Growing blueberry in your home plate garden is well worth the try . By grow utilitarian blueberry companion plant nearby , your blueberry bushes will stay healthy and productive for many years to get . As long as you provide their ideal growing conditions , you ’ll enjoy a fresh craw of delicious fruit every summer .
Companion planting is an advantageous garden design technique used in constituent gardening and permaculture that takes advantage of certain plants ’ reciprocally good qualities . Companion planting blueberry with compatible herbs , flowers , and shrubs creates a healthy , sustainable garden ecosystem .
Some plants pull good insect like pollinators and predatory animal , while others repulse vernacular garden pesterer . In addition , specific plant conjugation reportedly support each other ’s outgrowth and produce better - tasting yield when produce nearby .
What to Plant with Blueberry Bushes
When choosing your blueberry companion plant , be sure to select mixture that have similar requirements for faint , nutrients , soil pH , and body of water . Read on to witness out what to constitute with blueberry bushes for your adept berry harvest time yet .
Since blueberries grow best in acidic soil with a pH level between 4.5 and 5.5 , it ’s all-important to opt fellow traveler industrial plant with similar environmental demands .
Are huckleberries like blueberriesregarding ground want ? Yes . Get in signature with your biotic community ’s local conjunct telephone extension office for a soil test if you ’re unsure of your soil pH level to test the acidity .
Consider each plant ’s fledged size when determining your landscaping or vegetable garden layout . Highbush blueberry bush cultivar ( Vaccinium corymbosum ) often reach four to six feet tall and wide-eyed , depending on the variety . Lowbush blueberry ( genus Vaccinium angustifolium ) grow between six inches and two feet in tallness and width .
Similarly , it ’s important to assure that taller plants do n’t block the sunlight for smaller single that require full sun . When consideringbilberries vs blueberries , both plants typically prefer full sunlight but also tolerate part shade . It ’s helpful to grow tad - loving primer cover plants beneath blueberry Dubya .
Blueberries are recurrent shrubs that thrive in USDA hardiness zone 3 - 10 . They have a relatively shallow beginning system , so it ’s good not to plant yearbook underneath your blueberries to avoid damaging the blueberry bush roots while dig .
Companion Planting Blueberries with Acid-Loving Plants
Some of the best fellow plant for blueberries are other perennial shrubs that opt an acidic soil environment . keep the proper grime pH ascertain that the plant life can steep the nutrient they necessitate through their solution system .
To prepare your blueberry planting area , you may have to remedy your soil to increase its sourness . Useful ground amendments admit cottonseed repast , peat moss , and sulfur - ground ware . Using pine needles and constitutive compost as mulch also acidifies grease over time .
Pisces emulsion is an excellent fertilizer for acid - lie with plants like blueberry . It ’s available at most garden center , or you could try piddle your own blueberry fertilizer with this straightforward recipe .
mix the ingredients in a large bucket with a lid . take into account the mixture to cure for two hebdomad or until the fish portion fully break down . conjure the solution daily while it ’s cure .
Always debase fish emulsion with urine before applying it to your flora . Mix one troy ounce of your homemade fish emulsion with one gallon of water . Pour thishomemade fertiliser for blueberriesaround the base of the works as a stain drench , or spray it directly on the leaves for foliar feeding .
Homemade fish fertilizer ordinarily hold back importantly more nutrients than the store - buy alternative because commercially produced Pisces the Fishes emulsion often get prepared only with fish dissipation , not whole Pisces .
Note that whileplanting blueberry bush seedsis possible , it ’s commonly estimable and quicker to start with a seedling or barren - root plant . Blueberries take a while to growfrom germ – up to about seven years to bear a honest crop of yield .
Azaleas
Azaleas are beautiful bloom shrubs that grow in acidulent grime and are suited for USDA zones 6 - 10 . Most cultivar bloom between early spring and early summertime , like to blueberry . make multiple coinage of flora blossom around your chiliad is helpful for attracting pollinators .
azalea prefer part shade to full Dominicus . They usually grow around four to six feet tall . For more compact spaces , dwarf azaleas stay roughly two or three feet high .
Cranberry Bushes
If you ’d like to cultivate several different type of berry plant , a cranberry bush make a great fellow traveller for blueberries since they have similar turn requirement . Depending on the motley , cranberries grow in USDA zone 4 - 7 .
Like blueberry , there are highbush and lowbush cranberry cultivars . Lowbush cranberry modernize like a ground binding , growing two to eight inch marvellous and propagate out up to six foot panoptic .
Highbush cranberries sometimes hand 12 pes tall . If they start overcrowd their neighbor , prune them back to a more manageable sizing .
Rhododendrons
Rhododendrons are idealistic for blueberry bush associate planting and often offer the bestplace to planta blueberry bush . While most miscellany bloom in the spring , sure cultivars bloom in the summer and pin . Rhododendrons thrive in USDA zones 4 - 8 .
In addition , most types of rhododendrons are evergreen . They provide additional protection for your blueberry shrub during the cold months as well as some winter interest in your landscape .
Blueberry Companion Plants that Attract Beneficial Insects
Pollination is one of the most critical factors for a acceptable blueberry bush harvest . Most blueberry bush cultivars are not ego - pollinating and call for another variety of blueberry bush for cross - pollenation to raise a sufficient harvest of fruit .
It ’s essential to attract pollinator to your garden by planting prime and shrub that blossom at the same time as blueberry bush bushes . In addition , certain aromatic herbs and peak beat back blueberry bush pests and attract their predators .
Hyacinth
hyacinth are fragrant flowering bulbs that bloom from ahead of time to mid - spring . They ’re perennial in USDA zones 4 - 8 . The rosiness attract pollinator , and their solid odor also works as a innate deer and rodent repellant .
grapeshot hyacinth ( Muscari armeniacum ) is another eccentric of spring - flower light bulb with a gently sweet fragrancy that grows well with blueberries . These delicate purple flowers acquire six to 12 column inch magniloquent and make an excellent ground back . They ’re hardy in USDA zones 3 - 9 .
Lilacs
Lilacs are wonderfully redolent flowering shrubs that develop best in USDA zones 3 - 7 . They flower from mid to later spring , at the same time as a blueberry bush , and pull in a all-embracing miscellanea of pollinator .
However , lilac do n’t do well in acidic ground . They prefer a soil pH spirit level between 6.5 - 7.0 , so it ’s best to plant lilacs a short distance aside from your blueberry patch .
Thyme
Thyme is vastly useful for fellow traveler planting . This spicy herb allow a wide miscellanea of soil type and light levels and thrives in USDA zones 5 - 9 .
Larger thyme miscellanea arise about 12 inches grandiloquent by 18 in broad . Creeping thyme fix an attractive and fragrant ground cover , spreading out as much as 12 inches while staying only two or three in grandiloquent .
Thyme ’s pungent odour repels gadfly like maggots , moth , mosquito , and whitefly . The flowers also attract predatory louse like ladybird beetle , lacewing , and parasitic wasps ( which do not prick human being ) in plus to pollinators .
If you have latterly been wonder what to originate with blueberries , rest assured that there are plenty of honorable fellow plants to choose from . Companion planting blueberry bush with other flowers and shrubs not only adds a pleasing aesthetic appeal to your landscape but also makes gardening substantially more down - maintenance .
If you relish pick up what to implant with blueberry bush bush , please experience barren to partake this article about the best blueberry companion plants with your fellow gardening enthusiasts on Pinterest and Facebook .
