Florida Blueberries
We don’t grow blueberries in our yard. I’ve always been told that Southwest Florida isn’t a good place to even try. It looks like that might be changing though. We visited a local blueberry u-pick farm this week that had us singing and dancing with buckets of dee-licous blueberries. Yay… we don’t have to go to Georgia to have fresh blueberries!
We never knew picking blueberries was so much fun! My kids love to pick stuff off plants.
My 5-year-old took this photo. I asked them to hold the camera for one minute…
Blueberries are perfect for little hands to pick!
I have a local friend that grows her blueberries in containers so she can control the ph. She uses a 50/50 mixture of peat and perlite in her containers. Her backyard plants give her family lots of berries every year. Ideally, blueberry bushes like acidic soil with a ph of around 5 and most of our soil has a ph of 8-9. However, the hundreds of blueberry bushes we saw at our local u-pick were planted in the ground and loaded with berries. I’m not sure what varieties they’re growing, but we love the flavor. Click here for a list of blueberry varieties suggested for Florida by the University of Florida. Click here for an excellent slide show by UF on growing blueberries in South Florida.
Our local blueberries are only around for a short time in April and May. Check out Patty’s Patch if you’re in Southwest Florida and want to pick some fresh, local blueberries.
Patty’s Patch Blueberry Farm (U-Pick) in Southwest Florida.
This was just the beginning. We filled two buckets. I have big plans for our blueberries.
Heavenly Florida blueberries in our bucket.
Come grow with us!
Pick Me Yard 
May 9, 2012 at 9:15 pm
There is also a Blueberry Farm in Punta Gorda, Florida which is SW, Florida. No web site but they have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berry-Best-Farm/165278930188635
May 9, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Very good. The more there are, the better. Thanks for the link!
May 10, 2012 at 6:09 am
We haven’t seen all of the varieties listed at the local stores. But we bought a couple of each type available. We have only had good luck with Emerald and to some extent Jewel. Not one of the others lived past the summer. But we have just installed our micro-irrigation, so inconsistent water may have been to blame. We also are trying a native wild blueberry. It looks fine, but hasn’t flowered yet. We live about an hour north of you and generally face the same challenges that you do plus more frost.
We are experimenting with the Suyo cucumber and the Everglades tomato after reading your blog. We’ll tell you how it goes. The tomato reminds us of a Hawaiian variety we are growing. We also planted 10 other varieties of tomato to see if one will come through the summer. We’ll keep you posted.
We love your blog and find it really helpful to read about your experiments! We consider growing to be just one big experiment anyway! 🙂
If you’re ever up our way, we’d love to show you our garden.
May 10, 2012 at 9:59 am
I would love to see your garden! You can contact me anytime at PickMeYard@aol.com.
I recently read from a local newsletter that the Univ. of Florida doesn’t feel the Everglades tomato is worth growing. I have to say that we disagree with that. It grows a small, tart tomato but it is full of flavor and we love, love, love it. A friend was over last week and asked to try the tomato… he left with a bag full. (I need to write a post on this). This past year we planted a big variety of heirloom tomatoes and they re-seeded themselves all over our yard. We’re so thrilled to see tomato plants (which now have fruit) popping up on their own accord in the strangest places.
Thank you for leaving feedback… it’s the reason I bother to keep the blog. Now I have to go on a mission to get myself a native, wild Florida blueberry bush.
June 14, 2012 at 10:25 am
This summer the company I work for is hosting a photo contest via our Facebook page. It’s free to enter and the prize is really cool, so I wanted to invite you to participate!
The guidelines for this month’s contest are to simply take a photo and send it as a direct message to us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FLOrganicGrowers , where it will be uploaded into our “June Summer Snapshot Contest” album. The photo with the most likes wins!
This month’s featured prize is brought to you by PopDecors. This Naples based company creates unique vinyl wall art decals that are super easy to apply and look like paint on your wall, but are just as easy to remove as they are to apply. The decal that will be awarded to this months contest winner is called “Sunshine in My Garden.” See it here: http://popdecors.com/goods/sunshine-in-my-garden-71-h-1480.html
So send us your flowers or vegetables photos for a chance to win one of these awesome wall decals. For more information about Popdecors, you can visit their website, Facebook page, or Etsy store.
Website: http://www.popdecors.com/
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/popdecors
Etsy Store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/popdecors
July 4, 2012 at 12:26 pm
I checked out your Etsy store and ended up purchasing one of the decals. They’re gorgeous!!!
December 23, 2012 at 10:17 pm
Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out a lot. I hope to give something back and help others like you aided me.
December 24, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Cairns comment makes me feel quite remiss in not taking the time to thank you for sharing all of your wonderful and helpful knowledge. I have learned a lot from reading your blog and am grateful that you are continuing to update us on your garden. Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy 2013! Best Regards, Barbara
December 24, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Barbara, thank you for taking the time to let me know. Readers like you are the reason I keep this blog. I’ve taken time off lately from posting stories but I plan to pick it up again after the new year.
Best regards to you and your family as well!
October 5, 2015 at 2:55 pm
I live in Charlotte County and bought a blueberry bush about two years ago. It’s in a pot in my lanai. Last year we had about10 berries. Last week, I noticed it was finally flowering, and looks line we’ll be getting about the same amount of berries this year-in early to mid OCTOBER!?! Hubby says it needs to go in the ground. I think it just needs a bigger pot. (In the lanai, the raccoons can’t get to it.). What say y’all? Please comment! TIA
October 5, 2015 at 7:52 pm
I vote for a bigger pot. They do thrive in pots.