Kelly's Blueberries
What started as a shared vision between father and son back in 2000, has quickly become a labor of love for the whole family. We started by planting 1800 bushes including Primer, Climax, Tiffblue, Brightwell and Duke varieties
After years of growing and learning, we had a huge brush fire pass through Fayette County. And while we were lucky in that it did not get to the house, it wiped out tons of big healthy plants, around 80 percent of our crop.
In 2012 we began replanting the hill. We also had a well put in and began running irrigation throughout the plants.
Though we actually started propagating our own plants back in 2009, this became an integral part of our process after the fire. Not only did we have to replant the hill entirely but we also needed to fill in various rows in the other field. And just look at those beautiful plants! We've had great results.
One of the biggest struggles as well as biggest part of maintenance in keeping the plant happy and healthy is keeping the weeds and grass at bay. As we did not grow up in a family of blueberry farmers, there is a bit of a learning curve here and lots of researching and connecting with other farmers in the community.We experimented with laying plastic as a weed deterrent and unfortunately after a bit of sweat soon found out that was not the way! Live and learn I guess!
Never ending maintenance..
Mulching the plants to help hold in the moisture and perhaps hold off the weeds a bit. They're happy but it sure pelts you when you weed eat! We often add lime, sulfur, ammonia sulfate and 13-13-13 to balance the soil and give the plants the acidity they need and proper nutrients to grow.
After our friend Tim from Oleo Farms hooked us up with a local rancher he knew, we began supplementing the bare fields with manure in 2013. The land was a cotton farm for many years before we purchased it and it's quite stripped. While the manure cannot put directly on the plants, after it sits for a year and decomposes a bit we till it into the middle of the rows. Boy do they plants just love it!
In March 2015 we hosted our first ever Pruning and Propagation class out at the farm. It was a huge success and great fun , bringing many new friends out to the farm. For us it was the best kind of day, incorporating work and sharing our love of farming with new friends who share our passion for working the land! We look forward to hosting many more days like this out on the farm.