Soft fruit (ericaceous)
How to grow blueberries
Vaccinium corymbosum
Blueberries need acid soil, pH 4.5 to 5.5, and that single fact decides everything else. Unless your soil is naturally acid, grow them in large pots of ericaceous compost, water with rainwater, and stand them in sun or light shade. Plant two different varieties for a heavier crop, net the fruit before it colours, and prune out the oldest stems in late winter once the bush is three years old.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy
- Position
- Full sun to light shade
- Soil
- Acid, moist, free-draining; ericaceous compost in pots
- Ideal pH
- 4.5 to 5.5
- Water
- High, rainwater only; never let pots dry
- Feeding
- Light feeder
Sowing and planting blueberries
WhenPlant Nov to Mar; harvest Jul to Sep
Starting off
Plant pot-grown Nov to Mar, or any month with rainwater. Propagate by 10 cm softwood cuttings in Jun to Jul in a covered propagator at 20 °C, or hardwood cuttings in Feb, slow, 12 months to root. Bluecrop, Duke, Chandler, Patriot; plant two varieties for heavier crops.
Spacing and planting
1.5 m apart in rows 2 to 3 m apart; dig a hole 60 cm wide filled with ericaceous compost, composted bark or pine needles, planting at the nursery depth. Start in a 30 cm pot of ericaceous compost, moving to 45 to 60 cm; pots suit most gardens better than the ground.
Varieties worth growing
- Duke
- Early, flowers late enough to miss frost, firm berries from early July.
- Bluecrop
- Mid-season, the most widely grown, heavy and reliable; the one to pair everything with.
- Chandler
- Late, with the largest berries of any variety, ripening over six weeks into September.
- Patriot
- Early to mid, tolerates heavier and wetter soil than most.
- Top Hat
- Dwarf to 60 cm for a 30 cm pot; small crop, self-fertile.
Blueberries month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Plant pot-grown bushes in open weather. Check pots are draining.
- February
Prune bushes over three years old: a quarter of the oldest stems to the base.
- March
First feed. Top-dress pots with 3 cm of fresh ericaceous compost. Test soil pH.
- April
Fleece flowers on frosty nights. Start rainwater-only watering as growth begins.
- May
Second feed at the end of the month. Water daily in pots from now on.
- June
Net before the first berries colour. Softwood cuttings.
- July
Pick early varieties every few days; berries ripen over three to four weeks per bush.
- August
Peak picking on Bluecrop. Nematodes for vine weevil in pots at the end of the month.
- September
Last berries on Chandler. Remove nets.
- October
Leaves turn red. Reduce watering.
- November
Plant new bushes. Mulch with composted bark or pine needles.
- December
Rest. Pots can stay outside; they need the cold.
Feeding blueberries
A low, acid feeder. No lime, no general feed, rainwater only, and keep the pH between 4.5 and 5.5 before you think about fertiliser.
Low and acid-specific, use an ericaceous (acid) feed only, water with rainwater rather than hard tap water, and never lime.
Feeding plan
Before planting, and every autumn the pH test is above 5.5
To drop one pH unit: 55 g/m² on sand, 110 g/m² on loam in two doses six months apart, 175 g/m² on clay in three doses; never more than 80 g/m² at once. Test first.
March, beds
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
A light 35 to 50 g per bush (half the label rate) scattered under the canopy; blueberries want less than any other fruit.
March and late May, pots
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
2 g per litre of compost on the surface, so about 25 g for a 30 cm pot (12 litres) each time.
Older leaves yellow between the veins
Kieserite (magnesium sulphate)
2 g per litre as a drench; never dolomitic lime.
Planting
Not this one. Blueberries use ericoid fungi that a general inoculant does not contain.
The ericaceous feed draft product (per the 20 Oct audit) should replace the 4-5-6 step here when it goes live.
Signs to watch
Young leaves yellow with green veins
Lime-induced iron chlorosis from pH above 5.5 or hard tap water
Sulphur, rainwater, ericaceous feed, chelated iron
Older leaves yellow between the veins
Magnesium
Epsom salts, never dolomitic lime
Brown leaf edges
Salts from over-feeding or hard water
Flush pots with rainwater
Pests, diseases and problems
Ripe berries vanish overnight
Blackbirds and pigeons
Net the bushes or build a fruit cage from the first blue berry; nothing else works.
Pot plants wilt, leaves redden, plant lifts out with roots eaten
Vine weevil grubs, which love ericaceous compost
Nematodes watered in during late August and April; check the compost when repotting.
Young leaves yellow with green veins
Iron lock-up from pH above 5.5 or hard tap water
Rainwater only, sulphur acidifier, an acid mulch of pine needles or composted bark, and repot pot plants into fresh ericaceous compost.
Shoots die back from the tip in spring, flowers brown
Late frost or Botrytis on flowers
Fleece on frosty nights at flowering, remove dead shoots in June.
Bush grows fine but crops almost nothing
No pollination partner, or the plant is in its first two years
Plant two varieties with overlapping flowering, and remove flowers in year one so the bush builds roots.
Pruning and harvest
Pruning and care
Remove flowers in year 1, prune nothing until year 3; then winter-prune Feb to Mar, cutting a quarter of the oldest grey stems to the base and removing weak twiggy and low growth, fruit forms on the tips of 2 to 3-year-old wood.
Harvest and storage
Berries ripen over 3 to 4 weeks: pick when fully blue under a bloom, 3 to 7 days after turning, rolling them off with the thumb; several pickings Jul to Sep. First small crop year 2, 2 to 5 kg per bush from year 4. Fridge 1 to 2 weeks; freezes very well.
Good to knowIt needs genuinely acidic conditions, so grow in pots of ericaceous compost if your soil is neutral or alkaline; two varieties improve cropping.
Growing blueberries in pots
Blueberries are easier in pots than in most UK gardens, because you control the acidity. Start in a 30 cm pot of ericaceous compost and move up to 45 then 60 cm as the bush grows; two varieties in two pots crop far better than one. Water with rainwater only, daily in summer, and fit a water butt before you buy the plant: hard tap water pushes the pH up within a season. Top-dress with fresh ericaceous compost every March and repot every three years. Stand pots on feet; the roots hate sitting wet in winter.
Blueberries: common questions
Can I grow blueberries in normal garden soil?
Only if its pH is already 5.5 or below, which is rare in the UK. Test it. Above that, grow in pots of ericaceous compost or acidify a bed with sulphur the autumn before planting and keep testing.
What should I feed blueberries?
Very little, and nothing with lime or calcium in it. A light dose of a balanced-to-potash feed in March and late May, seaweed through the summer, and rainwater. More feed than that gives soft growth and salty leaf edges.
Do blueberries need two plants?
Most are self-fertile but crop two to three times heavier with a second variety flowering at the same time. Duke or Patriot with Bluecrop, or Bluecrop with Chandler, covers a long season.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.