Last edited on February 03, 2024. View history
Northern Highbush Blueberry
A variety of blueberry
How to sow northern highbush blueberry: Plant plants into soil or pots.
Sun requirement for northern highbush blueberry: Plant in Full Sun
Perennial flowering plants with sweet, indigo-colored berries. Blueberry plants are usually erect, prostrate shrubs that range in height from 10cm to 4m high, depending on the cultivar.
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Northern highbush blueberry facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For northern highbush blueberry, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 160 days at its best temperature, about 2720 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your northern highbush blueberry will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing northern highbush blueberries
- Prepare acidic, well-drained soil 4 weeks before planting out
- Water regularly at planting out every week
- Mulch with pine bark 2 weeks after planting out
- Feed with acid-loving plant food 8 weeks after planting out every month
- Net the bushes against birds 2 weeks before first harvest
- Pick ripe berries at first harvest every week
- Prune out old stems 6 months after first harvest
How members grow northern highbush blueberries
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant northern highbush blueberries with
kiwifruit
Photos
Photos
Northern highbush blueberry crops
Video
Where northern highbush blueberries grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about northern highbush blueberries
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Who's planted northern highbush blueberries
- erin Clothesline Garden · Uxbridge, MA
- auwillia Around the garden shed · N Alaska, Portland,...
Northern highbush blueberry harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 160 to 200 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Vaccinium corymbosum L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Ericales Ericaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -29 °C |
| Life form | shrub |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about northern highbush blueberries
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