Yes, blueberries can be successfully grown in SE Wisconsin, no problem.

Use agricultural sulfur to lower the pH, but go easy, don't try to lower the pH more than 1 point or you risk turning the soil toxic and killing the plants. Just dig a hole or even better use the raised beds. Make the soil mix about 50% peat moss (very acidic stuff (4.5ish)) and top dress annually with a small amount of sulfur and you are all set.

With the acidity under control just fertilize moderately once in spring or skip fertilizer and top dress 2x/year with good compost (blueberries are not heavy feeders).

Most important is to keep them hydrated. They are shallow rooted and should not go more than a week without watering in the ground and less in a raised bed during the hot, dry months. A light mulch helps. Spring, fall and winter they take care of themselves.

Lastly, make sure you buy bushes that are hardy to zone 4 for best results. Spring plant them as they take awhile to get settled in. Fall planting them will increase the number that die during winter as they won't have established well.

http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/Index.cfm is an excellent online supplier of blueberries and other fruiting plants.

Marcia,

I tried and failed also. Two bushes made it two years then died during a hot/dry summer.
I thought about taking the advice above and I may be successful, but I doubt I would ever beat the birds to the ripe fruit.

Rich

I was not successful but I guessed at my soil PH & guessed how much sulfer to add, etc. Even so, I had bushes live over 5 years. Not many blueberries but the plants were certainly winter hardy. I think you have an excellent chance of success if you take it more seriously than I did.

We have LOTS of blueberries here. They do best in clearcut pine plantations where they receive sun after they are released from the heavy shade. They also do well in partial shade in low moist areas. One thing they all have in common is the pine--very acidic soil. I wouldn't mess with sulfur; I'd use lots of pine needle mulch. Till it in in fall, let it sit all winter, plant in spring, and mulch heavily with pine needles. Just my 2 cents :)

When I prepared my blueberry bed 25+ years ago south of Minneapolis, I dug out ALL the soil the blueberries would grow in, mixed it half and half with sphagnum peat and replaced the mix. The original soil was essential neutral. It gets a fresh mulching of shredded oak leaves and a light fertilizing of ammonium sulphate each year. They are several hundred feet behind my parent's house, so they only get natural rainfall. There have been years when they have "fried". But they always live, and bounce back. Definitely have to be netted to save the crop from birds.

Obviously, a flaked ground sulphur application will take a few years to do its job of pH reduction. But if you can find a reasonably priced powdered source, I suspect the desired change would occur in a month's time.

I don't think there is a better biomass source of low ph than shpagnum peat. It's not difficult to find, but if the bag doesn't say "sphagnum" on it, it is probably sedge peat. Sedge peat is a good soil builder, but not overly acidic like sphagnum. For blueberries, it must be sphagnum.

Some people think that under a 40 year old pine, soil gets too acidic from the pine needles for a lot of plants, and even acidic enough for blueberries. In a naturally alkaline soil that is rubbish. And while needles helps to lower pH, I doubt they would ever do the job alone. If you are starting with alkaline soil, you need more heavy duty measures. Justaguy's 2 cents about going easy on sulfur use is worth more than a dollar(it's good advice), you can always put on more later. I suspect too big of a pH change at one time can also raise havoc with soil micro-organisms too.

Rick

P.S. Blueberries are still thriving, and producing well.