Growing Blueberries Without Pesticides

Choosing a Site

• Selecting the best possible site in your garden is vital to the health of a blueberry bush. Before you plant a bush, ensure that the soil and neighboring plants are disease- and pest-free. Choose a site that receives full sun or little shade. Blueberries also need well-drained soil. Check the soil's pH before planting -- the ideal pH ranges between 4.0 and 5.5. If your soil's pH falls outside that range, it is possible to amend it organically. Also test the soil's calcium levels; blueberries require soil with a low calcium content.

Soil Amendments

• If, after testing your soil's pH level, you find that it is too low, add fine limestone powder to raise it. Use sulfur if you need to lower the pH. Both amendments take several months to work. Add several inches of compost to the soil and mix it in well. Compost is an organic way to add nutrients to the soil before planting. Use organic compost from a gardening center, or make your own by filling a bin with dead leaves, grass clippings, rotten produce and coffee grounds. Proper soil amendments make the soil healthy, thus preventing disease and warding off many pests.

Disease Prevention and Treatment

• Diseases like botrytis blight and stem blight commonly affect blueberry plants. These diseases rot the berries, or spores and fuzzy white fungus may appear on the bush stems. An overabundance of nitrogen causes many diseases, so refrain from adding too much nitrogen fertilizer to the soil. If you notice a diseased plant, remove and destroy the infected part immediately to prevent the disease from spreading. To treat most fungal diseases organically, combine a tablespoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of liquid soap, 2 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and a gallon of water. Spray infected leaves with the mixture once per week.

General Pest Control

• Insects just can't resist fresh berries. Blueberry bushes attract many pests, such as the blueberry stem borer beetle, leaf hopper and aphid. Diatomaceous earth, or DE, works to organically control many pests. If DE gets wet, though, add another application. Hand-picking controls pests on a small scale. Garlic spray applied to the plant's leaves also repels many insects. If you have chickens or ducks, these birds enthusiastically eat pests for you.

Aphids and Japanese Beetles

• Aphids are tiny insects, usually red or white in color, that attach to blueberry leaves. These pests suck the leaves dry and occasionally transmit blueberry shoestring virus, so it is necessary to destroy aphids quickly. Ladybugs enjoy eating aphids, and you can buy a box of these natural predators online or at some garden centers. A strong blast of water knocks them off the plant, and diatomaceous earth works, too.

  Japanese beetles, another blueberry pest, live in the soil and make their way up to feed on the plant as they mature. Sweet-smelling rotting fruit attracts them, so discard any fallen berries promptly. These beetles can also be controlled by hand-picking. Plant tansy, garlic or catnip around the blueberry plants to repel them.

Leaf Rollers and Cranberry Fruitworms

• Leaf roller caterpillars, as their name implies, roll themselves into a blueberry plant's leaves during their metamorphosis into a winged insect. An application of diatomaceous earth controls them. If leaf rollers remain, try introducing parasitic wasps to the garden. These wasps feed on leaf rollers, killing them.

  Cranberry fruitworms lay their eggs on unripe blueberries. Since the worm lives in debris on the ground during the winter, control this pest by diligently removing fallen branches, leaves and other debris. If you notice certain berries ripening much faster than others, pick and discard them. Fruitworms likely laid eggs there.