Blueberry guild companion plant chart

So, I have been trying to find a blueberry companion list for quite a while by searching and I wasn't finding much of anything. So, I decided to do some of my own research and I looked up a list of blueberry pests and found out what predators ate those pests. Then, I found out what plants attracted those predators. Lastly, I searched each plant to see which ones could tolerate a PH as low as at least a 5.5 and this is my conclusion.

I haven't tested them yet but I thought I would share my companion plant list.

P.s. I wasn't sure if I should comment it on an old post or post a new one.... I was afraid it might be buried in the other post since that one is 8 yrs old so I decided to just create a new post so that it's easy to find.

This is awesome, Melissa! Thanks for sharing. I've been struggling with blueberries, mainly because of my very-neutral soil Ph, but this confirms my native plantings will help support. It's a great list.

(I blog about my native plant permaculture experiment here: http://www.catintheflock.com)

Thank you for doing this terrific research! What a lovely list. Really. We have extremely blueberry friendly soil, like, we're semi-overgrown with wild blueberries. Knowing that these plants, which have a nice list of other benefits besides attracting predators for blueberry pests, will perform well in such acidic soil is great news.

Thank you! I am new to growing blueberries. Just added 2 bushes to the food forest I am working on. I already have some of these and will transplant closer to the blueberries and will work on obtaining some of the others. Thanks again!

awesome post, thanks

WOW 🤯 great job. I just planted 3 blueberry bushes this year.   I'm sure they will have more of a chance to thrive thanks to you. Thank you

Thank you for keeping this thread going. I would like to add some pollinator attractor plants to the guild. I've read that bumblebees are the best pollinators for blueberries, because they do a much better job of pollinating the flowers than other pollinators. So the following short list is for attracting the bumblebees and keeping them happy. In my food forest garden, I've planted my blueberries near a stand of hairy  manzanita bushes. I've also planted some kinnikinnick nearby as well. Our local bumblebees absolutely love the hairy manzanita flowers more than any other plant and they arrive early in the spring to harvest the pollen from these bushes, then stick around to pollinate the blueberries. Here is my short list of pollinator attractor plants:

Hairy Manzanita
Kinnikinnick
Toughleaf  Iris
Fava Beans
Red Clover
Crimson Clover
Lupine (various)
Evergreen Huckleberry
Honeyberry
Honeysuckle
Madrone

These plants all attract bumblebees (and hummingbirds). I also have lots of old rotting logs lining the area around my blueberry beds, since bumblebees like to nest inside rotting logs and stumps. I use a locally produced organic fertilizer called "Acid Mix" and the blueberries love this stuff. I mulch my blueberries with a thick layer of mostly Douglas-fir woodchips.  I also have a nice selection of mycorrhizal mushrooms living in the mulch layer around my blueberries. Blueberries require  mycorrrhizal fungi to grow and to produce flowers and fruit. Since manzanita and kinnikinnick are in the same family (Heath family) as blueberries, they share some of the same mycorrhizal partners. In the spring and fall, there are lots of different mushrooms growing in the mulch, including false morels (Gyromitra), Laccaria spp., Amanita spp., Pisolithus, Russula spp. and my favorite -queen boletes (Boletus).

This year is probably the best year for blueberries in a long time- my bushes are loaded with fruit. In fact, I just finished harvesting a bunch.  I'd be interested in seeing which plants people use to attract bumblebees and other blueberry pollinators in their region, then maybe we could add them to the blueberry guild list.

I'm so glad I found this post when I did. I planted one of my 3 blueberry plants. It looks terrible. My daughter said she doesn't think I'm watering it enough. I thought that too, so have been watering longer, and a lot more often, and it continues to deteriorate. I think it's frying in the sun. I planted it in a spot that gets full sun, then afternoon shade.  I planted it to late. I think it's not established, and now we are in a heatwave over a 100 for more than 10 days ( I stopped looking, at this point I just don't want to know)
My plan is to buy a plant today to go in front of the blueberry, and plant some zinnias ai each side.  Maybe I can save it.  
I'm going to wait to plant the other two. They are doing well in there pots beside one of my raised beds in the veggie garden. I think I will leave them there at least until it cools a bit.