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Blueberries as understory shrubs

11 days ago

How well do blueberries tend to do under other fruit trees? If I wanted to plant blueberries under my fruit trees, how far away from the main trunk of the tree should I plant the shrubs? Can they take the partial shade after the trees grow larger?


Most of my fruit trees are semi-dwarf and should top out somewhere around 12-16 ft, if that makes a difference.

Comments (3)

  • 11 days ago

    I looked it up and full sun is best. The shrubs will not fruit as well with partial shade. I know I tried two from Tony Avent (Plant Delights Nursery) that did not make it with a lot of shade, but no full sun here, so...

  • 11 days ago

    Hmmm...I've seen it written many times that blueberries do just fine in partial shade (though yes full sun is best). But, I'm growing these for the fruit, not ornamental purposes, so maybe I should just stick with the plan and re-locate them to the mostly-sunny area I am preparing.


    I hate to have to move them, some of them are maturing and really churning out the fruit, but I'm relocating my vegetable garden where they currently reside and they have to come along for the move. I won't do this until early September, but I'm finalizing layout and placement of the new garden and am trying to figure out how to get all the small fruits into one area along with the raised beds for the vegetables. I have some space avaialable under the trees, though, which is why I thought of maybe there instead.

  • 11 days ago
    last modified: 11 days ago

    I take it these are hybrids developed for crop yield? If that’s the case, and it seems your primary goal, I’d be inclined to move them.

    At my previous place we had a sandstone ridge that ran almost the entire length of the property (north to south). On the sides of the ridge were patches of Vaccinium angustifoliam. This is a memory test, but it seems they were mainly on the west side of ridge. They were vigourous, but didn’t fruit heavily, which I assumed was due to the shade thrown by Northern Pin Oaks. I could collect enough fruit for pancakes, but not much more.

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