Fertilizer for blueberry: what and how to feed the plant?

Shrub blueberry culture until recently was not of great interest to gardeners.North America is considered the birthplace of its growth, and in our country its ancestral lands were Siberian expanses. However, recently this plant has been planted in central Russia, including in private garden plots.

Externally, it is a shrub reaching one meter in height, its average size is from 30 to 50 cm. At first glance, the bush is very similar to blueberries, but the stem of the plant is much lighter than blueberry. Its leaves are 2-3 cm in length, with the arrival of autumn acquire a reddish tint and crumble. Berry can keep on the branches until cold snap. Since there are no root hairs on the roots, the shrub produces moisture from the soil using mycorrhiza.

Flowers plants - small (pentahedral). Fruits appear round with a characteristic blue bloom, can be oblong, not more than 1.5 cm in length. Gather berries for eating raw or are processed for making jam, as well as wine.

The fruits and juice of this plant are very good for health and are used as a means of stopping the development of diabetes. With the active use of berries significantly reduced blood sugar levels. Blueberries also have a beneficial effect on the work of the heart and blood vessels, strengthening their walls.

Being a completely unpretentious plant, blueberry bushes are not affected by diseases or various bacteria. The plant is very frost-resistant. Fruiting begins not immediately, but after 11 years at least, but then fruits appear annually, and the crop reaches 180-200 berries from each bush. The life span of a shrub can be up to 100 years. Harvesting blueberries is a laborious process, because the berries are very delicate and, with awkward pressure, quickly lose their appearance. To collect use a special container.

Blueberries are growing in both central Russia and the tundra. It can be seen in the mountains of Altai and the Caucasus, as well as in the marshy parts of Siberia. In the northern areas of blueberry is used for the treatment of diseases and in cooking. The bush grows on poor acidic soils, and on dry areas in mountainous terrain.

Favorable conditions for blueberries are considered acidic and moisture. When growing this plant on its own plot, an important point is to maintain the proper level of acidity. In the area of ​​the roots must always be present for quality growth. If the culture is planted in areas where there is groundwater, then for her it is the most favorable moment.

There are tall and undersized blueberries. Fruit crop is considered tall, reaching a height of 3-4 meters. This plant is very cold-resistant. Its berries are large in size (up to 2.5 cm), the taste is sour. The early varieties of blueberries that produce crops in July include Stanley, Duke, Blueberry, Weymouth, Rankokas. In late August or September, such varieties as “Toro”, “Northblyu”, “Jersey”, “Eliot”, “Blyukrop”, “Nelson” and others produce fruits. Covilla tall garden shrub obtained by combining three varieties of American blueberry. It grows well both in the sun and in medium-lit plantations. The berries are large, taste sweet and sour. Harvest from the bush reaches 7-8 kilograms.

Low-growing varieties of blueberries (marsh, marsh) are characterized by an average height of shrubs from 50 to 100 cm. Grow both in dry soil and in swamps. Berries are large and watery in appearance, with sour taste.In the people undersized blueberries got the name "ponobobel".

The main varieties of low-growing plants include:

• "Taiga beauty";
• Iksa blueberry;
• bush called "placer blue";
• Yurkovsky view.

Since the shrub with growth very actively takes minerals from the soil, the fertilizer for blueberry must be acidic. Before you begin fertilizing plants with fertilizers, it is necessary to take into account a number of features of blueberries. If fertilizer was previously produced with coniferous sawdust, one should pay attention to their condition. Last year's dose of sawdust doubled. Testers are available, with which they measure the acidity of the soil, as well as the content of zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium and a number of other microparticles. Blueberries are stunted in spring and summer, and tall are fertilized in spring and autumn. The plant at the age of one year does not need additional feeding.

Mineral fertilizers in the amount of one tablespoon should be used to feed a two-year bush. The norm of the mixture for a plant of three years is 2 tablespoons, a plant at the age of 5 years will need 8 spoons of fertilizer. For shrubs over 6 years old, 16 tablespoons of mineral fertilizers are needed. The best of them consider ammonium sulfate, potassium, zinc. Magnesium sulphate and superphosphate are also used for fertilizers.

Phosphorus fertilizers (superphosphate) process the bushes in the summer and autumn in the amount of 100 grams per shrub. The rate of magnesium sulfate to fertilize a single blueberry bush is 15 grams per year. Zinc and potassium sulfate are also used once in the amount of 2 grams per bush. The soil in the garden plots, as a rule, is not acidic, it is neutral.

To reproduce the usual habitat of blueberries, peat with acid content of 2.7-3.2 pH is poured into the pit for planting. Well suited for this land from coniferous forests, containing acid in its composition. An excellent fertilizer can be rotted coniferous bark, which is available in large quantities in sawmills.

In the spring they spend the first feeding. Fertilizers and nitrogen, for example, Fertik-Universal are used as fertilizers. In April or May, the juice begins to move along the branches. The soil is watered with fertilizer solutions, and not scattered dry. Ammonium sulfate is applied to the soil in three periods and at different percentages.

One bush is treated with fertilizer in the amount of 80-90 grams from April to June. The bushes are watered as follows:

• in April use 40% of the total fertilizer;
• May bloom 35% of the composition of the solution;
• in June, the plant is treated with 25% of the total aggregate mass of the mixture.

In the following months, right up to harvest, watering the bushes with acidified water should be done. Acetic and citric acid based solutions are very productive solutions for maintaining an acidic soil composition. They are recommended to water the soil around the blueberry bushes in the summer (2-3 buckets under the bush). In the first solution, the percentage ratio of vinegar and water is 1/10 (1 cup of apple vinegar, 9% is poured into 2 liters of water). In the second case, in a three-liter jar filled with water, add a teaspoon of citric acid. It is recommended to check the acidity of the soil under the blueberry bushes at least once a year.

Fertilize blueberry bushes can be colloidal sulfur. The soil treated with this chemical becomes acidic in a short period of time, but it is impossible to dissolve it in water, therefore it is necessary to dig it into the soil by 10-15 centimeters when using it. If pine sawdust was used for fertilizer, it is possible to spread the fertilizer in a dry form by hiding it under the sawdust layer on the soil surface. It is possible to process 500 grams of such chemical 10 square meters.

Under the brand Florovit produce agrochemicals for various plants and shrubs for 30 years. Fertilizers are liquids or granular formulations; they dissolve completely in water. Apply them to fertilize fruit crops in the leaf or basal part of them. On blueberry leaves, this series of fertilizer creates a protective film that protects them from the sun in the summer.

Polish fertilizer Florovit helps the plant to be resistant to various diseases of the shoots, heals areas of the bushes affected by frost. Also, this preparation is used to feed seedlings intended for planting into the soil. Fertilizer is used as a solution to water the plant for three times in the spring and summer period from mid-April to June inclusive.

Complex fertilizer formulations are not limited to this - Bona Forte is another remedy that improves blueberry fertility. Unlike other fertilizers, it is used to feed the bushes once a season (spring or summer).

Any fertilizer goes on sale in a specific package, which is available set out instructions for its use.

The very process of feeding blueberries is not particularly difficult. It is necessary to dissolve the fertilizer in water in appropriate proportions, and then water each bush with a solution in the area of ​​the root part. The main thing with this is to strictly observe the dosage, so as not to harm the plant.

Gardeners recommend the following.

• Do not use fertilizer for blueberries in the form of manure.
• Fertilizing plant composition with chlorine is impossible, because blueberries can not tolerate it.
• In the spring you need to prune old and weak shoots to avoid diseases of the shrub and its unproductive fruiting.
• It takes time and patience for blueberries to take root in the soil of the garden.
• When the right place for planting is chosen and thorough fertilizing is made in the form of fertilizers, you can count on high yields for many years.

How to choose a fertilizer for blueberries, see the following video.