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Ariel Bate wrote:
M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:I'm not sure where you got your info, but in my experience, grass is the number one enemy of blueberries. Blueberries do not have a tap root, and their fibrous root systems cannot compete with grass. Grass sucks up nutrients and water, leading to tiny blueberry crops. Instead of grass, I like to use lots of wood chip mulch, bark and rotten logs. The mycorrhizal fungi that blueberries require thrive in a wood based soil, and donot live in grass based soils. My blueberries love wood chip mulch- the more, the better. I also use Acid Mix organic fertilizer- it's got cottonseed meal, langbeinite, fish bone meal, rock phosphate and seaweed meal. It's pricey, but it makes the difference between a small crop and a huge crop. And if you use softwood chips, they will keep the root zone moist, supply nutrients and keep the soil acidic, although hardwood chips are great, too.
If you don't have acidic soil and want to plant blueberries, you might try amending your planting holes with conifer bark dust and/or compost made from conifer sawdust and manure. In the old days, people used peat moss. Blueberries also really thrive in hugelkultur beds made with lots of rotten logs and conifer debris. There's also a great thread on this site about plants for blueberry guilds.
https://permies.com/t/147945/Blueberry-guild-companion-plant-chart
As you can see, there are lots of good plants to have near blueberries, but grass is not one of them. And some of these companion plants can also amend the soil when they drop their leaves. Good luck!
This is the article. There are several; I think they’re all talking about the same study though. I do plan on doing hugelkultur eventually so it’s good to know that they like that environment!
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190312075912.htm#:~:text=Intercropping%20with%20grass%20species%20has,most%20recently%2C%20in%20blueberries.%22