your best know what they are? All of the varieties we have grow vigorously and make suckers that have to be pruned or cut out every year.

[@TsRVideos8042]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer Thank you for the response. I have 30 trees in a test plot and there are probably 7 or 8 rabbiteye varieties. I am thinking I am being too chincy on the Nitrogen. Huge clumps of berries, but the shoots are few. The one that has gone crazy with growth was a rabbiteye called 'Hello Darlin'. It grew over 4 ft in a year.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@TsRVideos8042 wow that’s a lot of growth. We don’t have that variety down in these parts. Does it make big berries?

[@TsRVideos8042]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer my mistake; the 'Hello Darlin' grew really well, about 2 ft of height over last year. I didn't notice the one I was talking about with the massive growth was the 'Bless Your Heart' variety. I went out and measured. Last year it was a bush in a pot about 1.5 ft tall. Now it has 5 new shoots off of old growth that extend to 7 ft tall. Yet leaves me to me original inquiry; why such crazy growth yet no new shoots from the ground?

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@TsRVideos8042 I have found some varieties have really long canes and have to be pruned more heavily. Also those varieties don’t need as much nitrogen. But as far as them not putting on new canes I can’t say due to not having any knowledge of the varieties you mentioned. That’s the first I’ve heard of them. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.

[@debbannon354]

Our blueberry bushes are not looking great, they've been going downhill for the last few years. Even the newer plants. Any suggestions of what we could do to help them? Also, I see a lot of little (short - a few inches tall) blueberry plants coming up around the older bushes. Is it too late to dig those out and put into pots now? Northeast MS here. Thanks

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Well there’s a few things to check. First you s ample water and fertilization. Next is soil ph. I always wait for the suckers to be growing at least two years before I dig them up but as long as they have some roots they will make it. Thank you for comment 👍

[@faizalvlog6928]

Can you shipping to Indonesia

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

I am looking into the possibility of shipping them. Hopefully I will know more in the next couple months. Thank you for taking the time to comment 👍

[@ryanfourhorn9204]

Hi, I have four young lemonade blueberry plants in containers, but i'm not sure of the watering schedule in this miserably hot central Texas summer. Any pointers?

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

I would definitely make sure they get water twice a day if not more. This wind and heat and wind will dry them out quickly. If you have a shaded area I would put them there until this heat wave is over lol

[@ryanfourhorn9204]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer Great thanks! I am double filtering our hard water and lowering pH with citric acid as an experiment.

[@danielsweetser7574]

Hello, sir! I had a quick question for you. We are thinking about buying a place and planting some blueberries. We would like to just pile up a foot of pine bark mulch in rows and plant directly in it, and because of that I'm thinking we can be less picky about the soil as long as we have enough space. Can you tell me where I'm wrong on that?

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

That will work just fine Daniel. That’s how we plant ours these days. Works great 👍 Thank you for taking the time to comment

[@danielsweetser7574]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer Hi again! I'd reached out before because we were thinking of trying this for ourselves. My family ended up buying a place with a small field out back where I want to plant, and I had another quick question. I'm finding that I can get mixed mulch for free. I made a slurry with some, and saw it bring tap water down from a pH of 8 to a pH of 6.5 - my guess is that this means the mulch itself is lower acidity than that. I don't know what's in the mulch though, and I don't know for sure what it's pH is on its own. Should I even consider using something like this, or should I hold out until I can get exclusively pine bark mulch? Thanks for your help.

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

@@danielsweetser7574 well I hate to suggest someone pass up something for free but I think 🤔 f it were me I would use pine bark or peat moss. There’s some plants that can be toxic to blueberries and cedar is one of them. However, with that said I do use that kind of mulch for my blackberries. Hope this helps.

[@danielsweetser7574]

@@TheBlueberryFarmer Thank you for the info! I'll try and get pure pine bark mulch then.

[@James-ix2jz]

wow..how lucky for me to read this just now..I was thinking of using my cedar rakings for mulch on my first time trying blues...won't do that now!!thanks!@@TheBlueberryFarmer

[@MEAT_CANNON]

How small can cuttings be?

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

I’ve started them in pots that were very small. They just need a few roots and some care. Thank you for your comment 👍

[@elizabethdobbs6555]

Which area are yall located?

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

We are in kinda Northeast Texas

[@howardfowler2255]

I brought up an Emerald blueberry sucker from Florida to my place in eastern Tenn.I hope it survives the colder climate up here. Gonna give some honeyberries or haskaps a try up here.Theyre said to be easier to grow than blueberries.Time will tell.Thanks for this video!

[@TheBlueberryFarmer]

Hey Howard thanks for taking the time to comment. I have some friends that live down by the Texas coast that have some success with the Emerald variety. We’re about four hours north of them and it gets a little too cold for them on our farm. Hope you have better luck in your area 👍