Guest from America or Blueberry

Blueberries can be grown in their own garden. For example, the variety Blucrop - lush bushes with lots of berries. This article will tell about the variety itself and about the features of its cultivation.

History of the origin of the variety Blucrop

Since 1908, Frederick Vernon Covill has been exploring wild blueberries in New Jersey USA for sampling. He was about to begin work on the selection of this plant. Elizabeth White found out about his work. In 1910, she supported the scientist and offered her farm, where she grew cranberries, as a training ground. Since 1911, Dr. Covill and Mrs. White have been actively working on the selection of blueberry varieties. The works were crowned with success - 15 varieties were managed to be bred and tested. In 1915-1916, among others, a tall variety of blueberries Blucrop appeared.

Blekrop came to the territory of the USSR in the middle of the twentieth century. It is very popular in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. It differs from other tall varieties by abundant fruiting and large berries.

The berry successfully adapts to different climatic conditions without losing its high resistance to diseases. The least sensitive to soil acidity and top dressing, Blucrop became popular among amateur gardeners and in commercial farms.

Grade description

The plant reaches two meters in height.

Blueberry leaves of the variety Blucrop are saturated dark green in color, oblong in shape. Foliage gives the bushes a decorative look, especially in autumn.

The bush requires regular pruning, the absence of which leads to a decrease in yield.

The plant begins to bear fruit in 3-4 years. The berries are dark blue, slightly flattened, large, have a pronounced bloom of light blue. Reach 1.7-2 cm in diameter. Weight - about 2 g.

Changing the color, shape and diameter of berries and leaves indicate that the plant is bad. Some changes are a hallmark of disease.

Fruits hang on long clusters, ripen in August. These ripening dates are valid for the European part of Russia. In regions other than it in terms of climate, dates may be shifted.

Bushes strewn with berries - a definite advantage of Blueberry Blueberry

The advantages of the variety include:

• high productivity (6-9 kg per bush);
• frost resistance (up to -34ºС);
• disease resistance.

Disadvantages:

• emergency overload of bushes with fruits;
• extended period of fruiting, complicating the sale of berries in bulk.

Video: Blueberry and Blueberry

Agricultural technology

The yield of blueberries depends entirely on the correctness of the chosen planting location.

For shrubs of this variety, light is important. In partial shade, the plant can also grow, but will not yield an abundant crop. Around planted bushes, you must remove the high vegetation that obscures them. The seedlings themselves can begin to obscure each other as they grow. Recommended landing density is 2.5 m by 1.5 m.

The soil should be acidic (pH = 3.5-5.0). If the soil on the site is not sufficiently acidic, choose a sunny area with a close occurrence of water, treat it with malic acid or another oxidizing agent.

A pH meter for the soil, which can be purchased at an affordable price, will help with the measurement of acidity.

Under natural conditions, blueberries grow in wetlands, so when planting, the level of groundwater occurrence should be taken into account. For the variety Blucrop, the closest occurrence of groundwater to the surface (about 60 cm) is optimal. If this condition cannot be met, the shrub will need to be irrigated more, especially in the hot summer season. The berry does not tolerate moisture stagnation.

Blueberries will grow very poorly in place of plants that require lime dressing. For example, strawberries, carrots, garlic and so on.

Landing Features

When buying in a store, it is preferable to choose seedlings of two or three years of age with an increase of up to 30-35 cm, with a well-formed root system.

It is recommended to plant blueberries in spring at an air temperature of 17 ° C, but autumn planting is allowed in September, so that the plant takes root before the first frost.

Planting Scheme:

1. Dig a hole 50 cm wide and half a meter deep.
2. At the bottom, fill up the drainage in the form of small gravel or broken brick.
3. Make a soil substrate: a mixture of acid peat, chernozem and sand. If the earth is artificially oxidized, sulfur and needles can be added.
4. Pour part of the substrate over the drainage.
5. Remove the seedling from the container with a lump of earth and, straightening the roots, lower it into the pit.
6. Add the remainder of the soil substrate so that the soil covers the stem by 3 cm.
7. Finish planting by mulching the soil with sawdust.

The first watering is best done with a mixture of water and vinegar (for 10 liters of water 100 g of vinegar). Immediately after planting, it is necessary to feed blueberries with complex fertilizers twice.

The seedling is lowered into the pit, keeping the root ball of soil

Care

Blueberries do not belong to moody plants, so caring for her is quite simple. Shrubs need:

• Regular watering. It is important to control the water regime, avoiding stagnation of water at the roots and drying out of the soil.
• Weeding seedlings. Around young plants, weeds are regularly removed, which lead to the death of the shrub.
• Loosening the soil. The soil is loosened to a depth of not more than 10 cm, since the roots of blueberries are 20 cm from the surface.
• Regular addition of mulch. The soil around the trunk is mulched with a mixture containing needles, peat or sawdust.
• Autumn pruning. The first three years cut the lower shoots to accelerate growth. For 4 years, they begin to carry out sanitary pruning, otherwise the berries will begin to grow smaller and may completely disappear.
• Fertilizer application. In early spring, shrubs are fed with ready-made complex fertilizer for heather.

Mulching blueberries with sawdust ensures maximum moisture retention in the ground

Disease

The most common diseases:

• Bacterial stem cancer is very dangerous for young shrubs, as it delays the supply of water and nutrients. The disease arises from the abundant use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers. The functions of growth and fruiting are slowed down, the yield is reduced. Symptoms of the disease are noticeable with the formation of large tumors on the root neck. The infected bush must be removed.
• Gray rot spreads at high humidity and air temperature. The stems and leaves are affected, but the berries suffer the most. First, yellow dots appear, which quickly grow and the fruits decay, becoming covered with a gray, thick coating. Gray rot spreads to all plants. To protect against the disease, drugs are used: Euparen, Signum, Tersel, Switch, Rovral, Topsin, Polyversum.
• Powdery mildew develops in dry, hot weather with high humidity and sudden changes in temperature. The disease affects the leaves, shoots and fruits. The branches of the plant dry out, and therefore the bush weakens and its winter hardiness decreases. For protection, drugs are effective: a solution of copper sulfate (3-5%), Sulfaride, Topaz, Bayleton.

Photo Gallery: Bluecrop Blueberry Disease

Breeding

Two methods of propagating blueberries are popular:

1. Layering. In the spring we select a twig on the bush, gently bend it to the soil, consisting of peat and sand, sprinkle or cover with a film. In the fall, layering will already give roots, and in spring it will be possible to separate the main plant and the sprouted layering.
2. Cuttings. In the autumn, we cut off the shoots of an adult plant on which the bark is already numb. We twist the twigs and store them in a cool place until spring. At the end of March, cut the shoots into cuttings 20-25 cm long and place in a container with a substrate (a mixture of peat and sand), cover with a cap or put in a greenhouse. Water regularly. Transplant blueberries in open ground at the end of summer, when the seedlings form the root system.

For successful growth, young blueberries grown from seeds need to be thinned out.

Gardeners reviews

Hello everyone! I have been growing blueberries for 10 years now. Blucrop bought at a garden exhibition in three years, the seller said that blueberries begin to bear fruit in their sixth year of life. And so it happened. The first fruiting was small, and now very plentiful, I am very pleased! The bushes grow on acidic soil and I also laid moss around them - sphagnum instead of mulch, so that it was in the forest.

Yulia

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I have this variety growing (or surviving). The third summer will be. Strongly does not grow. The seedling was from Brusvyana with a sprout of cm 20. Maybe I'm not doing everything right. When planted, it turned out very low in terms of ground level. On the advice of local nursery growers, I simply added the mixture. I didn’t notice that she was suffering from the heat.

Tatyana

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Bluecrop is a smart girl and my favorite. It did not form him; he himself grew up with a higher crown than the rest. And, although it seems to me that on the lower branches more berries are knitted, the remaining varieties still cut them in the autumn, because it is not convenient to take care of the bushes, and under the weight of the berries the branches lie on the mulch.

Anna

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Blueberry Bluecrop arrived in Russia from the state of New Jersey and successfully got accustomed to us due to its extraordinary frost resistance. Gardeners love this variety for its high yield. Of course, this plant requires unusual soil and special care. But buckets of tasty and large berries are worth the effort.