Garden Help Desk: My blueberries have the blues | Home and Garden

Our clay soils are alkaline, low in organic matter and slow to drain. Our summers are hot and dry, and our summer sun can be intense. Even an artificial soil mix may have pH problems because of the pH of your water.

If you want to grow blueberries here, you’ll need to give them plenty of extra attention and care.

If you aren’t looking for a challenge but you just want to add another small fruit to your landscape, consider growing Serviceberries. A variety like “Regent” has a nice blueberry-like flavor, does well in our soils and in our climate, doesn’t need to be pollinated by another variety, and will add a little nice fall color to your landscape.

Our soils are highly buffered — the pH isn’t easily changed — so it will take a constant effort to keep the pH in your planting at the right level.

Consider purchasing a simple pH tester so that you can check your soil and adjust your water on a regular basis. If you see the pH creeping up, you’ll need to acidify more often. If you see the pH getting down near 5.0, you may need to skip acidifying the water temporarily.

Use an acidifying fertilizer whenever you need to fertilize, but don’t overdo it, because blueberries don’t do well if they are overfertilized. Adjust the pH of your water when you water without fertilizing.

There aren’t any practical and affordable acidifying systems for small-scale gardening. Some gardeners use white vinegar to acidify their water, and you could use your home pH tester to learn how much vinegar you need to add to a gallon of water.

One tablespoon of white vinegar per gallon of water may be enough, but 2 tablespoons could be too much. You don’t want your water to be so acidic that it damages the roots of your plants.

Blueberries aren’t drought tolerant, but they also won’t tolerate wet soil, so make sure your soil mix drains freely and your container has plenty of holes. Elevating your container slightly can help with drainage.

If you want to try growing your blueberries out in the landscape, you’ll need to amend the soil with compost and peat moss to improve drainage. Raised garden beds also will improve drainage.

Blueberries need full sun, but our mid-summer sun can be a little too much for them when combined with our hot, dry summer air. It might be helpful to move your container to an area where your berry plants can get an hour or two of light shade in the mid-afternoon.

As you can see from all these pointers about acidity, good soil and special care, blueberries will be extra work and expense in your garden. You may be thinking you’ll spend more on your plants than it would cost to just buy blueberries at the store, and you’d probably be right, but for a gardener who enjoys a challenge, blueberries could be the perfect garden project.

Question: I have a puzzle — what is this squash? I lost the tags for some of my plants and don’t know what this is. I thought it was a melon but now I think maybe it’s the butternut squash I lost track of — only it is some sort of hybrid (growing close to yellow squash and cucumbers). I cooked one and the flesh is actually very tender and delightful at this stage, much like a smooth, moist yellow squash. What is this?

Answer: You were on the right track; this is an immature butternut squash, not a hybrid between your yellow squash and cucumbers. If those plants had cross-pollinated it would affect the seeds that produce the next generation of plants and their fruits, not this year’s fruits.

Winter squash generally start out green and develop their full color as they mature.

There’s no reason you can’t go ahead and enjoy some of these young butternuts like summer squash, but you should leave most of them on the vine to mature. Once they develop their full color, with a tough rind and hard, dry stem, they should have the classic butternut texture and flavor you were expecting.