Week of August 4

Another plant shared by our gardens at TAProots and our Florida Home is the BLUEBERRY.  Of course, the plants are very different with rabbit eye or Southern High Bush (many developed at UF) in Florida bearing fruit in March and April versus many northern varieties in New York.  The TAProots blueberry patch is the larger, with about 100 bushes with eight varieties of northern blueberries planted in seven rows with a succession of ripening dates from early July to September.  The key to blueberry growing is acid soil, and the soil at TAProots is already acidic, with a Ph of 4.5.  I still use a little sulfur but mostly peat moss and organic Hollytone to fertilize them.  The bushes are becoming well established and only require a light pruning of dead branches.  They bloom in May and develop heavy clusters of berries.  Then, the race is on between us and the birds, deer, and raccoons.  One nice aspect of blueberries is that grandchildren can easily find the plump, blue globes, often which never make it into the picking box.  The blueberries mostly are given to friends, cooked up in blueberry pancakes or PopPop’s Gatorcakes, or Nonny’s famous blueberry pie.  We sometimes don’t have any left for jam!  Blueberries define the pleasures of summer on the Finger Lakes.