Wild Blueberries Vs. Traditional Blueberries

Terminology

• When people talk about wild blueberries, they mean lowbush blueberries, the kind that grow wild in Michigan and throughout the northeast. Sometimes growers cultivate lowbush blueberries, but the fruit is still sold as wild blueberries, since the plants remain identical to their native relatives. The other type of blueberries, and the one you'll see most often in stores, are highbush blueberries.

Lowbush

• Wild, or lowbush blueberries, grow low to the ground. The plants spread out over a large area. They spread via underground stems and can cover large areas with mats of plants. Lowbush blueberries produce small fruit. The taste and appearance of the fruit can vary from one plant to the next. To cultivate lowbush blueberries, farmers clear sections of land and burn off all other vegetation. The blueberries reemerge and spread without competition from other plants. Farmers use machines to rake the blueberries from the mats of plants.

Highbush

• Dr. F. V. Coville of the U.S. Department of Agriculture began developing new strains of blueberries in 1908. From his research came the first highbush blueberries. Highbush plants grow up to 10 feet high. They produce abundant crops of large, dusky-blue berries each year. Berries may be plucked from the bushes by hand or shaken by machines. With machine harvesting, berries rain down onto conveyor belts that transport them to trucks.

Cultivating Blueberries

• Most home growers plant highbush blueberries. You can find many varieties in nurseries. Plant the bushes in soil with a pH of 4.5 to 5 and amend the soil with a lot of organic matter. Blueberries like well-drained soil, but the soil should be damp to a depth of 12 to 16 inches. Mulch the plants to conserve moisture, and prune annually after the third year, removing dead, damaged or older canes to make more room for new fruiting canes. Blueberries produce fruit in the summer from the previous fall's growth.