Last years crop. Still flowering in zone 5b.
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They grow so fast, i don’t know if this exists for blueberries.
I just went through all of my blueberry bushes and removed all large terminal fruit clusters with no leaves. I decided to do that after noting last year that such clusters yielded smaller berries than the rest of the plant. Smaller terminal clusters were left alone. There are still plenty of blossoms on the bushes; I might have to thin them some more after I see how much fruit has formed. Leaving too much fruit on the bush results in smaller berries and less growth of new canes.
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Im constantly learning as i go myself… see what you think about this answer at about the 11min mark…but start at the 10 min or so mark to get context. The whole video has helped me understand alot of the things that i havent been doing myself…so YMMV.
‘in the winter time the flower buds werent thinned enough…so the branch has more berries than it can bare…so its not able to produce enough leaves’
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Thanks Kris. That is an excellent overall video that clearly explains everything with good diagrams.
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I’ll add a question. Has anyone ever grown the mountain huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) in captivity and gotten fruit off of it?
Whenever I have looked this up the verdict seems to be that it is impossible to do. I tried with a couple of nursery plants once and they promptly died.
Whereas I can grow evergreen huckleberry (vaccinium ovatum) easily. And get a handful of berries off of it.
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Observations today:
Blue Ribbon is a water hog in comparison to everyone else. I had 2 that almost dropped everything because i didn’t water yesterday. (May be time to repot as well).
No one else has done this except blue ribbon lol
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Wow, that was such a helpful video to watch. I splurged on a large 3g liberty this winter (mostly because I couldn’t find one smaller with reasonable shipping), and the video helped explain all of the issues I’m seeing. Really great tutorial with explanations. Thank you!
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Anyone know about Driscolls Sweetest Batch blueberry? We just found it in stores here (organic), and it’s really good. Shocking for May 16th. Came from California. Quick internet search makes it seem unavailable for purchase.
They taste good, just like sweet crisp but i think Driscolls has their own private variety
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Not as crispy as sweet crisp though
I’m going to try to grow them from the seeds. Any suggestions? One sliced open blueberry per pot? Should I assume they’re already cold stratified since they came from the grocery store? Or keep in the fridge another few weeks? Website says they grow then in southern CA, GA and Mexico, so I’m guessing they don’t need much in the way of chill…also seems they need a long growing season. Still going to try!
They take more patience than i have. You could just throw old berries into a pot and hope they grow. If they’re imported, i think they treat it before it gets to us so that the seeds wont grow 
That would be a bummer. I’m pretty happy my seed racks are cleared, but I figure this will be low maintenance. We’ll see what happens. I’ll report back.
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I dont think the pink lemonade is rated for zone 5 like it mentioned when I bought it.
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Also,they most likely won’t grow true to seed and be like the parents.
Insect netting bags work well on potted berries, and OK on in ground bushes, if you make sure there are no gaps at the bottom. I have bird, squirrel, chipmunk and mouse or maybe rat pressure here, so it’s a constant battle. Small potted bushes that show visible fruits go in my tiny greenhouse until fruit ripens. The problem with these solutions is no beneficial insects can get through the netting either, so I wait as long as I can. I spray BT on my currants and gooseberries before enclosing them.
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I live at sea level and I planted a v membranacium in fall 2021. It hasn’t fruited yet but it’s growing fine in with the blueberries. It seems to need more consistent water than they do
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the leaves on a couple of my blewbs had a quick change of color the last couple days and i think it was because of the recent drop in overnight temps:
other would be N lockout from high ph or not enough ammonium nitrate. i have only fertilized them with osmocote plus to this point. i think its likely the temps as they coincide with each other.
Mountain huckleberry’s natural habitat is so extremely different from places where we live… they are at quite high elevation, in places that get a ton of snow and have a very short growing season. I think they’d be more likely to work in a place like coastal Alaska or the maritimes of Canada, than low elevations in the PNW.
On the other hand, you can find tons of them in the mountains in August. It makes a good excuse to get out for a hike for a day or two.
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