Wouldn’t coffee grounds help with the acidity too?
This is what I added
what my bush looks like at the moment.
This is what I added
what my bush looks like at the moment.
The bag of soil acidifier (elemental sulfur) you have pictured will do much better.
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Most of the East Coast of the U.S. has areas of heavy acidic red clay soil. I live in an area of this type soil. It is highly productive if properly farmed. Blueberries love it.
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@etalos1
I wish growing good home crops of blueberries was as simple as many sellers present it. For your growing conditions, it is going to take a lot of trial and error over several years to figure it out. If you are not going to take the effort to plant them in the ground, then you need an appropriate pot size, e.g. a squat 15 gallon tub for each. Next you’ll need a cultivar that handles your climate – whether it is outdoor year-round or a mix of indoors and outdoors. Cultivars advertised and sold nationwide won’t necessarily meet your conditions. Finally, you’ll need to provide soil, watering, and fertilizer appropriate for the cultivar you’ve selected. There are members here with decades of experience and success with your criteria to help.
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Coffee is quite acidic but spent grounds are less so - elemental sulfur is the way to go
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we have a mix of red and blue clay here.
Amen. As a young fruit grower I was very discouraged when ALL of the blueberries I tried to grow languished and eventually died. I had ordered varieties with glowing reviews in the catalog. I spent unknown hours going into the woods scraping the top layer of rotted pine needles off the ground for organic matter, hauling it up to the bed, working it into the soil, and failed. Failed in an area where native “huckleberries” as we called them, thrived. I couldn’t understand why native blueberries and kin thrived while mine died.
Of course years later I learned that the blueberries everyone seems to want to sell are poorly adapted to hot, humid summers with long droughts. I put in a fraction of the work planting rabbiteyes and, after babying them through the first few summers to get them established, have fruit that is no work except netting to keep birds off and picking.
Obviously the northern spp have their place. Cold regions struggle to grow varieties based on southern spp.
Blueberries are easy IF you have acidic soil, pick the right variety for your climate and soil profile, and either get enough rain for or have enough irrigation capacity for the chosen variety. And of course if you net them at harvest to keep the birds off. The one downside of Rabbiteye blueberries is they need a bit of hang time after coloring up to fully ripen. I’d never get a ripe berry if I didn’t net. Still may never get another ripe berry now that I have an impatient toddler roaming the property lol.
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I spent about a decade trialing blueberries in Rancho Peñasquitos CA, then moved 20 miles north to a similar climate in Vista CA. I knew that Monrovia Sunshine Blue were going to work and I was determined to have O’Neal perform as well Here’s the beginning of that story in 2017:
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Fresh ground coffee grounds? Because i was told that used coffee grounds and dried pine needles are closer to neutral ph. I’d agree it’s probably good for an organic amendment for in ground soil. I use elemental sulphur as well because everything here is neutral or higher.
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I wish I had more land but on less than an acre of shared land between all my siblings I have to stick to pots or most of my plants would be in the ground already, so it’s less about effort and more about trying to share a small space. I specifically bought blueberries from our local farmers market so that the plant would be specific to our growing zone.
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What zone are you growing blueberries in?
That’s no guarantee, esp. when the seller has bought wholesale tissue culture plants from FL and then raised them locally in a greenhouse.
As others have pointed out, the USDA hardiness zone is only an indication of low temperature tolerance. There are many more variables to growing blueberries.
So what varieties would you suggest? My daughter loves blueberries and I would love to grow my collection of plants. We have cold winters and hot summers maybe a few weeks of spring and fall.
I’m in zone 7b, south central VA. We have summer temps hit mid 90s consistently and 100 a few times per season.
Depending on how hot you are and how late you get spring frost. Where are you located? Sorry if I missed that.
If you’re in the southeast piedmont or coast, I’d go with rabbiteyes as my 1st choice. Powderblue produces heavy, almost too heavy really. Could be good for pot culture. if you let it fruit “too early” it’s heavy crops will probably help keep the size manageable. You need a pollinator for Rabbiteyes. Pink lemonade should work, Premier is a heavier producer though. I have found in my experience and research pink lemonade bears a light crop that ripens over a long season. Perfect for a novelty snack, not as good if you want a bunch of berries at once to cook with. I’ll probably always grow at least one though. I think it’s great for kids.
Blue ridge is my only older southern high. It’s very vigorous and usually isn’t frost damaged. I don’t know if it is pollinated by my rabbit eyes or local wild spp but it bears good. Not as heavy for size as my rabbiteyes, but the extra vigor makes up for it. Wouldn’t be great for pots though because it really wants to grow hard.
There are several other rabbiteyes and Soithern high bush I’m trialing here. Will have more to report later on.
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I’m in Arkansas, roughly zone 8b. We get a good cold winter with snow at least once in January and hot summers. The highest I remember being 106 around late June or early July, depending on how much rain we had. The last frost we typically have in the winter is late February or early March. My daughter loves fruits and berries and it costs a lot to go pick berries so I figured I would try growing her a berry-picking area, I have heard homegrown blueberries taste much better anyway.
Definitely taste a lot better! You get to pick them at peak ripeness instead of picking them at peak ship-ability. I’d recommend going with southern high and rabbiteye given what you’re telling me. I’m not going to say your Northerns won’t work out ok, they may. I haven’t tried any in a long time and have read some have a little heat tolerance. Fortunately in a pot if they start suffering from heat you can move them to afternoon shade. I plan to try that with currants this year. Full sun in spring for max growth, afternoon shade once it gets hot for the summer. I think you and your daughter will be happy you’re doing this! Just don’t be surprised when she gets disappointed at someone else’s house when they offer her blueberries and open the fridge lol. My son (a toddler) was devastated last summer when grandma offered him blueberries, only to pull a box out of the fridge. He thought blueberries = go outside and pick fresh🤣
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She’s like that with tomatoes!! We had a huge crop last year of tomatoes and she was eating them straight off the vine! Do you have any recommended sellers for those types of blueberries?
If there are no local sellers,Finch Blueberry Nursery has them.I’ve tried a few of the more common varieties of Rabbiteye and Yadkin is the sweetest and from reading,Brightwell is rated high.
https://www.finchblueberrynursery.com/
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A lot of local greenhouses closed down so the only people who sell the blueberry bushes are at our farmer’s market or general supermarkets. Thank you so much for the link and for taking the time to answer!!
Finches has a great selection and reasonable prices. I’ve tried to order from them the last two years though without success. Maybe I’ll try again now that the fall rush should be done. IF you get through on the phone, complete the order right then. They stay really busy and are hard to get ahold of. I got through once this fall and they were very kind and answered all my questions, but dummy me didn’t have my order ready. My understanding is that the patriarch passed away and left a big gap. I truly hope they are able to continue operating. They carry several varieties I’d love to add to my variety trial patch had difficulty sourcing elsewhere at a reasonable price. I can imagine it’s been a difficult time for them. I’d recommend going on their website and getting your order together in your head so you can call, order, and pay in one go. It’ll make it easier for everyone.
I have started ordering wholesale from Hartmann’s since I had trouble consistently finding local types here. They have a decent selection of southern types and I’ve been very happy with both price and quality on their wholesale side. They have a retail business also, but I never dealt with that side. I’d expect similar value.
Personally I much prefer buying something I’ve seen in person. You can always go to the farmers market or wherever and google the variety name to see if it’s northern highbush, southern highbush , or rabbiteye
I’ve actually started ordering extras on my wholesale orders to sell. We mostly have been selling locally from facebook but are dabbling in eBay this spring. If you are having trouble sourcing varieties pm me. I try not to self-promote too much on the forum, but since you asked about sellers…