How to grow the best blueberries

On a blueberry farm once you’ve planted the trees or the bushes, they could last for 45-50 years. It’s a once a year crop. We start working on the plants as early as Feb, it’s biting cold, says Ajay Naqvi, owner of Dealul cu Afine in Romania. This farm grows the Blu-ray and Coville and Chandler varieties.

I prune the 6,000 plants by myself, pruning is a very soft handed job and if you cut the bush in a way it’s not supposed to be cut, the plant will die, he adds.

Come April, it’s time to add organic fertilizer to the mix. All the 6,000 plants you have to put the fertilizer just above the roots and if there is need, depending on the weather.

By the beginning of May these plants are full of leaves, in June the fruits are out, they are really green and the transition from green to blue happens around mid-June. Every plant has to be de-weeded at least 3-4 times between February and September.

Ajay says: "We let the fruits stay on the plant until July 8, when they are ready to be consumed the next day, we pick them on the 7th day – we pick them in the morning, send them out in the evening and by the 8th they are with customers." He says he packs these berries himself.

For harvesting we need people every day, Monday to Thursday, 45 days. They come in, pick for 4-5 hours, then I do the sorting and the weighing, explains Ajay (right)