How about in the woods? They are also sold by some nurseries.

Don't know where to go in the woods in Ontario without getting mauled by a black bear. Fruitnut do you know which nurseries sell them?

Maybe you could find something you like at St. Lawrence Nursery in Potsdam NY.

I'll try, thanks!
if anyone else knows of southen ontario nurseries, just drop a message!

thanks

I would be careful about going out to the woods and just digging up and taking wild plants. In some places that would be extremely illegal and result in huge fines. If you did it in my local forest, you might even be looking at jail time.

At the very least, check on the legality and get a permit, if one is available.

There are a couple of domestic varieties that are evaluated as having wild blueberry flavor.

If you can find a nursery that specializes in native plants, they might sell wild blueberries.

It appears that St. Lawrence Nursery in Potsdam NY does not have wild blueberries, just regular ones.

Fedco trees in maine sells Low brush blueberry (wild) don't know if they will ship to Canada

"low brush blueberry" means wild?

Chances are that if a nursery sells them, they aren't wild.

The only way to get a truly wild blueberry bush that is suitable for your climate is for them to already be growing near you.

You've already tasted wild blueberries, so why not dig up a plant from where you got these wild blueberries?

I don't mean "wild" in the sense that they are harvested from the wild. But they tend to be the closest to the berries people generaly refer to as wild....Certainly you will get regional variation on wild stock.

I bought the "wild" blueberries from a high end grocery store. They were labelled as: "Ontario wild blueberries"
so I don't know how they went into the "wild" and picked them for resale. They are probably low bush type from private farms.

If they were from the grocery store, they were probably just regular old blueberries labeled as wild, or they were the lowbush types, which are supposed to have a wild flavor.

You should give them a try. Most nurseries that sell blueberries have lowbush varieties. They only grow to 2 feet tall so are easier to take care of.

Wild blueberries are, in fact, wild. In Maine they grow naturally as an almost monoculture on peat soils and are harvested with rakes. They've been growing in these places for thousands of years and go on for miles and miles. They are the only truly wild, significantly commercial fruit crop grown in this country.

Lowbush aren't necessarily easier to grow than highbush- the trick is always in the establishment, both are pretty easy after that although the high ones need more pruning. I've never managed the lows for fruit but they'd sure be a pain to harvest if you weren't using a rake.

Low bush blueberries are wild blueberries. They are taken care of by farmers but are not planted. They are 6-10 inches tall and are sold in supermarkets as wild. They are sold by nurseries like Fedco and are usually in the form of a piece of sod that may contain many plants. They are a smaller berry that has more of the healthful antioxidants because of the greater skin area. Each wild blueberry field may contain dozens of different clones that taste slightly different from each other. In North America they are grown on acidic barren ground in eastern Maine and eastern Canada.
For more info google wild blueberries. And yes I am a proud grower of Maine wild blueberries, known as the world's healthiest fruit!
Bberry

Bberry - can you help me identify our blueberries? The land has been in my family for nearly 100 yrs, no one planted these and most are low bush (definitely wild, and as we clear we find more, and/or they spread). But we have some (extremely?) old bushes that are 6ft tall (most of the plants except for the very young ones are taller than a foot, say around 18"- 2 feet), they still have the small dark berries - are these "low bush"?

We also have some (tall and medium) that have larger, lighter blue (not almost black) berries that look cultivated, aren't as tasteless as the ones in the stores but still not the intense flavor of the dark ones. Are these "highbush", even if the (younger) plants are small, and they definitely are "wild", not cultivated?

Thanks

Hartmanns has the best selection of lowbush varieties I've seen. I recall that at least a few they offer were taken from especially good wild stands.

On a couple of different trips to Alaska, we would spend several hours picking wild blueberries from many different locations. The bushes were generally located around spruce tree and mossy areas at the base of mountains after the land had leveled out. The moss was ofter quite thick. In all of the different places that we picked, there weren't ever any bushes that were more than say 15" to maybe 17" max. I assume that many of these were old bushes as well.

If you have plants that are substantially taller than this, I would really question if they have a wild heritage. There are also several cultivated varieties that don't grow over 24" tall. Many of these have a wild flavor and berry color. They are also very cold tolerant because of being able to be buried under the snow in winter.

The native Indians in Alaska used special wooden rakes to harvest the berries. They could easily harvest several bushels a day per person. They were selling them but I don't know to who.

All I know is that no one planted these in the past 100 yrs or so. I don't know what cultivars they are, but they are *growing wild*, even if they're not "wild blueberries".

Wish they were all short - would be a lot easier to harvest with a rake then pick them one by one! They're growing on our "barren" ledge, among the pines, hemlocks, cedars, witch hazel, maples, oaks and mountain laurels, though the ones in the woods don't bear much (if at all) - the ones on the edges of the cleared spaces get enough sun to bear fruit. Not too much moss - lots of organic humus, leaves.

ajsmama,
Those are not low bush but probably are a wild high bush variant. There are many and they do grow here as well as in Alaska and other states. Even in the south at high elevations. They do need acidic soil just like any blueberry. I cannot help you identify what type you have. I have dozens of different ones on the farm. No names for them. Some of them are typical blue, some can also be black, red and even white! All are wild low bush blueberries. They are a beautiful sight in August. While harvest now is being predominantly done by machines there is still some hand harvesting done. A hand raker here can easily do 70 half bushel boxes and the top rakers can do well over 100! For those of you that don't know these are the berries you find most often in baked goods and pancakes since they are small and firm. This allows them to retain their shape and not explode into a mush.
By the way if you rub the blue on a blueberry it comes off and the berry is actually black. The blue is actually a wax type of coating called the bloom. Same type of thing with a Stanley plum!
Enjoy all the types of wild blueberries.
Bberry

I say we need to get permits and go into the woods to dig us up some real wild blueberries.

In NY state there's plenty of stands of wild highbush blueberries and they sometimes have quite large fruit- it does seem that these ones tend to be on top of our hills. In my experience, the lowland highbush usually have tiny, tart berries.

The large fruited types are not really easily differentiated from the selected clones- breeding work is recent and relatively limited compared to popular tree fruit. Maybe plum sized blueberries are on the way.

I stand corrected. I've seen wild and regular blueberries in my local grocery store (in Utah) and I tried them both and they looked and tasted exactly the same, but the wild ones were 1.50 more.

Needless to say, I never bought them again. I just planted my own this past year so I wouldn't have to.

Cultivated highbush blueberries are 2-3 times larger than our lowbush wild ones. I actually like the taste of those large ones if they are left on the bush to become very ripe. The supermarket ones are picked very early so that they have very little sweetness and flavor. Also during winter months supermarkets carry south american grown and I absolutely do not buy those.
By the way Maine grows about 60 to 80 million pounds of wild blueberries and along with taters and lobstah are one of our major crops. If you have not tried Ocean Spray's or Wyman's bb juice you are in for a very pleasant and healthful surprise!
Bberry

My DH likes the large lighter blue ones "because there's more to them." I *think* they might be velvetleaf. I like the tiny black ones b/c they're sweeter. Either way, wild beats store-bought watery tasteless ones, no contest! I don't buy blueberries in a store unless I'm desparate (like this year, when we picked a pint total off all our bushes b/c they froze after they bloomed in April heat wave).

My great-uncle grows the cultivated highbush ones - better than storebought, but IMHO best for cooking (buckle, pancakes, even if they *do* explode), I like the wild ones in my cereal. I'm going to try making jam and syrup from his next summer - ours are too precious!

Blueberries are an expensive good. If feeding a family you need to almost certainly plant your own number of bushes for personal use.

I think you should be able to find a nice stand of "wild" blueberries in Ontario for blueberry picking and I seriously doubt you would be mauled by a black bear. Look for recent timber harvesting on dry sandy sites and there should be berries galore.

Lowbush blueberry species you are likely to encounter are Vaccinium angustifolium, V. myrtilloides, and V. pallidum.

Rhizomes form these blueberry species can be responsibly collected from the wild without any adverse impact on the ecosystem. Still permission from the landowner is advisable.

I would find a nice place to collect this fall and get permission to remove a few blueberry rhizomes next spring. Plant them in pots or a protected area for the first summer and move to their permanent location in the fall.

The maritime provinces produce lowbush blueberries commercially and probably have planting stock "blueberry sod" available if you wish to go that route.

Finally the Maine Cooperative Extension Service blueberry website has a source list with nurseries that sell lowbush blueberry plants and sod.

Here is a link that might be useful: WikiHow How to plant a lowbush blueberry

You mean "Hartman's plant company"?
how are their low bush blueberries any different from Maine's?

The University of Idaho lists the following blueberries as having "wild" flavor. All are listed as very cold hardy.

Northland, flavor wild sweet
North Country, flavor wild sweet
North Sky, flavor wild sweet
Friendship, flavor wild excellent, noted for wild blueberry flavor.

If they are the same size as "wild" blueberries and have the same "wild" flavor....I say they are good to go oregonwoodsmoke

Northland , north country, and north sky, are half high bushes. Half high blueberries have both lowbush and highbush blueberry parentage. Half high bushes have intermediate size and flavored berries. They are also usually more cold hardy than highbush blueberry and can be grown in colder climates. The University of Minnesota has done a lot of work with half high bushes and has a new release called Superior coming soon. Polaris, Chippewa, and St. Cloud are also good selections.

Little Giant is another cultivar with small sweet blueberries from USDA ARS.

Friendship is a true wild highbush blueberry selection, not the result of controlled pollination.

Rubel is also a wild cultivar selected/released in 1911.

so elmer97.....
North land, North County, North sky are considered as "half high bushes" and are more cold hardy and more wildy in flavour than other varieties?

Yes half high blueberry varieties are more cold tolerant than highbush blueberry varieties.

In Michigan highbush blueberry are commonly grown in the southern half of the lower peninsula. Highbush will grow north of this area but suffers a greater chance of cold injury primarily to flowering wood. This results in reduced yield and even crop failure. Not ideal for commercial production.

Half high bushes are usually crosses of highbush blueberry and lowbush blueberry V. angustifolium. Lowbush is what most people think of as wild blueberry. Technically both highbush and lowbush can be wild.

Half highs are shorter and snowcover helps limit cold injury. They also are more cold hardy due to their lowbush lineage. The flavor of the berry is intermediate between highbush and lowbush.

There is no standard wild blueberry flavor. I have many wild blueberries on my property. There are at least three lowbush species, highbush, natural half highs, and several lowbush hydrid clones. Berry flavor, color, and size is quite variable. Some have nice flavor others not so much.

Flavor of berries is often improved by letting the fruit hang for a few days after the entire berry turns blue.

The beauty of half highs are that they extend the area blueberries can be grown to the north. They are also smaller in stature making them more suitable for edible landscaping. Finally I believe they are more tolerant of less than ideal soil conditions (pH) than highbush blueberry.

nice, if anyone can recommend some good nurseries in Ontario and New York that carry these hybrid varieties, I'll be thankful.

I think someone already mentioned Saint Lawrence Nursery in Potsdam Ny. They are quite reputable. I got 10 northblue from them last spring...size about average for bare root...which is to say fairly small...all took well.

I would check with a local nursery or garden center first. Even big box stores will carry blueberry varieties in the spring.

If you need large numbers of plants Degrandchamps blueberry nursery and Hartmann's plant company have good prices. They tend to cater to large blueberry plantings (farms). Both have websites for taking orders. Hartmann's has very good descriptions of the blueberry varieties they grow (look under the wholesale catalog section for descriptions).

To order wholesale from Hartmann's you need to purchase 100 plants or more. However they don't have to be all the same type of plant.

I bought 125 blueberries and 10 lingonberries from Hartmann's 3 years ago. I purchased the smallest size available planted them in pots for the first year and field planted them the following spring. Next year will be the 3rd growing season in the field and I hope to have a small number of berries available for harvest.

they grow around here like weeds and i'm in SE Missouri if you were closer i would let you have all you want.

I know this is an older post but it might be helpfull. I sell blueberry sod to local nurserys. the bushes are thick like a carpet and mowed to less than one inch. then sod is removed about 2" thick in 6 " wide strips about one foot apart. the bare strips are mulched to keep out grasses and grow back from both sides in about 5 years. Here it is sold for its low upkeep ground cover and fall color. I got mine by just clearing the land, stumping it (disturbing the soil), mow the field in fall, burn in spring, every 2 years and removing the competition. I only have about 3 ac with 2/3 coverage after 11 years. time spent now is 20 hours every 2 years to maintain and a local harvester pays $.50 per lbs to rake them. The project was not started for profit for me but grand childrens college. It sells from the field at $3.00 per square foot (about 50 stems).I also have 2 10 x 20 plots intensely managed for a house plot on a 2 year rotation that is enough for three family's . 9 people. Back to topic if a local nursery does not sell it they might be able to tell you a grower like me who would sell you sod to get you started. planted in plugs and intensely managed it can fill in 2-4 inches a year. If you have more questions on wild blueberries ask me, I have a neighbor who has 40 years of exp. on thousands of ac of blueberry ground but types with a hammer.