I edited that so I don’t confuse someone. I would blame auto correct but I think that one was me.
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Nice sunset (or sunrise) pic.
Sorry, I had to edit my response, you had mentioned in your introductory post on how you acidified your soil before you planted your blueberries. Does the Hollytone you use have high sulfur amounts in it?
I took soil samples of 7 plots that I’m planning on growing veggies, and one for blueberries, to our county extension office. I’m supposed to get the results in a couple weeks. Just $3 a sample, and they give you the pH, and N, P, K, Ca, Zn and Mg levels I believe, and any recommendations on how much amendments you might need for the crop you listed. Very reasonable report for three bucks.
You said your rabbiteyes tho, did the best out of all yer blues? I think you said one of yer northern high bush blues bit the dust?
1" chicken wire 2’ high with a couple stakes took care of my bunny problem.
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Yep. May have to go back and put in chicken wire. I did it one foot high on my 8 foot fence. Not tall enough 
Yep, I had a soil sample done for a few bucks as well before I planted. Blueberry plot came back as 5.3 for PH so that’s pretty darn good to begin with. I ammended soil with a lot of pine bark and pine needles.
The sulfur in the hollytone is listed at 5%. This is the first time I’ve used Hollytone and the blueberries are coming up on season 3. Last year I used just cottonseed meal. The cottonseed meal I get for $15-20 for a 40 lb bag at the local CO-OP. My rabbiteyes (Climax and Premier) are doing terrific. The Southern HB are doing so-so (Ozark blue, Summit and O’Neal). My northerns (Blueray all 5 died, 3 of the Bluecrop are hanging on…I may replace them with Rabbiteyes after this year).
Kinda creepy! What all of them doing there? Are those folks growing them for food later?
I guess some folks still eat them, tho I don’t think I would. I imagine Andrew Zimmern has tried them, but he eats about anything…
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Dug up my last 3 seedling trees today. I want to do something different with the little plot.
I’m not sure what to do with them yet. I’ll probably graft them to something but then still don’t know anyone who would want a full size tree.
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Daemon,
What kind of seedlings are they? You can runt a tree out based on what you graft on top. As an example Asian pears typically fruit quickly which makes a pear rootstock stop growing early. They look like apples so goldrush grafted on top might do the trick.
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I can’t tell you exactly what the seeds were. They were just seeds from apples that I grew in my orchard harvested fall of 2015. They are most likely Honeycrisp or Cortland as that is about all that I had fruit that year.
They would have been pollinated with any of about 6 varieties that flowered that year.
Oh, I re-read your post. yes they are apples. Probably don’t matter what kind of apple does it?
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Opened up a beehive and fed pollen patti today. Bees looking pretty good but still too early to feel confident they will make it the next couple of months.
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Bob,
The bees are working maple blooms in Kansas.
Cottonseed meal is excellent too, I would switch up every year. Holly-Tone has all the micro-nutrients you need, the cottonseed may not? But applying a few times every other year would be plenty. Plus 5% sulfur is not very much, but you don’t really need any at 5.3. [quote=“zazlev, post:186, topic:8428”]
.I may replace them with Rabbiteyes after this year)
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Probably a good idea, just a touch south for them I guess? Some that have mixed lineage may work, like Hannah’s Choice, Cara’s Choice, and Legacy. Also Pink Lemonade has Rabbiteye in it, and may be a good choice for the novelty of pink blueberries, kids would love them.
In the south a lot of you guys have acidic clay soils, and rabbiteye, seems to do well in it. Northern, and Southern even come from a sandy acidic soil. It could be a contributing factor to the poor performance you’re seeing? Who knows?
Here Northerns rule and do really well. On the west side of Michigan it is all sand, and we grow more Northerns than any other state. I’m on the east side and our soil is a yellow and a gray clay that is not acidic. I have to grow in raised beds, which works very well. Although the soil is connected to the local soil and it seems to pull hydrogen out, Although at a lot slower rate, still I need to acidify the soil usually yearly. I use sulfur.
The local soil is 6.5 just about ideal for everything except blueberries. Blackberries love the native soil here. Growing huge, and fruiting well. Same with raspberries.
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Great info Drew. Thanks for sharing. I have been thinking about that Pink Lemondade variety of blueberry for a while. I didn’t know it had rabbiteyes characteristics in it. I thought they were of Southern HB DNA.
Which NB blues do you have, Drew? I just ordered some last night. Getting Blueray, Bluecrop, Patriot and Nelson NB from Indiana Berry, along with Poorman and Red Hinnomaki gooseberries.
I know that blueberries need acidic soil, but was wondering about the GB’s. I don’t know if rabbiteyes would work here. What is in cottonseed meal that’s good for blues? Does it have a high S content?
Cottonseed meal provides blueberries with nitrogen while allegedly lowering the pH of the surrounding soil, a perfect combination for these acid-loving plants. Composed of crushed cottonseed left over from the oil-extraction process, cottonseed meal contains roughly 6 percent nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorous and 1 percent potassium.
Hopefully Northerns will fair much better for you than they have done for me. Keep me posted. I think they will do well for you considering you are approximately 250-300 miles NE of my location.
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From ARS
PINK LEMONADE is a hexaploid that is half V. ashei Reade (rabbiteye) and half synthetically-derived, hexaploid, highbush-type germplasm.
Synthetically derived means they used a chemical to change ploidy level so they could make a cross that has same ploidy level.
The cross that produced PINK LEMONADE was made by M.K. Ehlenfeldt at Chatsworth, New Jersey in 1991
Ehlenfeldt was part of the team that developed, or evaluated Legacy, Cara’s Choice, Hannah’s Choice, Sweetheart, and Raz, besides Pink Lemonade. He is now retired.
It must as it is known to acidify soil.
I have Liberty, Toro, Chandler, Pink Popcorn (a new white to pink berry that is all NHB. Works better here in colder zones than Pink Lemonade)
Cara’s Choice, and adding Razz this year.
I have Legacy too, which has both SHB, and NHB, as does Cara’s.
I have two SHB, Sweetcrisp, and Indigocrisp. I used to have Southmoon, but lost it. The SHB is not a good fit, I will probably eliminate them eventually if I cannot get Sweetcrisp to produce. It’s like 4th leaf and I have had no berries. I keep getting tip dieoff from cold, late freezes, and plain bad luck. I have some tip burn now, but it has some good buds, I may get to taste it this year! I’m far from out of the woods though.
So far I like Cara’s Choice best for it’s complex flavor profile and it also has a fairly firm berry. I may cross it with Sweetcrisp to get something that works here. I’m going to try this spring. I’'ll collect pollen from the first one that bloom, and pollinate the other with it. I will emasculate the pollen recipient, and bag it after pollination.
Gooseberries are like currants, or even brambles liking about a pH of 6-6.5 but will grow below and above that too, not really picky. Those are two of the best types. If you like them, and keep them, I could use a cutting of Red Hinnomaki, once plant matures… These things are like weeds, you just stick a hardened off cutting in the ground. I have Hinnomaki Yellow, Poorman and Black Velvet. My plants are 3rd leaf now, and will have a big crop.
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THE SNOW IS FINALLY MELTING!!! I pruned apples/ sweet cherries, and kept scions (I will post what I have later). Then harvested a stoolbed for grafting. I found some forgotten scions in the fridge, and two of the three were alive and pushing buds after a year in storage.
Wow Drew, seems like you have just about every kind of fruit! I bet you don’t have to worry about mowing because yer yard is full of all kind of fruit plants and trees (and veggies).
I’ve heard about Liberty and Toro being really good NHB, and Razz as well. Doesn’t Razz taste a bit like a raspberry? I think Indiana Berry has it, but not the other two. I did a lot of research on blues, and think the 4 varieties I got will be good for us. Where did you get your NHB’s?
About how many pints/pounds of BB do you get from your NHB plants?
I was discussing with the wife where the gooseberries should go on the farm. I’ve heard they don’t like a lot of sun, so we were thinking about putting them in front of the house as a hedge, where we get maybe 6 hours of sun during the day, morning and early afternoon sun. Is that too much sun do you think? Are your plants really thorny? I’ve read they are almost rose thorny like.
If we can get our GB’s growing well, I’ll send you some H Red, and we are also trying Jeanne. So hopefully they’ll grow well. I’m more concerned about getting my blueberries off to a good start, I’m waiting on my soil report, but was wondering what would be a good prep for its planting area? Should I plow in some peat moss to help acidify the soil, and maybe some cottonseed meal as mentioned above?
The weather has finally turned nice here in Boise and I was able to get outside and plant 5 more fruit trees that had been heeled in since late December. Unfortunately, my double jewel peach didn’t make it though the cold days this winter ( got down to -12 here), although the rootstock was just fine. I am actually pretty surprised 4 out of the 5 had healthy looking roots and green cambium. The long stretch of cold days before the -12 probably helped. In this picture is a suncrest peach.
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