How to Make Blueberry Soil

Blueberry plants need acidic soil and you can make it to grow blueberries in pots. Many gardeners don't have soil with a low pH and need to add ingredients like sulfur to lower pH. Gardener Scott shows how he prepares his acidic potting soil for growing blueberry plants. (Video #351)

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[peterbedford]

I had 6 blueberry plants that produced very little fruit in the last two years. I put Azalea food on them 4 months ago and this spring they have exploded with fruit.

[Chardifications]

I've got over 100 blueberry plants. All in pots.
It's worth mentioning that when you choose 2 varieties to make sure they are both early, middle or late varieties or you won't get cross pollination. As they produce flowers at different times. 2-6 weeks apart.
Great video, good luck. 👍🙏

[DeeDeeBirch]

I am not a soil scientist, but good soil and cow manure with blood meal and bone meal gets a party started… chicken poop and worm poop here and there keeps the plant babies happy. God has a green thumb and I love watching the miraculous things that happen in my garden beds😎🙏💕

[tbluemel]

I am growing blueberries in a raised bed which I filled with peat moss and compost, along with elemental Sulphur. One caution I would give your viewers, however, is to do a pH test on the water they use to water the blueberries. One can fairly quickly "deacidify" the soil by watering with alkaline water. And, whatever you do, do NOT use soft water. The sodium will kill most plants.

[DovidM]

I appreciate that you stressed that you should wait to plant in the pots until the Ph went down. Most YouTubers would toss a handful at the bottom of a planting hole, and put the blueberry in right away!

[jeronimus]

Hi Mr. Scott, I live in São Paulo-Brazil and I have blueberries planted in pots in the backyard, Powderblue, Misty, Climax and Emeralds. I prepare the substrate with carbonized rice husk, ascicula, pine bark and cones, dry leaves, sawdust, sand and only 10% soil, all collected free of charge from the street plot. I mix everything, soak it a lot with water and iron sulfate, and compost slurry, cover it with a black plastic tarp and leave it to decompose and ferment for 4 months and then the final substrate will be ready and acidic to plant blueberries, thanks for the video!!!

[pete]

Gardener Scott is the Bob Ross of gardening.

[powersonic]

Nice video, very well articulated and good information . I would recommend using a larger pot though if you are trying to get a decent harvest and large berries . Lastly, keeping mind that when planting blueberry in pots its a constant battle to keep the pH in the right zone so in my case for my potted blueberries I periodically add sulfur and water with ammonium sulfate solution. As the plants get bigger and start to produce fruit calcium will need to be added to help with fruit production . I find that blueberries are quite a labor intensive plant to " properly " care for but is also fun and rewarding . All the best with your blueberries plants, thank you for sharing .

[natefidalgo]

Nice video, I have that exact soil acidifier didn't realize initially that it took 6 months ish before it works the ph level down good talk about the microbes did a soil test back in the day and thought the soil tester was faulty wasn't showing anything significantly different for pH levels. Now I realize it's the microbes and giving them enough time to drop the ph doesn't happen overnight. 👍

[heidiclark]

Thank You for showing how to make acid soil for potted blueberries.

[waterdog]

I live in Canada, and I love your channel. I grew up in Nova Scotia, and picked the native blueberries for my mother to use. A very different berry. Low growing. Now, decades later, I live in Southern Ontario. I am an old lady, living on two acres, with a few protected raised beds. I plan on growing what we call high bush blue berries. I was going to buy two ‘trees’ from a local commercial grower and plant some in a bed that is twelve by fifteen feet, amending the soil (sandy loam..not so acidic yet with soaked sphagnum peat moss to add. I will instead prepare one of my raised beds.. which is on an area which slopes, with peat moss and my compost. The ground here is notorious for being a weather challenge. The soil can have a freeze depth variance which is huge..from a foot in a mild winter, to five feet in a deep freeze. Climate change doth have its challenges. After watching your video, I plan on removing one foot of my bed soil in one three foot by eight foot bed, and replace it with a mixture of sphagnum peat moss (wetted with equal amounts of water because my soil is sandy loam, and on a hill, near its top, compost, (mine..household product, grass, leaf mix and remnant herbs and some small wood), and top some tree mulch from my own chipped trees. It is currently the second week of September here. I will be doing this next week. I will take the Ph levels after that. Hopefully I can transplant them in the spring. The vendor commended a fall planting, but the raised beds are not ready. The bed area I had prepared is still not right, but I can move my rhubarb there.

[TheTrock]

Our soil Ph is 7.2, and I amended w/ Peat Moss and a lot of Sulphur to start a Blueberry Patch a few years ago. I still lost about half the Blueberries and this year switched the Blueberries to pots in the Chicken Yard and planted Elderberries in the Blueberry Patch. Vermiculite is no longer available here, but they have big bags of Perlite at Home Depot. I've been using it in most of my raised beds too w/ good results.

[beckysheetz]

I have been looking for this information. Gardener Scott, you are the man!! Thank you!

[simplifygardening]

Love blueberries and have 7 plants myself. They do need a little help with soil amendments but worth the hassle. Great video Scott

[duncanmaina]

Your expositions in your videos are always crystal clear. I like all your videos because they are very easy to understand because you don't talk so fast.

[zerozerotwo]

The best ingredients for blueberry soil that I've ever learned!

[waynesell]

Totally organized. Thanks for your dedication to your viewers. Definitely a fan.

[twobeards]

This was perfect timing.
I'm not big on blueberries but Amanda loves them. I picked up 5 dormant plants to go with the raspberries and strawberries that are already in. My soil ph is 7.2 and I need to adjust my soil down and will p h down with organic azalea food.
I grow other plants and always add dormant microbes to my soil free mix. I also dust roots before transplanting to help promote nutrient up take. I ferment this for at least a month to allow organics to breakdown.
My acting medium is ready.
My bare root berries are growing leaves .
Today I'm planting in 5 gal pots and will plant in the garden in 5 weeks when frost danger is over.
I'm going to look for 4 or 5 more plants of a different hybrid to add to the garden.
Good stuff here. I'm going to watch this again right now.
Keeping it organic here.
💪🇺🇸👍🖐

[Allducksgotobed]

I have recently discovered you, and I can't tell you how much your remind me of the Roger Swain from Victory Garden on PBS. I would watch him every time he came on, and I was in my early teens! I thoroughly miss that show (wasn't the same after they had to change hosts), and am so very happy to have found your channel! ❤🥦🍏🍎

[marvideo]

I prefer perlite over vermiculite.
Vermiculite has tendency to absorb moisture, thus make the soil more soggy.
I have a clay soil (Illinois), and perlite works better to help drainage.
Great video ! Thanks for sharing !