I've tried blueberries twice now, they croak, which is real embarrassing as a long time gardener. The soil is clay with some natural limeyness to it, and the well water for any watering is limey as well. I tried heavy mixed hardwood and pine chips mulch, some stirred in, that almost worked but not quite.
There are some wild around here, but not many.
The soil around here makes *bricks*. Of course one of the tradeoffs it is real easy to make ponds step 1-dig hole, step 2-let it rain, step 3-stock with fish.
--oh hey, what are the tractor fenders for?
Zogger,
You're in the pottery clay section eh? PH is only partly the issue.
Drainage and root penetration is the other half.
Blueberry roots are lousy at uptake, so they make a bunch of fine roots.
A rootball about the size of a Bean bag chair that extends downward, and a hair fine "Web" that is about 4" under the soil and extends radially about 4-5' from the root crown.
Problem is the roots are so fine and weak, they have a hard time penetrating clay soils.
The other issue is drainage. Standing water lacks oxygen and smothers the roots. If you can get the water draining, even slowly, they can tolerate just about any flooding.
The folks that are successfull on clay, dig a big enough hole to accomodate the roots, and blend mulch with Peat and sand, on raised rows or beds to allow for drainage. Crazy amount of work from what I have seen, but some of GBA guys are pulling in good tonnage doing it.
The fenders?
The Bushes tend to send new branches towards light between the rows, and Tractor tires will break them, so they fenders allow for sliding through the rows with minimal damage.
Some Varietys like Blue Crop have floppy canes, and when the fruit is on, they sag into the rows and without Orchard fenders, they would get broken.
Stay safe!
Dingeryote
