Don\’t be blue, little berry.

The other day, I discovered that much of the soil around \”the farm\” is acidic. While I intend to do some testing to get a little more information about this, I immediately thought… \”BLUEBERRIES!\”

Why do I love blueberries so? Well, for one, they taste great!  Their appearance and texture has always been so satisfying to me, The berries vary from white matte to shiny blue.  But also, we know they have a TON of antioxidants, minerals and B vitamins.

So immediately, I started looking for blueberry polycultures and am seeing some trends in responses on sites like permies.com.  Squash and potatoes/sweet potatoes below the bushes.  Some people speak of pines (spruce, pine, cedar) in the overstory to lend their tasty slow release acids to the soil over time.  Some folks spoke of their Hugel Kultur experiments with various species on various cardinal sides.

Let\’s take some observations about blueberries… In the wild, they grow on forest edges. Sunlight.  They clump so let\’s think about what goes in between.  The various species that are available are taken from their wild places of various altitudes.  This is something to research, take note of and choose appropriate species.  Apparently, this berry is essential to the survival of some species including the black bear. While I don\’t hope or expect to attract black bears, I don\’t think this will be an issue where I live.  But from this, I know that they can be subject to predation.  Let\’s think about how to protect them. Blueberries thrive in moist, acidic soil conditions as previously mentioned.   They are insect pollinated.  Though their flowers enough may be enough to attract, some nearby nectary plants could be helpful.  Seems the plant could use some nitrogen fixation but probably doesn\’t need additional mineral accumulation.

Now, there are many discussions about, perhaps the myth, of coniferous acidification.  Some say yes, some say absolutely not, and some say \”it\’s complicated.\”  If the tests come back and our soil is perfectly acidic to begin with, perhaps this is a non-issue.  This article sites some species-specific research about pine effect on soil acidity over a period of 30 years.

Several sources suggest using conifer wood chips inoculated with mycelium of some delicious edible mushrooms of some sort.  On this, I\’m sold. Chanterelle?!

In any case, I now have one of my winter projects. Design a Guild for blueberries within the context of the land I\’m working.  I\’m open to suggestions. I have a dry hillside with poplar, maple and sassafrass trees and a lowland riparian area with black locust and Juglans to work with.  There are not a lot of pines on the property currently, but all the possibility of growing some if it works with the agroforestry plan!