Planting Blueberries

Hi.

I know that blueberries need an ericateous soil and that they are often planted in containers but I want to put mine in the allotment. I've read up about the compost needed and I'm going to use Bob Flowerdews suggestion and plant them in the compost surrounded by plastic sheeting. My question is about the number of holes to put in the sheeting (I can't remember what Bob said about that).

I'm going to dig a hole roughly 18" deep, about 12" square at the bottom and 18" square at the top (so that it captures as much rain as possible), then line that hole with polythene.

So, do I punch lots of holes all around and in the bottom, or just a few all over, or a few holes in the sides (starting about 2" up from the base) and none in the bottom so that the water forms a sump to help during dry periods?

The ideal would be to have a moist compost all year round with little or no need to water. I want to get the balance right between too few holes, which would not allow the moisture to transfer into and out of the compost and too many holes, which would dilute the ericateous nature of the compost.

Also, is it suffient to punch the holes with a knife, or do they actually need to be bigger than slits?

Any thoughts? Thanks.

i like the idea of putting them in the polythene.

you will need to water a lot: they like it to be humid.

last year i did an experiment and had half of my bushes outside with no cover and they got very dry very quickly and died.

the other 2 i put inside a makeshift plastic greenhouse (they were in pots) (i just made a wire frame and clear plastic around it) and they stayed humid all summer (i threw a bucket full of water onto the ground inside once every two days) and i even got a few pieces of fruit.

I killed mine - I think it was our chalky tapwater, so bear that in mind.

Last summer I followed the general info on this link:

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/blueberries-cranberries-growing/

but I had to do mine in raised beds as I used an area full of old tree roots and boulders. I stapled heavy gauge poly to the inside of the wood bed frame and merely slashed a few holes in the bottom with a knife, mostly straight pokes rather than lengthy gouges. Perhaps a dozen on the bottom of the 4'x8' bed. No point in the sides. For yours, I'd think 4 cuts would be fine.
Blueberries are shallow rooted so the 18" depth is adequate.

Just checked my plants yesterday and they obviously love their new 'home' as they were loaded with leaf and fruit buds. Now I have to make protective cages against the thieving birds.

I would also strongly recommend you buy a sachet of a mycorrhizal fungus and sprinkle it in your planting hole in direct contact with the roots.

This will give it the best possible start, as they sulk very easily if you mistreat them.  Only use collected rainwater, and keep it heavily mulched. 

If you are going to spoil one plant on your plot, make sure it is the blueberry.  Name it and talk to it if necessary :-)

Thanks everyone. Lot's of useful info.

I was thinking that the holes that I would punch would not just let excess water drain out of the sunken container but would also let water from the surrounding soil seep into the blueberry area. But the replies seem to be around making sure the water can drain away from the container (eg "holes, all over the bottom - no point in the sides is there?" ), so maybe I'm wrong there. I'm hoping to create a situation where I need to water very rarely, otherwise I'd just put them in containers.

Thanks again for the tips.

unless you're on a slope or/and have poor drainage a spade's depth down I don't think at lot of water moves laterally at surface levels - I reckon it's much more likely to drain out of the blueberry bag into the surrounding soil than the other way around...