How about SunshineBlue? It’s a southern highbush that grows ok in Kentucky…although it has a light crop spread over 2 weeks and longer. I think it originated in Florida or Alabama? It also is fine with a 6 pH
Well, that probably settles it for me. I had considered RE’s, but if they don’t do well in southeast KY, then it’s probably a losing proposition up here in the NE hills in zone 6a/6b.
I’m down to a scrawny Patriot and Blueray plant as my Bluecrop and Nelson kicked the bucket last year. I’m going to hit the survivors with more dosages of Hollytone this year to see how they react. This will be their 3rd year in the ground. I only got 5 berries off the Patriot last year.
You might want to try Reka, it’s supposed to be better for sites that aren’t ideal for blueberries.
That may work here, but it is marginal. I think for Bob it would be a good choice!
@subdood_ky_z6b Bob you are in the margins… A little too cold for SHB and RE and a little too warm for NHB. Southmoon is another SHB that can take cold, sold at Bay Laurel and Burpees used to have it. Also Legacy has a mix of SHB and NHB. I would try those three. Not sure they will work but worth a shot. Mound them if drainage problems, mound anyway, it can’t hurt. Keep soil at 5.0 which is about ideal.
2 Likes
I don’t know, subdood, you enjoy challenges, don’t you? Try a couple rabbiteye (for cross pollination) and let us know how they do in zone 6a.
1 Like
I planted Brightwell and Misty together when I lived in North Carolina for a spell…Climax and Woodard are two old standbys.
An hour later, read this thread through. I’m in western Washington. Wet mild winter, dry summer. Challenges?Irrigation, mummyberry. Also on heavy soil. Planted 1500 on an acre of 15 varieties. Spartan fails in poor drainage, 300 plants, now 150. Favs here, Bluecrop, Blueray, Legacy, Patriot, Bluegold, Elliott.
Use assortment of fertilizer mostly ammonium sulfate but chicken, cottonseed, KMag, RockP. Elemental S, lots of sawdust. I also have a few hundred in pots>soil medium of choice is 90%medium aged bark (here fir/hemlock) 10%sand +Blend of organics. This medium takes about 4 years to decompose. Yes, eventually 15-20 gallon size. In open, on crud(our “glacicial till”) add 12" medium bark, drip or microspray, annual acid fertilizer, perfect environment! Cleanup mummyberry, or mulch out annually, also deep weed cover contains spores-much less mummyberry where weeds are deep! About mid may (after mummy sporulation) I shave the weeds down for mulch.
3 Likes
My Hannah’s Choice from Pinetree came in today. Good sized plant for mail-order, well wrapped. Time will tell if it’s as good as advertised. Did you wind up ordering one?
No, not till next year. Thanks for the feedback. I need to prep an area. I can’t even get to the area yet (on an island and ferry service starts in 2 weeks). I will prepare site this year and plant out next. I have a number of trees to put in on the spot this year. So I’m focusing on that this year.
1 Like
I got my Spartan in over a week ago but just put them into the ground yesterday. The amount of time they spent in Indiana Berry’s packaging in my garage was really pushing it. Maybe five handfuls of pine bark mulch, some sand, a few handfuls of manure, and maybe a gallon of peat moss went into the holes and got mixed with native soil. The hills were mounded on top with a few inches of pine bark mulch. Here, in the native range situated in between a swamp and “Pine Street”, this is probably overkill. The babies (Spartan and Hannah’s Choice) will get supplemental water this year so I’ll be putting some miracid maybe a half dose in there. I can’t wait to try these!
Bluecrop, Berkeley, and Patriot are putting out a small crop this year. Probably a few quarts, I might bother putting a small cage around them so they don’t all go to the birds. Earliblue is a good size already but there’s no flowers, and the Bluerays got munched close to the ground probably by the deer. A proper cage will eventually be built around the whole patch.
3 Likes
I have most every variety that might grow in this area. So far, my Northskies are showing the most blossom buds by far, although they only get to about knee high. Other years they have also been my best producers. St. Cloud is another good one.
2 Likes
northsky isn’t the biggest berry but a consistent producer here. it also doesn’t suffer winter damage like the high bushes do . i have another coming in next week.
1 Like
A number of my Dukes froze out this winter. They never have produced a berry after 9 or 10 years, so no big loss. My Northskies, of which I have about ten bushes, are covered with blossoms just now. All my other varieties are very spotty or no blossoms at all this year. North Blue, Chippewa, St. Cloud, Northland, Patriot mostly with a few blossoms. Jerseys, KaBluey, Dukes have pretty much been a big zero here over the years. Chandler was great after a mild winter, but most years is a nothing. I also have Razz, Blue Crop, Herbert, Bonus, Sweetheart, Toro, Reka, Polaris, Superior, Blue Ray, Blue Jay, North Country, Elliot, Spartan, Nelson, maybe one or two others. I think our low was about -32F in February at home and probably a degree or two lower out at our land. I find the Northskies, which only get knee high, easiest to pick, because I can put a cylinder of 4’ tall chicken wire around each bush, then crimp the top closed. To pick, just uncrimp and reach in.
3 Likes
Yeah that sucks, but at least you have something that grows. And a lot of them! I’m warm enough here they all grow. I’m going to have the best year yet. A couple don’t have ton’s of blooms although most are loaded.
i have northsky, razz, northblue, north country and northland as well as some native low bush and brunswick low bush. all fruit in the high snow winters but the highs and mid highs get a lot of snow damage. when theres less snow i get less fruit on the high and mid highs because of the cold exposure. no wonder why the commercial blueberry farms in Maine mostly grow lowbush! northsky is my best and most reliable producer here.
1 Like
Yeah it’s great you can get some. Now I understand why low bush is a low bush. Mine can grow to over 5 feet tall, since it’s not cold enough to need snow cover to protect.
Covered in flowers
I have Pink Popcorn developed in Minnesota, rated to zone 3. It’s not that tall but this plant grows well. Only 2nd leaf . Bloomed early.
3 Likes
I just ordered four more Northskies yesterday. I thought about trying to propogate my own, but was too lazy and they were on clearance.
1 Like
Out of my two new Spartan plants one got the peat/manure/native soil mixture and the 2nd got that PLUS a little bit of peat top dressed underneath the mulch. The one that didn’t get the top dressing of peat wound up having yellowing leaves. None of my other blues are like that. Spartan does seem to be a little bit particular. I just top dressed both Spartans plus the Hannah’s choice with a mix of peat and manure (mostly peat).
3 Likes
I am in Colorado, similar to the original post I would guess. I grow my BBs in beds where I dug out around ten inches of native soil, then plopped in a cedar box and stacked more on top so that it is about 10 inches above ground as well. There was nothing exact, I mixed some native soil back in, many bales of peat, many wheelbarrows of raked up pine duff from under neighbors trees that were wanting clean up, and a massive amount of pine bark and chip from some huge pine trees we had removed. Not to mention several bags of Espoma garden sulfur. I have been toying with this method for about 8 years. I need to check the pH, but haven’t yet this year. I water with rainwater and occasionally water with ammonium sulfate in said rainwater. My biggest challenge is getting through the winters. My bushes grow good enough in the summer, nowhere near what the eastern folk get… but fair. I thought all was good, but then this last winter I had total top kill on all 6 bushes. Never before have I had that much die-back, and we didn’t have a very cold winter…not sure if it even went below 0, I think like 10-12F is as low as I remember. Some of these same plants have been sub-zero many times with only partial dieback.
I never fertilize in late summer so my plants have time to harden off. It has something to do with our dry wind I believe. The crazy thing is that my next door neighbor had several late summer bargain BB plants in one gallon trade pots near her south exposure brick wall and they wintered great. Normally wintering in such a small container is good way to get rid of plants you don’t care for around here. My plan for this winter is to drive 3-4 conduit posts in around each of the bushes and wrap something like a plastic and then a white sheet around that with top open. Just to try stop the dry wind and maybe slightly increase the micro-climate humidity.
Growing them here is certainly a challenge. The bigger plants I have…well I should say had…were along a wood fence at my old house(I dug them all up when we moved a few years ago). So that gave protection from the wind. I can’t believe a simple 5’ wood picket gave much solar advantage, also they were on the west and north sides of the fence.
Any thoughts?
1 Like
Has the pH of the soil been measured?Manure tends to be about neutral,which may be raising it a little too much.bb
1 Like