Blueberry bushes not leafing out?

I had someone drop by the other day after searching for advice on what to do if their blueberry bushes were not leafing out. Sadly, they found no help here. So, I decided to write a quick post in case anyone else comes by for the same reason – it is blueberry-bush-leafing-out season after all.

Before doing anything, make sure your blueberry bushes actually survived the winter. By scraping the bark on the “trunk,” you can see if what is underneath is green and living or white and dead. Don’t gouge the poor things – just a little scrape should suffice. If you don’t see any sign of life, move further down the plant. If you hit dirt and still nothing, don’t give up, yet. I had one bush appear dead and then lo and behold, it sprouted up from the root next to the original plant. I would say that unless you are waaaaay north and you haven’t had something green coming out by now, it doesn’t look too good.

Blueberries are very hardy bushes and really don’t need much special care – the regular stuff makes them happy: water, soil that drains fairly and sun. They are so nice to the gardener – they can live where other plants can’t, like in clay or even rocky soils.

But there’s one thing Blueberries simply must have: acidic soil. As Carla Emery says in her book, Encyclopedia of Country Living, if they don’t have that, they simply won’t grow. And they’ll die. And if its only slightly acidic, they might grow, but they’re not going to produce.

Also, blueberries take a while to grow. So don’t be disappointed if they don’t just take off like an annual does. Blueberries are there for the long haul.

But, back to the acidic soil. How do you know if your soil is acidic? Well, most soil is slightly acidic. And almost all garden vegetable like it that way. But blueberries need it much more so. You could go out and buy a soil pH test from your local gardening supply store – I’ve done that. But, in reality, those things are just aggravating and not very accurate. And unless you are gardening in a pine forest, you’re going to have to amend your soil anyway. So, I would say, just go ahead and add some things to make it more acidic.

Peat moss and pine needles are two easily obtainable, natural amendments to make soil more acidic. You can dig up your blueberry bush (going out a nice diameter so as not to cut roots), shake off some of the soil from the roots, dig up some more soil and mix with about 1/3 peat moss and add any nice compost you might have and then replant. Mulch around the bush with some pine needles so that as they decay, they will continue to add acidity.

Beyond that, you really shouldn’t need to do much else. I don’t even fertilize beyond mulching with compost.

Here’s another place you can go to read up on blueberries!

Hope this is helpful!