I wish to buy 2 or 3 blueberry varieties as gifts for my cousin who lives in southern California. I’m talking about the Menifee/ Banning/ Sun City area.
I imagine blueberries would struggle there unless given the right container soil and periodic watering, in which case they might thrive and fruit prolifically.
Please offer your educated suggestions for most suitable cultivars. I’m looking for bloobs that will do well in a container in So Cal. I’m looking for bushes that will attain a respectable size. (Go with southern highbush? Or rabbiteyes?). I’m looking for productivity, flavor, and cross-pollination compatibility.
I know how to mix an excellent soil media for containerized bloobs. I just need your suggestions and rationale for picking the right cultivars to suit this situation. Thanks!
Sweetcrisp and Springhigh are my best quality blueberries by a large margin. Also low chilling. They’d work well with Sunshine Blue as they mature earlier.
The rabbiteyes are generally of lesser quality and much higher chilling.
Sun City is an hour and a half (without traffic!) north of me. I grow Jewel (prolific and prefer the flavor), Pink Lemonade, O Neal, Sharp, Sunshine Blue and Bountiful Blue. Sunshine and Bountiful are pretty, compact and productive but they are not my favorite texture. Misty was not very vigorous but I only tried one plant. What a thoughtful gift!
I live about 30 minutes from Menifee. I have Pink Lemonade (Which I love), Sunshineblue, Sharpblue and Southmoon. I had great crops with all of them. Sharpblue and Pink Lemonade being my favorite.
Good to see the great review of Pink Lemonade. We (my granddaughter and I) recently planted one. It appears to be a rabbiteye so it should do well in my location. Each of my grands have a blueberry bush at my house that is considered to be theirs unless another one has ripe berries.
Climate facts for blueberry growers to consider about the Menifee Ca. area: average winter lows are in the 30’s, summer highs are just above 100, and the day time humidity rarely exceeds 60%.
Jewel, Emerald and Windsor from front to back in the photo about one year ago:
Right now the Emerald has huge berries on it, the Windsor has a lot of flowers, and the Jewel has just finished flowering and has lots of small berries.
Misty, Sunshine Blue, and Emerald are standouts here. I planted Sharpblue last year and it was very good, but I want to give it more time before recommending it along with the previously mentioned varieties.
It’s worth noting that Sharpblue is said to bear fruit almost year round here, so it might be worth a shot regardless. Sunshine Blue is evergreen and a very attractive plant in its own right. Emerald and Misty really crank out nice sized, tasty berries.
Here are Emerald Greenberries soon to be Blueberries:
I wanted to bump this thread and thank everyone for your helpful suggestions.
I decided to purchase from Stark Bros cuz honestly they have good deals on blueberries and they package and ship them in containers rather well.
I sent my cousin the following varieties:
Misty
O’Neal
Sunshine Blue
Pink Lemonade
(He has 3 sons and a daughter).
All of these varieties are thought to have low chill hour requirements, which factored into my decision.
He potted them with the correct soil media as I instructed, and he has them under some shade near the house to acclimate them to Menifee’s blazing sunshine. So far they are doing really well. Some have put on as much as a foot of growth already.
I am totally puzzled by your response, they were all developed by the university of Florida for low chill hour climates,
Indigocrisp and Primadonna Blueberries are 300 chill hours, the rest are all 200 chill hours.
‘Southmoon’ and pink lemonade requires 400 chill hours grows in that kind of climate, it was verified in this thread,
‘Windsor’ requires 300 chill hours, also has been verified to grow in that kind of climate in this thread and so chill hours for the varieties I suggested could not be an issue.
Wind chill can not be an issue for any of them either since:
“Meadowlark” should be cold hardy enough since it’s growing and being sold at a nursery in Oregon
“Springwide” is at least cold hardy down to zone 8b
“Primadonna” is at least cold hardy down to zone 6a
“indigocrisp” is at least cold hardy down to zone 5a
They will grow well here in southern CA – as will all blueberries except the northern lowbush cultivars. Nurseries here have good selections of great tasting blueberry plants that are also suitable for our low humidity climate.
