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Some places need to be wild
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'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series
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- Tim's Homestead Journal - Purchase a copy of Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Purchase 6 Decks of Permaculture Cards -
- Purchase 12x Decks of Permaculture Cards - Purchase a copy of the SKIP Book - Purchase 12x copies of Building a Better World in your Backyard
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Some places need to be wild
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Argue for your limitations and they are yours forever.
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Mike Barkley wrote:https://permies.com/t/169305/a/160206/h-bee-blueberries.jpg
The tree directly behind the truck with another visible to the left side are blueberry trees. Not just blueberry trees but 20 foot tall blueberry trees. There are 20 or 30 more next to the truck but not visible in this poor picture. They were planted right after WW2 by a veteran who lived deep in that forest. He was a hermit there until he died many years later. He determined that blueberries would grow well in that area so he ordered a few & planted those 20-30 original plants. There were no other blueberries grown in that state at the time. They did so well he started propagating them from cuttings & from the suckers that form. Spreading them to farmers & ranchers all across that area. Suckers seem to be the most reliable method. One of the neighbors ultimately developed 300 acres of them & created a commercial blueberry business. We also had 3 more orchards of about fifty 8 foot tall bushes each. The point is suckers seem to work better than moving an entire bush or tree. I sure miss those huge blueberry trees. I think a road trip is in order soon. Almost harvest time!!!
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Tommy Bolin wrote:Sounds like our blueberries are much different than the ones described here.
Ours grow very low to the ground, open shade on the fireguard or clearcut/burns, slightly boggy areas, and north faces, mixed with sphagnum moss and usually kinnickinnic. Grows with spruce but not poplar, so acidic is my guess. Our soil is is glacial rocky/very shallow, so a bit sandy, wet humus. Plants remind me of the U.P. Michigan ones I remember from K.I. Sawyer AFB, but lower yet.
Very small, but incredibly tasty, they are difficult to harvest. Gotta be right down on the ground, and always in competition with the bears to see who gets them first. Lil'B picks blueberries, while I fell and limb firewood. We make a family outing of it, bringing the dogs. She has those nimble little fingers, I'm not nearly as fast. We have a couple grandkids nearing berry picking age, so help is on the horizon. Harvest is small, but she mixes them with much more prolific saskatoons for her canning.
We have moved blueberries to much nearer the house to appropriate locations, trying to increase our local yield, bringing soil, moss along. Seems to be working.
Lil'B was cleaning her blueberry harvest two years ago, tossed the culls out onto a shaded bit of lawn at the north cabins. Happily, they transplanted themselves.
Vickey McDonald wrote:Your berries and growing zone as well as acidic soil sounds very much like mine here in south central Alaska. A friend has a large amount of wild blueberries on his property. I hope to go get a bunch and transplant them this year.
That is a great plan.
If you have access to huckleberries and are willing to try, I'd like to know about it. We have just a little bit on a north spruce/birch slope and I am afraid to touch them. The Montana variety is known for being damn near impossible to propagate. Have to be the fungus/bacteria balance in the native dirt, my guess. Dunno about my BC ones.
Have you tried anything else? Raspberries around here transplant quite well, we co-locate them when we can with wild rose, that is how they seem to occur naturally. Would like to try spreading our little patch of red currants as well.
Also, Lil'B just set up several patches of mushrooms in the poplar woods near our house, yet to see what happens, may take a bit.
Good luck.
Tommy Bolin wrote:
Vickey McDonald wrote:Your berries and growing zone as well as acidic soil sounds very much like mine here in south central Alaska. A friend has a large amount of wild blueberries on his property. I hope to go get a bunch and transplant them this year.
That is a great plan.
If you have access to huckleberries and are willing to try, I'd like to know about it. We have just a little bit on a north spruce/birch slope and I am afraid to touch them. The Montana variety is known for being damn near impossible to propagate. Have to be the fungus/bacteria balance in the native dirt, my guess. Dunno about my BC ones.
Have you tried anything else? Raspberries around here transplant quite well, we co-locate them when we can with wild rose, that is how they seem to occur naturally. Would like to try spreading our little patch of red currants as well.
Also, Lil'B just set up several patches of mushrooms in the poplar woods near our house, yet to see what happens, may take a bit.
Good luck.
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