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Re: [nafex] Re: good stuff perhaps




In a message dated 01/08/01 8:20:19 PM, natvwine@cut.net writes:

<< Would it be possible to elaborate on this subject? I am wildly interested 
in
growing blueberries but have held back because of my basic soil and an
unwillingness to acidify the ground. I think I could get an area down to ph
7 or 6 with a reasonable amount of labor - lower on the surface.....
Waiting with baited breath in Utah.  >>

I had the good fortune to spend the better part of the day with J. Herbert 
Alexander, one of the people who domesticated the blueberry.  At 95  he said: 
 I'll talk, you listen, and turned off his hearing aid.  I listened.

JH used to get a lot of inquiries from people with land of high pH.  He would 
not sell them the more expensive hybrids, but would sell them seedlings.   
"If these do well for you, write to me and I'll sell you the named 
varieties," he'd tell them.  His instructions were simple:  no chemical 
fertilizer, adequate soil moisture, and mulch.  He felt that mulch was the 
key.  He said invariably people would get back saying that their berries are 
doing fine and order the more costly "hybrids."  I think that his advice 
still holds.  Get inexpensive, but healthy, plants, seedlings maybe, and grow 
them with mulch, maybe working in some compost to the soil too for moisture, 
etc.  Don't let them dry out.

Now I'll give you more information.  Back 25 years ago or so I used to sell 
vegetables at the Common Market, the outdoor farmers' market in the Amherst 
(Massachusetts) Common.  For some reason I learned that people wanted 
blueberries and I dug the wild plants.  I had found that wild plants, given 
care, increased fruit size and quantity.  The care was being in the pig pen, 
which was quite large.  The p moisture slopped about.  I dug fairly large 
bushes from our previously neglected pasture and priced them much less, for 
obvious reasons, than the named varieties avaiable at nurseries.  They sold 
well and I developed a preorder system where people would ask me to bring 
them in.  Over the years, we had repeat customers who liked the results with 
their no-longer-so-wild bushes and wanted more!  I would dig the plants at 
any time during the growing season, even mid summer, and leave them in burlap 
(grain sacks) for a week or more to be sure that they made it fine.  I had no 
losses.  I just bagged them within a few hours of digging and kept them 
moist.  One year I missed three or four plants--remember this was a rough 
field and I would dig plants in an area and the come back wtih the 
wheelbarrow and pick them up.  We had  had a dry hot spell and when I found 
them they had baked in the sun for a few weeks at least.  Well I just left 
them there, but then we got  rain.  Once the root system was moist again, the 
plants started to resprout.  I bagged them up and kept them until the next 
year when I think I probably sold them.  (What happened after their revival 
my memory is cloudy about.  I know I watched them, they recovered and put on 
new growth, and they seemed pretty strong after a while.  The rest is grey 
haze--maybe that is what happened to my hair--all that grey haze seeping out 
of my head.)

So wild plants, unselected blueberries, can be pretty tough.  That doesn't 
mean it makes senst to abuse them, but you might be able to get some that 
will work for you.

The other approach, of course, is container growing.  There are new dwarf 
varieties that are recommended for containers, and I hear that the quality is 
good.  I can look up the names, but they are offered by Parks, amonst others. 
 They were discussed on this list about a year or so ago so they should be 
mentioned in the archives.  With container growing, you get to control the 
soil entirely and can mix up what you need.  I don't know if blueberries form 
mycorrhizal associations--probably 20 other people on this list do know, 
though.    You might also check to see if there are other members of the 
vacinnium genus that tolerate higher pH values.  You could graft to these.  
Ericaceous plants tend to be acid loving, but nature isn't real big on 
absolute rules or consistency.  

By the way, coffee grounds are  often available if you find a friendly person 
at a restaurant or cafeteria who will save them for you.  These are good at 
acidifying soil but be careful not to overdo it.  They compost well.

Dan Hemenway
Barking Frogs Permaculture Center  
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames.html
or
http://www.permaculture.net/~EPTA/Hemenway.htm
 
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