[Homestead] Blueberry plantings
Gene GeRue
genegerue at ruralize.com
Mon May 5 08:57:23 EDT 2008
On May 5, 2008, at 7:39 AM, keith bellinger wrote:
>> Did as directed. Getting the peat moss to absorb the water is
>> tedious.
>> Using a shovel is too much work. Rake worked best. If doing more I
>> think it would be worth using the concrete mixer.
>>
>> I know what you mean, Gene. I wonder, did you use your backhoe to dig
> the holes for your berries and those tomato plants? :)
You laugh. Tomatoes went into ground one could dig with fingers. But,
yes, I dug blueberry bush holes with Magnolia. Possibly not again. The
bucket is 24 inches wide and goes down deep so easily. Tried putting
topsoil to one side, then subsoil clay to the other side. Lifted high
and dropped, which breaks up clods. But this was in sod and I found I
still needed to break things up more with the pick. So then after I
had it all worked up I got the grower instructions which called for
twenty-inch-wide holes only fifteen inches deep. Well, at least any
exploratory roots will find easy pathways. It would be enlightening to
dig out around an old blueberry bush to see how far the roots go. Do
they stay in the peat moss area or do they migrate out beyond?
One issue with backhoe digging is the stabilizers, especially in the
wet ground we have this time of this year, tear up the sod, leaving
the garden area less pretty and rougher to mow.
Almost forgot to mention: the first 5.5 cubic foot bag of Canadian
sphagnum peat moss I used was a b---h to get wetted. I bought another
3.5 cf bag the other day--it says it comes from Wisconsin. It soaked
up water much more easily.
Just goes to reinforce that we Wisconsin products do like to soak up
liquids.
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