How many blueberry bushes per person
Plan on about 1 1/2 highbush blueberry bushes per person, so 6 bushes for a family of four. That is NC State Extension's figure for four people, and University of Illinois Extension's backyard fruit guide lands in the same place with 6 to 8 plants for a family of five. The calculator uses the middle of those two sources, 1.4 bushes per person, and rounds up to whole plants.
Blueberry bushes for 1 to 6 people
| People | Bushes | Row length at 4.5 ft | Harvest from mature bushes (lb a year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 9 ft | 12 to 16 |
| 2 | 3 | 14 ft | 18 to 24 |
| 3 | 5 | 23 ft | 30 to 40 |
| 4 | 6 | 27 ft | 36 to 48 |
| 5 | 7 | 32 ft | 42 to 56 |
| 6 | 9 | 41 ft | 54 to 72 |
The harvest uses University of Maryland Extension's figure of 6 to 8 lb per mature highbush plant a year. Neither source gives a separate count for freezing or jam, so the fresh and preserving columns in the calculator show the same number of bushes. If you want berries to freeze, plant toward the top of Illinois's range or add a bush or two.
Rabbiteye needs fewer plants
NC State lists only 4 rabbiteye bushes for four people, against 6 highbush. Rabbiteye plants grow 6 to 12 ft tall and NC State puts a mature rabbiteye bush at 12 to 25 lb a year, so fewer plants give as much fruit. If you grow rabbiteye, take about two thirds of the counts above. Space them 6 ft apart in rows 10 to 12 ft apart rather than the 4 to 5 ft of highbush.
The wait before full crops
The table's harvest is for grown bushes. NC State expects about 1/2 lb per bush in the third year and 1 to 2 lb in the fourth, and Maryland notes a plant can take up to 10 years to reach its mature size. Six young bushes for a family of four give about 3 lb in their third year and 6 to 12 lb in the fourth, far from the 36 to 48 lb in the table.
Room and soil for the bushes
Six highbush bushes at 4.5 ft fill a row of about 27 ft. Leave 8 to 10 ft to the next row, or plant them as a single hedge along a fence or path. Blueberries need an acid soil of pH 4.5 to 5.5, so test and prepare the whole row before planting; a bush can also grow in a container of at least 5 gallons, per University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension.
For exact counts along your row, use the blueberry spacing calculator. For other fruit, see strawberry plants per person and raspberry plants per person, and size the whole garden with the garden size calculator.