Growing Bilberry or Blueberry in sub-tropical climates?

[gtarman]

Hey guys. So I've been reading a lot of great literature about how good for your brain Bilberries/Blueberries are, and I remember once somebody telling me you could only grow them in colder climates. Is that true? Would you have any chance of making either of them work around South East Queensland?

Edited April 20, 2013 by gtarman

[hypnotoad]

I'm in SE QLD and my blueberries grow fine. My mate down the road is a pretty novice gardener and has a poverty stricken blueberry bush that gets berries on it too.

(you can also get special warm weather varieties at bunnings.)

So I say yes.

[quarterflesh]

They sell blueberrys at every hardware store and nursery iv been to from the sunshine coast to cairns. I also have one and its going fine

[bullit]

there r huge farms of blueberriez on the coast!!! grow like weeds....

[gtarman]

Cool, thanks guys. Just bought a seed packet of the European Bilberry type (Vaccinium myrtillus).

[endorfinder]

Berries go like weeds in north QLD.

[poisonshroom]

yep - iv got blueberries (small ones in pots) that produce the odd fruit or 2 in north qld. They look like they are only about a year old and iv had them since late last year, so they wouldnt be producing much anyway. the fruit they do produce is still sweet and tasty

[Illustro]

Just buy some from a local nursery, if you can find any, they will have species / varieties / hybrids suitable for your local clime. Look out for Southern Highbush plants.

[mindperformer]

you need a sour peat-soil and water only with rainwater because a too calcareous water will kill it over time.

There are some tropical blueberry-species, endemic only on eastern polynesian islands like Vaccinium cereum (from Rarotonga to the Marquesas)

my blueberry (upper half, V. myrtillus) and bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) in the garden:

Northern cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) and cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idea):

Vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberry) and american wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens):

Blueberries in the very northern part of Finland:

flowering cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idea) in the Engadin, Switzerland:

[waterboy 2.0]

My highbush varieties do well in pots with a dash of sulfur every coupla years and with an acidic mulch (pine needles in my case). The Highbush varieties cover a broad range of chilling hour requirements, and there is loads of cultivars. I grow a couple of lowbush (rabbiteye) types, but they will only perform where it gets cold with plenty of hours to meet the chilling requirement.

Check you local supplier, they will have varieties to suit the climate.

They dont have fine root hairs and majority of roots near the surface, so they get knocked around a bit with fluctuating moisture conditions, keep them constantly moist for the sweet spot. Don't let lime anywhere near them as Mindperformer points out, they are calciphobes.

[mindperformer]

the chilling may be the reason why the wild blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is found on mountains in some few tropical locations but mostly in peat-lowlands and the mountains of the North. They can also distribute vegetatively.

Distribution of Vaccinium myrtillus:

http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20m?kind=Vaccinium+myrtillus

waterboy, you grow Vaccinium corymbosum cultivars with the bigger berries?

There are some interesting rare polynesian Vaccinium cereum varieties:

http://www.polynesien.minks-lang.de/a.pol.deutsch/pol.arten.v/vaccinium.cereum.html

[waterboy 2.0]

@mindperformer - growing a couple of the Northern highbush cultivars (V.corybosum) which are a much larger,stronger bush, larger leaves and bigger berries and very good producers . A favored berry during the season here.

I've noticed differences in chilling requirements in the cultivars I have grown here, which is only a very small amount of the cultivars that my climate can grow. Which includes the minimum temps required for chilling to start, and then there is the amount of hours required from that temp ...like apples.

We have a lot of small blueberry farms down this way.

[mindperformer]

i see, so the high bush varieties are more adapted to warmer climate, I didn't know this

I always make liqueur from some berries I collected in the forest to conserve the wonderful taste of wild blue-, bil-, straw- and other berries

[waterboy 2.0]

The Highbush varieties come from the colder areas, but breeding/selection has produced a few with much reduced chilling requirements. I am definately at the coldest end of the aus. climate and can grow a larger spectrum of the highbush cultivars we have here as I can meet the minimum chilling (and exceed lol). However some cultivars do get some frost damage to their growing tips, and hence selection of proven types.

The lowbush do come from warmer climates, but also have a chilling requirement that typically cannot be met by the warmer climes (yes it is kinda a contradiction...lol). I think in the states they do have very low chilling requirement rabbiteyes, but getting clones in is not going to happen because the highbush are a better production berry. Also frost knocks rabbiteyes around, they are tricky to get the right climate.

Edited to make some sense...lol

Edited April 25, 2013 by waterboy

[nothinghead]

If you're putting them in the ground it could be worth having a separate bed. As several people have already mentioned, they love the acidic soil. Where I live they thrive in acidic soil that herbs and root fruits struggle with. They also love growing on slopes which suggests to me that although they can tolerate a lot of water, they enjoy a bit of drainage too. One of my favourite plants, best of luck with it!

edit: btw I'm talking about bilberries, although they're known locally as blueberries.

Edited April 27, 2013 by raketemensch

[mindperformer]

absolutely, the places where I saw it in the Austrian mountains (especially the Wechsel) are also acidic but do have good drainage (not compact peat but rather loose mossy soil), so I prefer peat with drainage-material like sphagnum moss and kanuma for all Ericaceae including Vaccinium- species

the tiny (European) Northern Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) thrives well in sphagnum moss with 1/3 peat:

and it made many new tiny twigs:

[gtarman]

So I found out today that the preferred variety in SEQ climate is called "Biloxi", one with very low chilling requirements and one of the earliest to ripen. Might have to track some down...