My Blueberries

[Tania]

That really sucks Odyhill 
I think drip irrigation is in order to prevent the same thing from happening again!  I had some in 1 gal pots that were supposed to be taken care of by my tenant, and he never watered them! So of course they croaked!  I brought them home and kept watering them, hoping for a miracle. Out of the 6 1 did bounce back! A new shoot popped up! It's now a little bush. There's a picture here on this thread somewhere.  A drastic change in weather can affect them, but I don't think leaving the fruit on the plant will make them sick. I've done that at the end of the season when I've just been too lazy to pick the last few berries. They just shrivel and fall off...no biggie! You may want to check your local HD, they might have blueberries that are already used to the Florida weather, and you can replace them now instead of having to wait until Fall.  Good luck!  I'm glad you still have the surviving 6 plants! I can bet in a year or two, you'll have twice the amount of plants you have now! lol!

Thanks Mark!  Oh, I recommend more than one EB for blueberries! 

Here's a little BB growing Inspiration!....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3TzYSn3_s8&feature=related

[LeggoLamb]

Odyhill,

You'll have better luck getting blueberries at Lowe's rather than HD.  Lowe's usually carries Emerald and Jewel, HD has blueberries that are identified only as "gourmet" - they are Windsor, which require more chill hours than Emerald and Jewel.  They will fruit though, just a little more chancy.  Part of your blueberry woes may stem from them not being "low-chill" varieties.  As the season progresses Lowe's may put blueberries on 1/2 price shelf as they did last year.

[Fldeb]

When I ordered my blueberries from Tru Blue Blueberries, they recommended the windsor for growing in containers.  My windsor produces more than the emerald.  The berries on the windsor are very large.  Both of them have done very well in the Ebs.  Deb

[Tania]

Yeah you're right about HD. Years ago they used to have a better selection of bare root BBs & Red & Black RBs.  Walmart even had BB's in their garden section a few years ago...bareroots. Who knows....might be worth checking out! They had O'Neil, Misty and Sunshine.  I've never heard of Windsor.

Did you guys know, a Blueberry takes 10 days to ripen after it turns blue?  It's no wonder the BBs from the supermarket are so darn bland!!!  I'd NEVER take one of those BB pickers to my plants!...NEVER!  Although it takes a WHILE, I pick one by one, when I harvest. 

[Kamisha100]

Thanks Tania for the inspiration! That was a great video. I wanted to plant some blueberries inground, but wasn't quite sure where I wanted to place them in my yard. I am now seriously considering placing them in EB's.

Kamisha

[Tania]

This year I had another great blueberry season!  I picked all the fruit but a few berries from the EBs. I still have the top hats to go. This year I've started doing the major pruning of the old wood this month instead of waiting for August. I'm cutting out thin wood and old wood. I'm cutting down a few canes of new wood from earlier this year, leaving only a few inches. These canes don't have any leaves on them. I want to see if new canes will come up from the base of these cut canes. I figure why not?  New canes are popping up from the bottom halves of old wood. I'll be adding two more ebs, and I'll be putting the top hats into ebs as well. I hope those of you who are growing BBs for the first time and who've been growing BBs, had a great season too!

T ~_~

[baileyj]

Tania,
I grow Blueberries in now 2 of my boxes. In 1 box I have had blueberries for about 4-5 years and they have been producing well....the birds love them, and we humans do as well.

In 2010 I moved plants from my second box, but this year, 2012, put replacement plants back in after losing them in my border garden.

My replacement plants were Whoppers from Gurney....not sure I will continue with using them for plants due to the poor quality on arrival of live plants/bushes/trees over the past 2 years...
I have been coddling along one of my new plants now for more than 4 months and will probably lose it.   
I am not impressed also with Gurney's replacement policy...I would prefer quality plants the first time, not replacements late in the season...

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has ordered blueberries online and had good quality, success, price etc....here on the East Coast since I will probably looking for more replacements soon.

I said this year I was going to cover my berries to protect from the birds but decided against it...maybe next year.
I found there really were only 2 catbirds who regularly stalked my bushes....

Judi

[kathy]

I like Miller's in New York state, I am not sure what they offer as far as what you are looking for, but I know them personally, have planted their fruit trees for friends of mine, and saw some awesome grape plants from them.  They have been in business for a long, long time.

[baileyj]

Thanks Kathy, 
I looked at their site and it looks good...in business since 1936 !!
Judi

[mjb8743]

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has ordered blueberries online and had good quality, success, price etc....here on the East Coast since I will probably looking for more replacements soon.

This spring I ordered 4 blueberry plants from Park Seeds. They came in 3" or 4" (?) pots, moist and mulched with shredded wood. They had beautiful green leaves on them, and were packed very securely. I was very impressed... the plants I ordered from Burpees, by comparison, were scrawny, tiny, and most leaves had fallen off. One plant had broken stems. All the plants were repotted into 2.5 gallon pots until next spring when I will find permanent locations for the survivors. I have little hope for the Burpees plants... they are just struggling along.

Mickie

[kathy]

You are welcome, Judi. I too am a Parks fan, Mickie,  but when it comes to nursery type crops, I like to buy from places where their grow in similar conditions to mine. Miller's is up in the wine country/lake country of New York. I was burned a couple of years ago with Gurney's (great pricing) I guess you get want you pay for, I was not pleased with the "twigs" I received.

[LeggoLamb]

The first source for my blueberries was heartlandblueberries.com.  You can order plants for either Northern or Southern growing.  Now I use sources in Florida so wouldn't be much use to folks above Georgia.  My blueberries are in either 25 gallon nursery containers or eathboxes with almost pure shredded pine bark.  Most were moved or planted late last year through June so production was measly this year, but did get enough for 1 pie and 1 batch of blueberry jam.

[mjb8743]

The first source for my blueberries was heartlandblueberries.com.  You can order plants for either Northern or Southern growing.  Now I use sources in Florida so wouldn't be much use to folks above Georgia.  My blueberries are in either 25 gallon nursery containers or eathboxes with almost pure shredded pine bark.  Most were moved or planted late last year through June so production was measly this year, but did get enough for 1 pie and 1 batch of blueberry jam.

How long can blueberry plants stay in 2.5 gallon pots?

[Tania]

Baily:  I purchased my plants from BurntridgeNursery.com years ago! They were small plants at the time, as you may have seen the pics here in this thread.  I don't remember the price, but I was impressed with the way they packaged the plants. They arrived in great shape!  I had ordered Sunshine Blueberry plants through them, and I ordered my Tophats from Gurneys. They arrived very small and one died. I don't know if they grow slow, of if they were just too young of plants. They are way bigger now, but don't produce much. I'm hoping once they are in EBs, they will flourish!  I know what you mean about Gurney's. I no longer order from them. I had ordered plants on 3 different occasions, and called about replacements for two of those orders. When I called to ask if they had anymore Navaho Blackberry plants because one of the three I had ordered the previous year, croaked, I got pretty much lectured by the rep that I spoke to over the phone. I was calling to see if they had more to order more, not to get a replacement, and he gave me a lecture telling me I had called for replacements 85% of the time! Um...I had only placed 3 orders!  Give me a break!  Needless to say he issued me a certificate for the value of the plants, so I used it on my final order of Whopper strawberry plants. I did write in about him though! I hope he got reprimanded or something.  I'll never order from them again. But my whoppers did arrive in good shape, and they even sent extra plants.  Unfortunately my happy nappy kitty who just loves sleeping on the BB EBs, took the liberty of taking many cozy naps on top of the Whopper EBs. Killing several of the plants in the process.  They no longer are producing runners either.  I did have two plants pop up from seed though! I don't know yet how true the fruit will be to the whoppers, but they are producing many runners. I can let you know how the fruit is. If you don't have any fruit I can send you some of the seeds or runners perhaps.  I will definitely have to cover my BB plants next year. The birds got some of the berries this year too! Good thing they came when the harvest was almost gone!

[LeggoLamb]

mjb8743: How long can blueberry plants stay in 2.5 gallon pots?  My plants are in 25 gallon pots and do not foresee having to repot them