On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 08:37:07 -0500, Wrench
wrote:

Hello all. I have been lurking in this group for about a month
and have a few simple questions.
I am planing to grow blue-berries. I have a place to put them
that gets full sun until late afternoon, and is on the upper side of a
spring house so watering isn't a problem. My question is, what should
I do to the area before I put them in? Deep till? Manure? What do
blue-berries like?
Also along the west-facing side of my house I have several
vertical pipes about ten feet apart.(2" pipes) I am trying to keep an
edible landscape, so anyone have any ideas for a hearty climbing vine
that doesn't need much direct sun? I thought about scarlet runner
beans, but I'm not sure how well they would do in a shaded area. Plus
I have grown them before and didn't really consider them too edible.
TIA for any and all advice.


Wrench


What part of the world you in? Alkaline or acid soil? I spent a lot
of money this past year getting soil moved and dug out a trench, mixed
in peatmoss and sandy soil and mixed in some sulphur attempting to
turn alkaline soil acid enough to keep them alive.

I'm hoping to get friends to bring home pine needles to mulch the
plants with because they need acidity.

However, after reading that they're bothered by both codling moths and
cherry fruit fly, if I'd read that first, I'd have not planted them as
the neighbors have apples and cherry trees and I don't think they're
practicing any kind of sanitation, as in picking up fallen fruit to
deny the insects a place to complete their life cycles, at least here!

I came to the conclusion for my area and the way people buy apple
trees and plant them thinking they'll be able to go out and pluck
perfect fruit from their trees, and then when they realize they get
buggy, they ignore them and they're forever providing banquets for
codling moth larvae so I don't think I can grow much that is a target
for them, as I don't want to spray the fruit either. I figure if I
want spray on my fruit, I can let the professionals use it! I grow
peach trees, so long as they do well and avoid the borer moths, as the
fruit doesn't get too wormy, maybe one or two in odd years have a worm
in them. Biggest problem has been with house finches and other such
birds pecking the fruit to the pit in the spots that ripen first. But
blueberries, I think they're going to need their own screen house like
I used to see on The Victory Garden before it got all yuppified. I
liked it when it was actually about growing food.. that's what Victory
Gardens ARE! Now it's 350,000 dollar back yard electronic controlled
greenhouses so they can grow orchids. While that's nice, it's not
exactly in keeping with the Victory Garden theme. Unless they're
vanilla orchids and they're going to make their own vanilla extract!
LOL ;-)

I'll shaddup now! .. maybe.. sorta.. hope your blueberry dreams are
better than mine are likely to be ..mine are likely going to be
nightmares! And food crops generally like 6 hours minimum sunlight,
so in shady areas you'll just grow an invitation for aphids and fungus
as far as any food stuff vines that I know of. Malabar spinach maybe
it's a warm weather spinach substitute, and a vine, but I think it's
may need help in the climb.

*NOW* I'll shaddup :-D

Janice