Excerpt from Directions for Blueberry Culture, 1921

Propagation material from these four hybrids has been placed in the hands of nurserymen for commercial propagation.

Miss White has also brought together at Whitesbog a very remarkable collection of selected wild blueberry plants. Several of these have been used as breeding stocks in the blueberry development work carried on by the department.

In the present bulletin are included such results of the experiments and experience at Washington, Whitesbog, and other points as constitute a brief practical guide for persons desiring to take up blueberry culture.

Special Requirements.

Success in blueberry culture rests especially on the recognition of two peculiarities in the nutrition of these plants: (1) Their requirement of an acid soil; (2) their possession of a root fungus that appears to have the beneficial function of supplying them with nitrogen.

If blueberries are planted in a soil with an alkaline or neutral reaction, such as the ordinary rich garden or fertile field, it is useless to expect their successful growth. In such a situation they become feeble and finally die. Blueberries require an acid soil, and they thrive best in that particular type of acid soil which consists of a mixture of sand and peat. (PI. I.)

Good aeration of the soil is another essential. It is commonly but erroneously supposed that the highbush or swamp blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), the species chiefly desirable for cultivation, grows best in a permanently wet soil. It is to be observed, however, that the wild plants of the swamps occupy situations which, though perhaps submerged in winter and spring, are exposed to the air during the root-forming period of summer and autumn; or, when growing in permanently submerged places, they stand on a hummock or in a cushion of moss which rises above the summer water level and within which the feeding roots of the bush are closely interlaced. In actual culture, moreover, it has been found that the swamp blueberry does not thrive in a permanently wet or soggy soil.

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