Organic Soil Preparation for Growing Blueberries

Options

• Preparing the organic soil mixture for your shrubs before planting them is the easiest way to make sure they'll be healthy, grow at the proper rate and produce plenty of tasty fruit for your family.

  There are two ways to prepare organic soil for growing blueberries: Make changes to your existing yard soil by adding organic materials, or start with ready-made compost and add materials that blueberry bushes need.

Change Your Soil

• Blueberries grow best in rich, high organic soil that has a slightly acidic pH level of 4.5 to 5.2. Changing your own soil to be suitable for growing blueberries is not difficult--in fact, it's just a matter of adding plenty of organic materials and giving them time to decompose--but it can be time-consuming.

  Adding organic matter to your blueberry garden bed in autumn will help it be ready for planting in spring. Mix used coffee or tea grounds and fireplace ashes directly into the bed in the fall to get a quick start on things. If you have them on hand, also add some fruit and vegetable scraps, shredded newspaper, pine needles, grass clippings, dry leaves, sawdust and peat moss as well. Spread these organic materials onto the garden bed and cover them with soil for the winter.

  In the spring when you turn the soil of the garden bed, you'll find you have a much richer, more organic soil base for blueberries.

Ready-Made Compost

• Compost can be purchased at many organic farms and garden supply centers if you don't have your own already made.

  Compost is often pH neutral at around 7.0, and your soil needs to be pH 4.5 to 5.2 to get the best results from blueberry bushes. You can easily adjust the pH levels of both soil and compost by adding a few extra organic materials to the mixture.

  The organic additions should be slightly acidic, and pine works well for this task. Add pine needles, pine wood sawdust, pine shavings and even bits of pine bark to the ready-made compost to help adjust the pH levels naturally. Sphagnum peat moss is another excellent acidic material to add to your compost or soil--it will adjust the pH balance plus add extra organic material, which blueberry bushes love.