Overview

Bring the joy of fresh, homegrown fruit to your garden with the North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry live plant. This robust and productive blueberry variety is a fantastic choice for enthusiasts and beginners alike, offering delicious berries that ripen from early to mid-season. Shipped as a 1 quart sized plant, approximately 10-12 inches tall, in a bare root format, it’s primed for successful establishment in your landscape. The North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry is celebrated for its compact growth habit, making it suitable for smaller gardens or even container planting, while still yielding an abundant harvest. This particular cultivar is a 2-year-old plant, ensuring a strong start and quicker fruiting.

The North Country Half-Highbush blueberry is a popular choice for northern climates due to its excellent cold hardiness. It requires approximately 400 chill hours to set fruit, a characteristic that makes it well-suited for regions with distinct cold seasons. This Half-High Bush Blueberry plant combines the hardiness of lowbush varieties with the larger fruit size of highbush types, offering the best of both worlds. Prepare to enjoy sweet, flavorful blueberries straight from your own backyard!

Key Benefits

Adding a North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry plant to your garden provides numerous advantages beyond just delicious fruit:

• Abundant Harvest: Enjoy a prolific yield of sweet, flavorful blueberries from early to mid-season, perfect for fresh eating, baking, or preserves. Owning a Half-High Bush Blueberry plant means you’ll have a steady supply of fresh, healthy fruit.
• Cold Hardy & Resilient: Specifically bred for colder climates, this variety thrives in regions with significant chill hours, making it a reliable choice where other blueberries might struggle.
• Compact Growth Habit: Its half-high stature makes it ideal for smaller garden spaces, raised beds, or even decorative container planting on patios and decks.
• Nutrient-Rich Fruit: Blueberries are packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber, contributing to a healthy diet right from your garden.
• Attractive Landscape Addition: Beyond its fruit, the plant offers ornamental value with delicate white-pink blossoms in spring and vibrant red foliage in fall.
• Supports Pollinators: The spring blooms attract bees and other beneficial pollinators, enhancing the biodiversity of your garden.
• Easy to Grow: With proper soil and sunlight, this variety is relatively low-maintenance, making it accessible for gardeners looking to grow blueberries at home.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

To ensure your North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry thrives, providing the right conditions is crucial. Blueberries are acid-loving plants, so the soil pH is paramount; ideally, aim for a pH between 4.5 and 5.5. Amend your soil with plenty of organic matter like peat moss, compost, or pine bark to achieve this acidity and improve drainage. Good drainage is essential, as blueberries have shallow, fibrous roots that are easily deprived of oxygen in waterlogged conditions. However, they are not drought-tolerant and require consistent moisture, especially during fruit development.

For optimal fruiting, plant your Half-High Bush Blueberry plant in a location that receives full sun, meaning at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. While blueberries are generally self-fertile, planting multiple cultivars within 5 feet of each other can significantly increase fruit size and yield through cross-pollination. This also allows you to extend your harvest season as different varieties ripen at different times. Ensure regular watering, especially during dry spells, keeping the soil consistently moist but never soggy. Fertilize in early spring with an acid-forming fertilizer formulated for blueberries or azaleas. Pruning annually in late winter or early spring will help maintain plant health and productivity. This cultivar is known for its ability to withstand cold temperatures, making it a reliable choice for those wondering how to grow blueberries at home in cooler zones. It meets the specific chill hour requirements needed for bountiful fruit production.

Size & Details

This offering includes one North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry plant. It is a 2-year-old plant, shipped bare root, and measures approximately 10 to 12 inches in size upon arrival. Bare root plants are dormant and ready for immediate planting in their permanent location. This variety typically grows to a mature height of 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, forming a compact, rounded bush. It is known for its moderate growth rate. Expect the plant to begin producing fruit within a year or two after planting, with full production reached in about 3-5 years. The 1 quart sized indication refers to the pot size equivalent from which the bare root plant was extracted, signifying a well-developed root system ready for transplant. This specific type of cold-hardy blueberry is an excellent long-term investment for your edible garden.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big will the North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry plant get? A: This variety typically grows to a compact size of about 2 to 3 feet tall and wide at maturity, making it suitable for various garden sizes or even container planting.
• Q: What size pot does it come in? A: This plant is shipped bare root, meaning it arrives without soil or a pot. The “1 Quart SIZED PLANT” refers to the nursery pot size equivalent it was grown in before being prepared for bare root shipping.
• Q: Is this an indoor or outdoor plant? A: The North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry is an outdoor plant, specifically a deciduous shrub that requires a period of winter dormancy and cold temperatures to produce fruit.
• Q: How much sunlight does it need? A: For the best fruit production, this blueberry plant requires full sun, meaning at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day.
• Q: Is this plant easy to care for? A: While blueberries have specific soil pH requirements, once established in the correct acidic, well-draining soil, this Half-High Bush Blueberry plant is relatively low-maintenance and rewarding to grow. It’s a great choice for those looking to grow blueberries at home.
• Q: What condition will it arrive in? A: Your North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry plant will arrive as a bare root plant, meaning it’s dormant, without foliage, and its roots are carefully packaged to retain moisture for shipping.
• Q: How long until it produces fruit? A: As a 2-year-old plant, it may produce a small amount of fruit in its first year after planting, with more significant harvests expected in the second or third year.
• Q: When is the best time to plant this cold-hardy blueberry? A: The best time to plant bare root blueberry plants is typically in early spring, after the last hard frost, allowing them ample time to establish before summer.
• Q: Will it survive winter in my zone? A: Yes, the North Country Half-High Bush Blueberry is an excellent cold-hardy blueberry, specifically bred to tolerate cold climates and requiring approximately 400 chill hours, making it suitable for USDA Zones 3-8.
• Q: Do I need more than one plant to get fruit? A: While this cultivar is self-fertile, planting another blueberry variety nearby (within 5 feet) can significantly improve cross-pollination, leading to larger berries and a more abundant harvest. This is vital for maximizing your yield when you grow blueberries at home.