Hi

I am thinking of attempting to grow bilberries (not blueberries) in my back
garden in Oxfordshire. I have a conveniently bricked-round, slightly
elevated, area in the back garden of a reasonable size and in a reasonable
part-shade/part-sun (depending on time of day) position. From picking
bilberries, they generally seem to grow on hills (not necessarily high up),
often amongst heather and there is usually a kind of moss over the ground
aswell.
From this I would conclude that they like moist enviroments and I seem to
remember that heather likes a certain soil type, so does that mean
bilberries do aswell?
If they do require a special soil I was thinking I could dig out a couple of
feet of the existing soil and replace it with a soil/compost they like, but
would that be enough? Perhaps after diggin out the 2ft of soil I could put
an inch of concrete down and then put the favoured soil on top, so that the
bilberry roots don't grow down into soil they don't like!

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Regards
Bigus

Bilberries require very acid soil. I think they are similar to heather in
that they can only take nutrient in via a microfungal population on their
roots.
They used to-maybe still grow on Waldridge Fell near where I lived many
years ago in County Durham. Altitude only about 500ft, rainfall c25ins year.
I think the main requirement is an impoverished peaty soil pH around 4.5.
I live in Devon now via Cheshire and am growing blueberries-billberries are
nice, but will be a lot of effort for not very much. The blueberries are in
a raised bed brick filled with peat /leaf mold and wood chippings. I feed
the blueberries with ericaceous fertiliser and mulch them heavily with wood
and bark chippings, which I found out later were recommended. I haven't
checked the pH. The underlying soil is a clay pH 6.5.
"Bigus" wrote in message
...
Hi

I am thinking of attempting to grow bilberries (not blueberries) in my
back
garden in Oxfordshire. I have a conveniently bricked-round, slightly
elevated, area in the back garden of a reasonable size and in a reasonable
part-shade/part-sun (depending on time of day) position. From picking
bilberries, they generally seem to grow on hills (not necessarily high
up),
often amongst heather and there is usually a kind of moss over the ground
aswell.
From this I would conclude that they like moist enviroments and I seem to
remember that heather likes a certain soil type, so does that mean
bilberries do aswell?
If they do require a special soil I was thinking I could dig out a couple
of
feet of the existing soil and replace it with a soil/compost they like,
but
would that be enough? Perhaps after diggin out the 2ft of soil I could put
an inch of concrete down and then put the favoured soil on top, so that
the
bilberry roots don't grow down into soil they don't like!

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Regards
Bigus

"Bigus" wrote in message
...
Hi

I am thinking of attempting to grow bilberries (not blueberries) in my
back
garden in Oxfordshire.
snip
AFAIK they do not crop very heavily on a 'per plant' basis - at least not in
the wild.
If you want a useable crop instead of just an interesting specimen plant I
think you will need a very large bed.
I guess this is why most people grow blueberries instead.

Cheers
Dave R

"david taylor" wrote in message
...
Bilberries require very acid soil. I think they are similar to heather in
that they can only take nutrient in via a microfungal population on their
roots.
They used to-maybe still grow on Waldridge Fell near where I lived many
years ago in County Durham. Altitude only about 500ft, rainfall c25ins
year.
I think the main requirement is an impoverished peaty soil pH around 4.5.
I live in Devon now via Cheshire and am growing blueberries-billberries
are
nice, but will be a lot of effort for not very much. The blueberries are
in
a raised bed brick filled with peat /leaf mold and wood chippings. I feed
the blueberries with ericaceous fertiliser and mulch them heavily with
wood
and bark chippings, which I found out later were recommended. I haven't
checked the pH. The underlying soil is a clay pH 6.5.

Thanks for the advice.. I found a place - www.dorset-blueberry.co.uk - that
supplies blueberry bushes of many different varieties and there are some
crossbreeds that apparently have a taste and anti-oxidant level reasonably
close to that of bilberries, so I'm thinking of egtting some of those in
autumn when their next batch is ready. When you say you have a raised bed
filled with peat/leaf mold, what exactly do you mean? That is, do you
effectively have a layer of the peat/leaf-mold on top of your normal (clay)
soil, with nothing separating the two? If so, how thick is the peat/mold
layer?

Bigus

David W.E. Roberts wrote:

: "Bigus" wrote in message
: ...
: Hi
:
: I am thinking of attempting to grow bilberries (not blueberries) in my
: back
: garden in Oxfordshire.
: snip
: AFAIK they do not crop very heavily on a 'per plant' basis - at least not in
: the wild.
: If you want a useable crop instead of just an interesting specimen plant I
: think you will need a very large bed.
: I guess this is why most people grow blueberries instead.

A several years back there was a similar thread on sci.agriculture.fruit
and a Czech guy advised growing an edible bushy Lonicera as a bilberry
substitute, he even sent me some seed, but never told me the species.
Unfortunately I've lost touch with him. But a google search last year
found references to Lonicera Kamchatika, some USA nurseries are offering
some named varieties and are calling it "Honeyberry".

The berries are black and an oval kidney shape, are ripe at end of may
early june, and the are a bit reminiscent of bilberries. The bushes are ok
in my garden which if anything is slightly alkaline. They took a few years
from seed to get to fruit production and last year I managed to collect
about 500g of fruit from 6 bushes - hardly huge quantities. I'm hoping
there will be more this year. The fruit is bitter if picked too early.

I'm not entirely sure how best to propagate - one bush appears to be
superior in fruit size and number than the others. I'll need to try
cuttings etc.

cheers
Jim

In message , Bigus
writes
Hi

I am thinking of attempting to grow bilberries (not blueberries) in my back
garden in Oxfordshire. I have a conveniently bricked-round, slightly
elevated, area in the back garden of a reasonable size and in a reasonable
part-shade/part-sun (depending on time of day) position. From picking
bilberries, they generally seem to grow on hills (not necessarily high up),
often amongst heather and there is usually a kind of moss over the ground
aswell.
From this I would conclude that they like moist enviroments and I seem to
remember that heather likes a certain soil type, so does that mean
bilberries do aswell?

Yes. They will need acidic ericaceous peat based compost and they may
well be fussy about growing at all in a garden - unless it is very windy
and you can maintain the right balance of moorland water and drought.

You are probably better off growing high bush blueberries, and going out
on the moors to harvest free natural bilberries when they are in season.

If they do require a special soil I was thinking I could dig out a couple of
feet of the existing soil and replace it with a soil/compost they like, but
would that be enough? Perhaps after diggin out the 2ft of soil I could put
an inch of concrete down and then put the favoured soil on top, so that the
bilberry roots don't grow down into soil they don't like!

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Why do you want to specifically grow bilberries at home? There are
plenty of wild bushes and it isn't a particularly pretty plant.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...

Yes. They will need acidic ericaceous peat based compost and they may
well be fussy about growing at all in a garden - unless it is very windy
and you can maintain the right balance of moorland water and drought.

You are probably better off growing high bush blueberries,

Yes, I'm coming round to that line of thinking.

and going out
on the moors to harvest free natural bilberries when they are in season.

I do that aswell.. well there's a place near Preston when I go up and see
relatives each August. I've still got some of last August's pick in the
freezer :-)

If they do require a special soil I was thinking I could dig out a couple
of
feet of the existing soil and replace it with a soil/compost they like,
but
would that be enough? Perhaps after diggin out the 2ft of soil I could
put
an inch of concrete down and then put the favoured soil on top, so that
the
bilberry roots don't grow down into soil they don't like!

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Why do you want to specifically grow bilberries at home? There are
plenty of wild bushes and it isn't a particularly pretty plant.

My favourite fruit and so the taste far outweighs the of attractiveness for
me. While I do pick some wild ones each August, I have to do it rather
intensively because I only have a couple of days to do it in, since the only
place I know of to pick them is nr Preston. If you do happen to know of any
area nearer to Oxfordshire, then please let me know!

Regards
Bigus

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004, Bigus wrote:

Why do you want to specifically grow bilberries at home? There are
plenty of wild bushes and it isn't a particularly pretty plant.

My favourite fruit and so the taste far outweighs the of attractiveness for
me. While I do pick some wild ones each August, I have to do it rather
intensively because I only have a couple of days to do it in, since the only
place I know of to pick them is nr Preston. If you do happen to know of any
area nearer to Oxfordshire, then please let me know!

There used to be bilberries (aka wortleberries) on Exmoor when I was a
boy. I expect there still are.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: | writing from |
| Fidonet: David Rance 2:252/110 | Caversham, |
| BBS: telnet://mesnil.demon.co.uk | Reading, UK |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

The message
from J Jackson contains these words:

I'm not entirely sure how best to propagate - one bush appears to be
superior in fruit size and number than the others. I'll need to try
cuttings etc.

Most Lonicera seem to layer pretty well.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "Bigus" contains these words:

/bilberries/

If you do happen to know of any
area nearer to Oxfordshire, then please let me know!

Well, I know some places on the Isle of Lewis. FVSVO nearer......

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 09:42:31 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

I'm not entirely sure how best to propagate - one bush appears to be
superior in fruit size and number than the others. I'll need to try
cuttings etc.

Most Lonicera seem to layer pretty well.

I once stuck a heeled twig of a Lonicera in a recently filled pot in
the autumn - it started growing leaves the next spring.

Glenys

--
"A Newsweek poll said if the election were held today, John Kerry
would beat Bush 49 percent to 46 percent. And today, President Bush
called Newsweek magazine a threat to world peace." Jay Leno

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:27:18 +0100, "Bigus"
wrote:

"david taylor" wrote in message
...
Bilberries require very acid soil. I think they are similar to heather in
that they can only take nutrient in via a microfungal population on their
roots.
They used to-maybe still grow on Waldridge Fell near where I lived many
years ago in County Durham. Altitude only about 500ft, rainfall c25ins
year.
I think the main requirement is an impoverished peaty soil pH around 4.5.
I live in Devon now via Cheshire and am growing blueberries-billberries
are
nice, but will be a lot of effort for not very much. The blueberries are
in
a raised bed brick filled with peat /leaf mold and wood chippings. I feed
the blueberries with ericaceous fertiliser and mulch them heavily with
wood
and bark chippings, which I found out later were recommended. I haven't
checked the pH. The underlying soil is a clay pH 6.5.

Thanks for the advice.. I found a place - www.dorset-blueberry.co.uk - that
supplies blueberry bushes of many different varieties and there are some
crossbreeds that apparently have a taste and anti-oxidant level reasonably
close to that of bilberries, so I'm thinking of egtting some of those in
autumn when their next batch is ready. When you say you have a raised bed
filled with peat/leaf mold, what exactly do you mean? That is, do you
effectively have a layer of the peat/leaf-mold on top of your normal (clay)
soil, with nothing separating the two? If so, how thick is the peat/mold
layer?

The dunes in the Friesian Islands, especially Texel, are covered in
bilberries/blueberries. Needless to say the dunes are not covered in
peat/leaf mold.

Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
: The message
: from J Jackson contains these words:

: I'm not entirely sure how best to propagate - one bush appears to be
: superior in fruit size and number than the others. I'll need to try
: cuttings etc.

: Most Lonicera seem to layer pretty well.

These aren't climbers, they are bushes of a very upright habit - but I'll
investigate

Jim

Have you thought of air layering?

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

The message
from J Jackson contains these words:
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
: The message
: from J Jackson contains these words:

: I'm not entirely sure how best to propagate - one bush appears to be
: superior in fruit size and number than the others. I'll need to try
: cuttings etc.

: Most Lonicera seem to layer pretty well.

These aren't climbers, they are bushes of a very upright habit - but I'll
investigate

Nor are most Lonicera climbers, I believe.

Lower branches from my Lonicera hedge layer unasked.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/