exposure by Rick Gush
blueberry ’ first cousin , the myrtle berry .
Pine trees , wild deer and blueberries seem to go together . My grandmother subsist up in the mountains in Northern California , and I remember , that in addition to all thewild gooseberriesgrowing in the woods around her family , many of the gardeners in her community had also engraft blueberry Bush among the true pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . This made for a tidy sum of Charles Edward Berry for me to snack on while I thread around during the summers .
Once I started working in nurseries , I discovered that blueberry are probably the most frequently recommended species for gardeners who need to know what might oversee to grow well under large pine trees . These day , I ’m a bit more suspicious of planting blueberry in area with high deer population ; deer love to eat the yield and foliage of the plant .
The big and honest-to-goodness blueberry shrub I ’ve check were about 15 feet magniloquent , but in a bigmushroomshape because deer had eaten all the foliage within 6 or 7 fundament of the ground , much in the same way that horse will rationalize apple trees in their pastures .
The most notable characteristic of blueberry cultivation is their love of a moist and acidic environment . The ground under mature pines is quite acid , which is why blueberries are felicitous there .
If you do n’t institute under a pine tree diagram , the advisedsoil preparationis to add a large amount of thick , constitutional mulcheson top of the planted bushes . The mulches maintain moisture and add up to the sour of the mature surroundings . Like azaleas , which also have comparatively shallow root word systems , blueberries appreciate insulation from sun vulnerability .
Although blueberry will usually self - pollinate , most savvy agriculturalist plant a mixture of varieties ; this seems to facilitate a more exhaustive pollination , which of grade means more and bigger yield . Usually , the individual plants are keep at about 6 foot improbable . This height make harvest easier . Blueberries produce a lot of newfangled growth every year , and medium geezerhood subdivision acquire the most fruit , so commercial-grade growers call for to be constantly thinning the industrial plant to maintain the most fruitful visibility .
blueberry bush are usually calledVaccinium Section Cyanococcus . Their famous cousins in theVacciniumgenus let in the blue berries known asmyrtili , here in Italy , as well as the famous cranberries grow in the Northeast of the United States .
The most problematical pests in blueberry finish are the birds that consume the ripe fruit . In most develop expanse , net and other coverings forbid birds from getting to the advanced fruit .
We do n’t get many blueberry here in Italy , but we do get their full cousin , the myrtle . They both depend identical from the outside , but blueberries have a light - fleeceable flesh while myrtle berry material body is red or purple . My Italian married woman is specially fond of the myrtle berries , so I ’ll savor introducing her to “ real ” blueberries when we visit the States this downslope .
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