Dude, who even knows.

20th December 2022

Question reblogged from h3regs prh3wos diwyos h3esks with 21 notes

kontextmaschine asked:

Blueberries, 'cause I'm basic I guess. I'm gonna plant a stand in my yard, and they bear more fruit if they're fertilized by a different variety, and all the varieties have different fruit characteristics but they also bear flowers at different times so you want to get it so at least 2 kinds are flowering at any given time over the flowering season.

hexafelid:

rustingbridges:

vriskakinnieaynrand:

i’m still surprised blueberries grow so far from maine tbh. like i get it, blueberries grow in oregon and georgia, but blueberries are such a maine thing, even more so than the way pawpaws are a DC thing

(pawpaws are overrated, the real DC fruit is the american persimmon. pawpaws are another entry in the long list of presumed neurotoxic Annonaceae that all taste the same, but the american persimmon naturally tastes like pumpkin pie. as long as you pick out the weird flecks of pure tannins)

huh I’ve never heard of maine in connection to blueberries, altho, honestly, no one ever talks about maine for any reason ime, which is presumably how maine likes it

I always associated them with michigan, but I suppose this is a regional thing - the biggest blueberry growing states are apparently washington and georgia

wild blueberries grow, afaict, literally everywhere in north america that isn’t a desert. anyway blueberries kick ass. they’re basic but that’s because they are both easy and good

apropos of nothing but I’m finding it hilarious to call blueberries basic, because their soil pH requirements are pretty acidic! they are specifically difficult to grow in much of my state because of our basic pH limestone soils ~

Yeah, they’re natively understory plants in pine forests (pines both prefer acidic soils and – by drawing from deeper, concentrating acidity in needles, and dropping them to the surface – create acidic regions, managing their own pH and inhibiting competitors with more neutral requirements from establishing). It’s not coincidence blueberries were domesticated in 1911 in New Jersey, home of the Pine Barrens. My stand is gonna be at the base of a lone Coast Redwood.

Tagged: gardening

  1. bobshush reblogged this from hexafelid
  2. seasonoftowers said: Ohhh so this is why they’re a mountain plant in the Carpathians, dwarf pine symbiosis!
  3. tallest-tulip-poplar reblogged this from kontextmaschine
  4. kontextmaschine reblogged this from vriskakinnieaynrand and added:
    Yeah, they’re natively understory plants in pine forests (pines both prefer acidic soils and – by drawing from deeper,...
  5. vriskakinnieaynrand reblogged this from hexafelid
  6. hexafelid reblogged this from rustingbridges and added:
    apropos of nothing but I’m finding it hilarious to call blueberries basic, because their soil pH requirements are pretty...
  7. rustingbridges reblogged this from vriskakinnieaynrand
  8. vriskakinnieaynrand said: @kontextmaschine i see a plant i like, i’m like “hm, is anything impeding the flourishing of this plant” and if i don’t like the anything more i pull it out and make a note to check back later
  9. kontextmaschine said: @vriskakinnieaynrand well, they weren’t planted, tended, or bred, say
  10. kontextmaschine said: Also, good chance the ones that grow in Georgia are rabbiteye blueberries, a local species distinct from either the “lowbush”/wild ones up north (largely grown in Canada) or the “highbush” ones bred taller to maximize commercial yields
  11. vriskakinnieaynrand said: @kontextmaschine the distinction between “shaped the environment” and “cultivated” isn’t even one that’d apply to my yard
  12. kontextmaschine said: @vriskakinnieaynrand the local cultures *gathered* them, and shaped the environment so more of them grew, but didn’t *cultivate* them
  13. vriskakinnieaynrand said: @kontextmaschine huh, shouldn’t they have been domesticated in precolumbian times
  14. kontextmaschine said: Blueberries were domesticated in New Jersey in 1911, they’re natively an undergrowth plant in pine forests