Homemade Organic Blueberry Fertilizer
Around here we like blueberries, high bush blueberries. Maine is famous for their low bush blueberries, which are good, but I much prefer the high bush with their balance of sweet & sour. In Ohio we had six bushes, here in Maine we inherited a few that were not doing so well. Last year I added a few small ones to the garden, this year I added three more.
Blueberries have their own special likes when it comes to fertilization and treatment, they will perform much better if given the acidic conditions that they like. We naturally have acidic soil, but the blueberries are planted in garden areas where the native soil has been improved enough that it’s not as acidic as it could be. This is where sulfur comes in. Blueberries will apprciate a bit of sulfur. I mix up my own blend of fertilizer for the blueberry and other acidic loving shrubs (like rhodadendrons).
My recipe is as follows: 5 pounds sulfur, 5 pounds Tennessee brown phosphate, 5 pounds granite meal, mineral blend (I use Azomite, which I buy in 44lb bags and add to the entire garden as well as feeding it to the chickens), compost. If I have them, I add a small scoop of zeolites as well (these increase water and nutrient retention as well as keep nitrogen in the soil). I purchase all of my amendments at Fedco Grower’s Supply, which is close enough that I drive up and pick up my order.
Each blueberry plants gets a cup of my three ingredient fertilizer mixed into a bucket of compost. If I have mineral mix and zeolites, I add a quarter to a half cup of those as well. Mix well and spread around the blueberry plants. They will thank you for it with robust growth and lots of fruit.
Finding organic options for fertilizers can be a problem. I’m happy to have a large flock of birds to provide lots of fertilizer and a source for good compost. Most soils can use a few extras to help plants grow healthy plants.
Do you have a favorite homemade fertilizer mix for your garden?
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