- You can do it little blueberries.

- I know.

Give it some motivation.

- Yeah.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) Most people don't think of Utah when they think of growing blueberries, but guess what?

It's totally possible to do.

And eating blueberries from a bush you've grown sounds like a dream.

We're here at Utah State University Botanical Center with Sheriden Hansen to talk about what it takes to grow blueberries in Utah.

It's not the easiest, but you're sure to learn a lot about gardening, if you decide to put in the effort.

Hi Sheriden.

- Hi, how are you?

- I'm good.

Thanks for being part of Modern Gardener.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

- So, do you know any successful blueberry growers?

- So, there are some commercial growers in Utah that are growing blueberries successfully, but for homeowners, it can be really difficult.

So, a lot of people that I know that have tried this, will have success for the first couple years, they may harvest a couple handfuls of berries, and then if you don't stay really dedicated and really on top of it, it will fizzle out and the plant will eventually die, so, it is something that you really have to work at.

- Yeah.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) - Blueberries have very specific needs.

So, full sun is something that they need.

And when I say full sun, that's at least six hours of sunlight every single day.

Luckily in Utah, that's something that we have an ample supply of.

So, we don't typically have a lot of cloudy days in the summer, and we have really intense sunlight.

So we're able to get that high light, and that full sunlight very easily.

Just, when you're locating them in your yard, make sure you put them in a place that gets at least six hours.

- Okay.

How about moisture and water needs?

- So they are a thirsty plant and we do live in a desert, so that's something to kind of consider.

They need quite a bit of water, up to an inch of water a week, and they like to have this moist loamy soil.

So making sure that they're in a location where you can get to them, where they can be watered frequently and in good soil, that will retain a little bit of moisture for them throughout that week, as you're watering.

- Do you write recommend like, growing your blueberries in a pot or a container, or can you put them right into the ground?

- So they require some soil amendment.

So, it is a lot easier to grow in a container than it is to grow in the ground.

So, I'm gonna show you how to amend the soil, and how to do this so that we can acidify the soil, because blueberries like really acid soil, and what we have in Utah is not acidic soil.

We have the opposite.

So, if you look on a pH scale, it goes from 0 to to 14 and seven is right in the middle.

That's neutral.

Utah soils come in around eight, sometimes eight and a half.

Blueberries like four and a half, five, five and a half somewhere down there.

So we're really on the opposite end of the scale from what they like.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) So, there are three kinds of blueberries out there.

There's the Lowbush, the Highbush and the Rabbiteye.

The Lowbush varieties are the most hearty, and they're not quite as large as the Highbush, so Lowbush, Highbush.

The Highbush varieties are a little bit less hearty.

So, zones four through seven.

The Rabbiteye is a much smaller variety, really quite short and much more adapted to the southern portion of the United States, that type of climate.

- Okay.

- So, not well adapted for Utah.

So I would avoid those here.

So right here, this is a Highbush Elliott.

- Okay.

- And it's one that I picked up for this, so that I can show you some of the things about growing blueberries in Utah.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) So when we do this, there are some ways that we can make a soil mix, so that they will have a really nice acid loving soil.

And I've got three things here that I can show you how to mix together, to make this really nice soil mix that you see here.

- Okay.

- So the first thing is, is I have sand.

And the reason I have sand is because I need some well-draining soil, and sand is a great big particle.

And when those big particles bump together it leaves big spaces in between so that water can drain very easily through the soil.

The next thing that you're going to need is compost.

So compost, this is a worm casting type of compost.

You can see how nice and dark it is.

This is going to add some nutrient value to our soil.

So we need to have, you know, that nutrient so that we have things to feed the plant so that the plant can grow.

And the last thing, and this is probably the most important thing here, is peat moss.

Peat moss is naturally extremely acidic.

So this is gonna give us that acid base.

So I'm gonna mix this peat moss to compost to sand, one to one to one.

So I'm just gonna go do a scoop of each one, mix it up, add another scoop of each one, mix it up, and make sure that I have those ratios.

And that's what I did to get this soil right here.

And you can see it's really nice.

It's loamy.

The peat moss is gonna hold a little bit of water.

It's also gonna give us that acid, but then we're gonna have the sand that's going to drain and help us not have too much water retention there.

And then we've got that great nutrient value.

- Awesome.

It feels good.

- It does feel good.

- Yeah.

- It feels like a really good mix.

- Yeah.

- I mixed it all up and I was like, "Ooh, I like this.

This is nice."

We can add fertilizer to the soil mix now, in fact, we're gonna add this one.

So this one is just nitrogen.

- Okay.

- And it's 21-0-0.

When you look on the bag there's three numbers on the bag, and that 21 is nitrogen.

- Okay.

- So, it's actually quite acidifying just in and of itself, - Okay.

- This 21-0-0.

So we'll add a little bit of that, or I can use an acid mix like this that will help to acidify the soil as well.

But we do have some nutrient from the compost, so- - Yeah, okay.

- So when I pop this up, I'm gonna choose a container that's a little bit bigger than the plant that I'm gonna pick, not huge, but it's gonna give me a little room for growth.

If I pick a container that's way too big, I'm gonna have a lot of moisture retention, and I don't want a lot of moisture retention.

- Okay.

- It will be too much and I'll get root-rot, so- - Okay.

- I'm just going to take, and I'm gonna pop out my cute little plant here.

- I'll get that for you.

- Thank you.

And we're gonna put him right down in this mix.

I'm gonna give myself a nice lip on the edge, because I'm gonna have to water, and I want to make sure that that water doesn't just run off the top.

So, you know, giving myself a lip will really help.

And then I've got some more of the soil mix, in a not pretty container.

- Oh, look at you.

- So I've got it down here.

- Yeah.

- But, we'll just add some more of this mix around the top and we're gonna cover this root ball.

- Okay.

- So that we can retain some of that moisture.

I don't wanna go too high around the plant, but just barely cover- - Okay.

- That root ball.

- Do you need to like, loosen the roots at all?

Do you ever do that?

- You don't have to, unless it is root bound.

- Okay.

- If it looks like it's been in the container for a really long time, you definitely can do that.

- Okay.

- This one didn't look too bad, so- - Okay.

- Not too worried about it.

So that's it.

So, it's potted up.

Now, we have to water it.

So where it's in a container, remember blueberries are thirsty, we're going to have to water a little more frequently in a container than we would in an in-ground planting because this isn't gonna hold as much moisture, - Right, okay.

- As what we would see.

- That makes sense, yeah.

- So, but our water here, just like our soil, is alkaline.

- Okay.

- So it's gonna drive the soil pH up over time.

- Okay.

- So every year in the spring and in the fall, I'm going to add a little bit more- - Nitrogen.

- Of the nitrogen, this acidifier, we can help retain a little moisture by putting a little bit of mulch on the top of this if we would like.

If I was doing an inground planting I would absolutely add mulch to the top.

And then I'm just gonna watch this plant.

I'm gonna baby it.

If you start to see symptoms like what we see here, this is called chlorosis.

And this is because the pH isn't right for this plant.

- Okay.

- So it's important to watch for signs and symptoms like this.

This is a cue to me, so what happens with micronutrients, things like iron, boron, magnesium, they're really sensitive in the soil to the pH, and if the pH is too high, above seven, like what we have here, then it makes it so they can't be taken up by the plant and we start to see symptoms like this.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) - So, we've got our blueberry plant.

It's growing, we're seeing new growth, but we start seeing the chlorosis, so- - The iron chlorosis, yes.

- Yeah.

So how can you kind of, test your soil, so you know what amendment to?

- Right.

So there are several labs in Utah that will test your soil.

USU has one, they'll tell you what your pH is.

They'll also tell you what some of your nutrient load is, what your potassium, phosphorus, things like that are in the soil, and they'll give you some really good information back.

So that will help you know, if we need to work on acidifying the soil a little bit more, if we are okay, and maybe there's a different problem going on that maybe we need to address, but that can kind of help pinpoint what's going on with our soil and give us an idea if we are hitting the mark.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) - Can you talk a little bit about alternative crops?

- Yes, so if you don't wanna be this dedicated, if you don't wanna have to worry about this little plant all the time, there is a great alternative for Utah, and that is the Honeyberry.

They're just like a blueberry, but elongated.

Sometimes they're called Haskaps.

- Okay.

- You'll see them called that, or sometimes Saskatoons, or they have a bunch of different names.

- Oh, that's so cool.

- Native to North America.

We usually find them in Canada, but we are growing those here at the USU Botanical Center, and they do you really well.

So honeyberries taste a lot like blueberries.

They have a lot of the nutritional same load.

Like, people want those antioxidants.

And honeyberries do have quite a few of those, just like blueberries do, but they are well adapted for Utah soils, so they'll grow in the alkaline soil where this requires all of this work- - Yeah.

- and process.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) - Sheriden, this has been amazing.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us about blueberries.

- Thanks.

Thanks so much for having me.

- Yeah.

- It's been fun.

- If you enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy our video on testing your soil in Utah.

Click the image.

Thanks for watching.

Bye.

(harp notes ring out)