The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Rabbiteye and northern highbush blueberries

Blueberry rootsAfter putting our dozen wedding present blueberries in the ground last week, I was surprised to learn that they are rabbiteye blueberries, which might be either a pro or a con.  Rabbiteye blueberries are on the edge of their hardiness region here in zone 6, which might mean we'll lose fruits to late frosts.  On the other hand, internet reports suggest that rabbiteye blueberries are easier to propagate and care for and are more vigorous than northern highbush.

Meanwhile, I had already ordered three northern highbush blueberries earlier in the year.  Those three arrived this week and I hurried to add them to the blueberry patch.  The photo above shows the root mass of one of the northern highbush blueberries --- looks good, huh?  I didn't take a photo, but the roots of the rabbiteye blueberries were easily three times that size (and cost $2 less per plant), bearing out the idea that if they can survive the frost, the rabbiteye blueberries might have a heyday in our garden.  After all, we are probably in zone 7 now, where rabbiteye blueberries are known to thrive.  With both southern and northern blueberries established in our garden, we should be ready for anything the climate has to throw at us.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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