Colorado’s highly alkaline soil makes growing bunches of blueberries impossible, but help is on the way.

Gardeners along Colorado ’s Front Range have a good deal of challenges when it comes to growing vegetable crops and growing fruit presents trouble , too .

Wild weather is one grounds   tree fruit   harvests   can be hit or overlook .   Trees   are often hit with a later spring frost that ensure we ’ll overleap our sassy peach tree , apricot tree , and other stone fruits .

Small fruit presents challenges ,   too . While we can develop red and yellow raspberries , other bramble fruits — like black raspberry bush and blackberries — don’t menu as well over our cold Colorado wintertime .

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And forget about grow blueberries . Colorado ’s alkaline soils prevent gardeners from establish blueberry in the undercoat .

However , thanks to the effort of Colorado State University researchers , growing Colorado blueberry   is becoming a opening .

At a late gullible industriousness seminar on “ belittled Fruits for the Front Range , ” I heard a account on some interesting inquiry being comport by Joel Reich , a CSU Extension plantsman , in trial gardens in northern Colorado . He ’s successfully growing blueberry by planting them now in bog moss peat moss bale that are buried in the ground . This provides the perfect acidic filth that blueberries require to grow .

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For the tribulation , he plug drainage holes into the bottom of each plastic - wrapped bale and constitute one bare - root blueberry plant life in each bale .   During the grow season , the industrial plant root are go on systematically damp with regular irrigation . The tooth root zones are also kept moist during quick , dry wintertime weather .

Another keystone to unlocking the blueberry bush - growing secret is keeping the plants cover with gunny through the winter to protect them from drying winds .

Once Colorado gardener get the hang of raise blueberries , they might need to try growing June - bearing strawberry mark — something else nearly out of the question to grow around here .

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Itispossible to grow blueberries in Colorado, if gardeners follow the lead of CSU researchers.Photo/Illustration: Jodi Torpey

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