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🫐 Blueberry

Soft Fruit Plants · growing reference

When to plant

In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Mar 4, while the stock is still dormant — bare-root wants to be in the ground before it leafs out.

Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.

Blueberry Types

• Northern highbush · ~2 years · 5–10 lbs/plant — Zone 4–7 — Bluecrop, Duke, Elliott. The standard 6 ft bush across the north.
• Southern highbush · ~2 years · 4–8 lbs/plant — Zone 7–10 — low chill, ripens very early; the Gulf and California pick.
• Rabbiteye · ~3 years · 8–15 lbs/plant — Zone 7–9 — the southeastern workhorse: 10–15 ft, heat- and drought-tough, needs a second cultivar.
• Half-high · ~2 years · 2–5 lbs/plant — Zone 3–7 — Northland, Patriot: 3–4 ft, survives under snow cover where highbush freezes out.
• Lowbush · ~3 years · 1–3 lbs/plant — Zone 3–6 — the wild Maine berry: a 1 ft groundcover, small intense fruit, mown on a 2-year cycle.