Black Huckleberry

Size, growth and what to expect

A colony of black huckleberry spreads slowly outward rather than up. It is a stiff, much-branched shrub, usually 1 to 3 feet tall, that spreads by rhizomes. Clonal patches widen by an average of 6.9 feet over 15 years. Our growth estimator models its height growth at a few inches a year in youth on an average site, the figure for a slow grower this small. Individual stems live about 6 years on average and up to 15, while the colony carries on.

Urn-shaped red to pink flowers open in May and June. The blue-black fruit, about a quarter to a third of an inch across with ten tiny seeds, ripens in July and August. Ruffed grouse, bobwhite, wild turkeys, catbirds, towhees, gray squirrels, foxes and bears eat it. In Pennsylvania oak-hickory woods, plants in dense shade persisted without flowering or fruiting.

It grows wild from Newfoundland to Saskatchewan and south to Georgia and Mississippi, in dry woods, open thickets and on stable dunes.

How to grow Black Huckleberry

Black huckleberry needs acid soil and will not grow on lime or in wet ground. Give it the same spot you would give a blueberry: sandy or rocky, dry to average, in full sun or the light shade of pines and oaks. Set plants 2 to 3 feet apart and keep them clear of concrete and foundations, which raise pH.

Saplings ship potted. Plant while the shrub is dormant, in early spring. Dig a shallow hole twice the width of the roots, set the plant with the root flare at grade, and backfill with the soil you removed. Mulch with pine needles or oak leaves rather than bark, two inches deep, kept off the stems. Seed needs a month of warm, damp conditions and then two months cool, around 45 to 50 degrees, before it sprouts back in the warmth. Sow it on the surface of a damp peat and sand mix. Germination is slow and sparse.

Huckleberry settles in slowly. Water once a week through the first two summers and never let a young plant dry out completely. Rabbits browse the low stems in winter, so a wire cage helps for the first two years. Nothing needs pruning.

Black huckleberry appears to need pollen from another plant to set fruit, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents. Do not fertilize, and avoid lime, wood ash and hard well water. Fruit ripens in July, beginning a few years after planting. The leaves turn crimson in October.