How to Plant Blueberry Bushes in Arkansas

Choose a location with full sun in which to grow your blueberries. Ensure that the area of ground or pot that you are planting in drains well, so that the plant roots are never sitting in standing water. Test your ground soil or potting soil with an at-home kit and check that the pH level falls between 4.09 and 5; make adjustments as required.

Aerate garden soil well with a spade and remove about half of the dirt in the hole, leaving a prepared area about 1 foot deep and 2 1/2 feet in diameter. Fill your pot about halfway with potting soil, if you are using this method. Fill the rest of your hole or pot with pre-moistened peat moss and work it into the soil well with the spade.

Remove the blueberry plant from its store container. Gently loosen the roots and remove excess dirt. Place the plant into the prepared hole so that the original soil line on the plant is 1 to 2 inches above the ground.

Fill the hole with the soil you removed earlier or more fresh potting soil. Lightly mound the soil around the base of the blueberry plant using your hands. Water around the plant generously until the topsoil remains damp to the touch after a minute or two.

Plant a second blueberry near the first or in a separate pot kept near the first potted blueberry. Blueberries cannot reproduce from their own pollen and without a secondary source your plant will probably die off after one season. Spread approximately 3 inches of bark mulch around the base of each blueberry plant.

Fertilize the new blueberry plants with 2 tbsp. of 10-20-10 azalea fertilizer once they have established. Use 1 oz. of fertilizer for each year of the plant's age annually thereafter. Provide 1 inch of water weekly for your blueberry plants and give them extra water after fertilizing.