17 May

Four More Shrubs: Blue Crop Berries From Maryland

by Jon Katz

A few weeks ago, browsing for blueberry bushes online, I came across Start Brothers in Maryland, they were selling  Blue Crop berries for $13.99 a shrub, the second-best price I found.

The four I ordered as an experiment came last night.

The first, from Hammonton, N.J., was $10 a shrub, Moise and I decided to grab 30 of them, they have been shipped and will come any day this week, possibly today.

I’m bringing these four bushs up the Miller farm this morning. The FedEx delivery was a day or two late, two of the bushes looked dangerously dried out and were shedding leaves.

I watered them last night and they all seem to be better this morning Stark Bros will exchange any that don’t survive for replacements. The Amish daughters know everything about plants.

I like what I’ve read about the Blue Crop berries.

They like colder climates and produce large clusters of big, all-purpose berries, great for eating, or in salads and pies. They ripen in July.

The Blue Crop berries are self pollinating but will yield even larger crops if pollinated with Jersey or Earlblue berries. They need a lot of sun and moist but not soggy soil.

I bet Moise will want more of these next year. We’ll have 41 shrubs total, a good start for the first year.

I  hope to be present for the planting of the 30 bushes, the netting is on the way. So is Moise, I’m picking him up this afternoon at 2.

1 Comments

  1. Jon, Oh, I see there will be netting for the blueberries. I now look at blueberries differently when I am at the market. Here, on the West Coast, the best produce comes from Oregon or Washington state.
    I just can’t tell you how good that produce is and most from the Columbia River Gorge area is the best. But Jersey tomatoes are still wonderful and their cukes and corn, well all of Jersey produce – it must be the sandy soil. Do you know?

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