Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

3 ft 11 in

In-row spacing

3 ft 11 in

Between rows

4 ft 11 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Calendar (from your frost dates)

Plant out

at the last spring frost

First harvest

90 days after the last spring frost

Harvest ends

45 days before the first fall frost

Growing

Type

Fruit · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Full sun to part shade

Watering

Moderate

Soil

Acidic, moist, free-draining

Feeding

Feed in spring with an acid-loving plant fertilizer, and keep lime-based products well away.

USDA zones

3a–8b

Frost tolerant

Yes

Flowering

May

Pruning

Prune in late winter, taking the oldest canes out at the base.

Through the year

• Apr–May Bud Break
• May–May Flowering
• May–Jul Fruit Set
• Jul–Aug Harvest
• Aug–Oct Growing
• Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
• Jan–Apr Leaf Fall

Harvest

When

July to September in the UK/northern US, ripening over 4–6 weeks per bush; earlier in warm regions. Bushes give a light crop in year 2–3 and full crops from year 4–6.

What to look for

Uniform deep blue all over — including the ring around the stalk scar, which turns blue last — with a dusty white bloom. Ripe berries fall into the hand at a touch; a berry that resists is not ready. Berries reach full sweetness 2–7 days after turning blue, so don't rush.

How to harvest

Roll the berries gently between thumb and fingers over a cupped palm or bucket — ripe ones drop, unripe stay attached. Preserve the powdery bloom; it protects the fruit.

How often

Every 3–5 days per bush; clusters ripen unevenly so each bush is picked over many times. Net against birds or they will beat you to every berry.

Storing the crop

Keeps 1–2 weeks refrigerated unwashed — one of the better-keeping soft fruits. Freezes superbly whole (don't wash first; the bloom prevents clumping). Good dried, in jam, and in baking.

Companions

Heather, Azalea, Rhododendron, Strawberries

Pests & problems

• Vine weevil Vine weevil in container-grown plants
• Birds Pigeons strip brassica leaves; other birds take fruit, buds, and seedlings. Netting fixed taut over hoops is the only reliable protection.
• Gray mold (botrytis) Botrytis (gray mold)
• Iron chlorosis Chlorosis where the soil runs alkaline

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Vine weevil

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Frogs & toads Anura
  Hunts Vine weevil

  A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

• Ground beetle Carabidae
  Hunts Vine weevil

  Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

  Plant nearby Thyme★LavenderMint
• Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
  Hunts Vine weevil

  A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.

Companion planting

Good neighbors

• Thyme Living mulch
• Cranberry Living mulch