![]() Plant blueberries in spring or fall.įind a spot in full sun, which is about 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day. Your local university coop extension service also can advise what varieties tend to grow best in your region. Read the plant description to make sure you’re buying one that will do well in your climate. If you live in a warm part of the country, you’ll need blueberries that require a low number of chill hours. Not all types of blueberries are happy everywhere! Blueberries need something called chill hours, defined as a certain number of hours 32 and 45 degrees F. Here’s what else you should know about how to grow blueberries at home!īuy the right kind of blueberry for your climate. Or you can plant in containers, which you can fill with acidic soil that’s typically used for azaleas and rhododendrons. Your university coop can advise what soil amendments to add and how much. You’ll need to work on adjusting it about a year before planting blueberry bushes because the pH doesn’t change overnight. If your pH is not within the range blueberries like, the plants won’t do well. Get an inexpensive home test kit, or have your soil tested by your local university coop extension service (find yours here). Blueberries need a pH level of around 4 to 5. Before planting, you’ll need to do a soil test to learn the pH in your garden. Another important thing to know is that blueberries love, love, love acidic soil. A few types even do okay in USDA zones 9 and 10. You can grow blueberries in the ground, in raised beds, or in pots or containers in USDA Hardiness zones 3 to 8 (find your zone here). Blueberries are not overly fussy once they’re established, but they do need some TLC and the right conditions in order to thrive. For those who want to grow and harvest year-round, a grow lighting system that can supplement natural sunlight is an investment that makes sense.Homegrown blueberries are the best! There’s nothing as much fun as harvesting your own berries to eat by the handful-or to use in recipes such as blueberry pie, blueberry ice cream, blueberry pancakes, and Ree Drummond’s favorite summertime cooler: blueberry-basil limeade. Many geographic locations see significant dips in photosynthetic light in the colder months. With that said, when winter arrives, the amount of sunlight decreases. You’ll wind up with more leafy greens and larger, juicier fruit when your plants receive the light they need. It’s an undeniable fact that plants grown in greenhouses yield a greater harvest when they’re provided healthy amounts of photosynthetic light. Another downside is that LED light is more direct and less diffuse than more traditional lighting systems. The problem here is that any energy and cost savings you might realize by using LED lights are negated by their initial cost, which can be rather expensive. They produce a full spectrum of light, just like fluorescent lights on this list.They last five times longer than fluorescent bulbs and use half the electricity.They’re environmentally friendly in that the lights are mercury-free and don’t shatter like glass.However, LED lights have the following going for them: There are some substantial benefits to using LED grow lights, even though some people, as mentioned above, don’t feel the technology is quite up to the standards of traditional lighting. Touching one after it’s been turned on for a while can result in significant burns. However, a particular downside is that these lights also become incredibly hot. That means you could run them almost continuously for around three years straight before having to replace them! They work with all types of plants and are rated with a lumen output of about 100 lm per watt. Of all the lights we mention here, metal halide lights provide the light that is closest to that of the sun. Used as secondary lighting, however, fluorescent lights can be pretty effective. Also, they’re easier to use than any of the other grow lights on this list.īe that as it may, these kind of grow lights aren’t that great as primary light sources. ![]() Typically inexpensive, you can usually find these types of lights in many stores. If you’re working with plants that need lower light levels or are starting seedlings, then fluorescent lights are a perfect choice. If you use these kinds of grow lights, you’ll need to ensure that your greenhouse is well ventilated and that you manage the overall temperature inside. High-pressure sodium lights produce intense, bright light that contains most of the oranges and reds within the color spectrum.Ī downside is that they also get incredibly hot. High-pressure sodium lightsįor those growing fruit and flowers, these types of lights are the most popular by far. However, it’s the LED lights specifically that some greenhouse owners feel aren’t living up to the publicity surrounding them. Today, advances in technology have brought LED lights into the grow light competitive arena.
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