Transplanting Blueberries and Feeding Them

From Janet, ‘I have a question about blueberry bushes. I’d like to know when is a good time to move them. I have them in a location that I think they’re not doing too well. And what do you recommend for like care of blueberry bushes? What should I be feeding them?’

The best time to move them would be in the fall or in the early spring. You would want to do it when it’s still dormant. It probably would be best to do it in early spring before it starts to leaf out. That would probably be the best time to do it. You can do it in the fall, but I think spring is going to be a little bit easier. You just want to make sure the plant is dormant. 

They are a native, so they are pretty used to our soils and that kind of stuff. They like a lot of acidity. Holly tone would be a good thing to use when you’re transplanting it. A lot of times you can mulch with pine needles, and that will really help with the acidity too.

They like a lot of sun, but other than that, I mean, they are really used to our weather and climate.

I had read that you can treat them with aluminum sulfate. That just increases the acidity of the soil. That’s really all it’s doing too. It’s not really necessarily a fertilizer, it’s just kind of amending the soil. You can fertilize along with that. You can do that, and you can do that when you transplant it. I would say definitely feed it then as well. Then again, as it starts to leaf out and maybe even as it starts to fruit. Maybe a couple of times in the growing season, maybe two to three times. Once it’s established, you shouldn’t have to worry about it.

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