Can I buy and maintain disease-free blueberry plants, or is disease inevitable?
I started with a plant from Lowes last Fall, then added three new ones from a local nursery this past week. I saw spots, but was told by the staff that those are normal. Well, I have since Googled it and am not convinced. If I had to guess, I’m thinking my newest plants have anthracnose.
If I threw everything out and started with “disease-free” blueberry plants, how likely are they to stay disease free? Would I just be fighting against the wind, so to speak?
If you live somewhere with high humidity or use overhead watering, some anthracose is inevitable. Your whole plant being covered in it is bad, but spotty leaves here or there isn’t really all that big of the deal.
As with so many things concerning fruit, there are a 100 variables. I have been growing blueberries in the NC sandhills for 30 years, many different varieties, and I have never seen disease on them.
It is worth noting that there are thousands of acres of commercial blueberries here.
Sandy fast draining soil, hot and humid.
What varieties are you trying? I’ve found a lot of outlets want to sell Northern varieties that are poorly suited to heat and humidity. Make sure you are buying rabbiteye or southern high that are well adapted to your area.
Ah! So it IS possible! I’m a bit concerned that I’m off to a bad start. Or it could be that the spots I see are normal after all. I pruned off most of the questionable spots, but if I find more, I’ll share a picture.
If I had it to do over again, I would have ordered certified “disease-free” plants from a reputable source.
I’m in the middle of South Carolina, btw. I’m going keep my blueberry plants in containers until I move, so the growing medium is optimal now that they are mine.
Nutbush-VA, I purchased a Sharpblue from Lowes last Fall (Southern Highbush) before I knew anything about varieties. Then I read alot and educated myself about varieties.
This past week, I purchased Premier, Brightwell, and Powderblue (all Rabbiteyes). I intend to get my Sharpblue a pollinizer too, probably Legacy.
Honestly my Southern Highbush looks better than my new Rabbiteyes. (Not spotty; brighter green.) I wonder if the Rabbiteyes just have darker, more redish stems naturally. The Rabbiteyes also have what looks like a little sap dried onto some of their older canes. I should have taken some good pictures before pruning.
Sharpblue can pollinize itself and is very good at it. My sharpblues bloom nearly a full month before any other blueberry and nearly all (of not all) flowers set fruit.
Not sure if its the same in your area, but blueberries bought in the spring my have been grown in greenhouses and so they don’t have the brand new spring foliage on them that your overwintered blueberries would. That could be the difference you are seeing, if its not just the difference between southern highbush and rabbiteye.
This may sound odd. But here in Georgia the best buys in Healthy Blueberries often happen at the Flea Markets set up around the local Livestock auctions.
Typically the contractors who plant out new orchards will clear extra plants out cheaply just to keep from hauling them around.
Of course this also means the plants are often the prime commercial releases. Be sure to look up the variety or you could end up with a plant that makes loads of tough skinned berries for blending/yogurt.
But these days even the latest Southern Highbush berries are as easy to grow as Rabbiteyes. Much more carefree.
That said we are partial to Alapaha. Excelllent flavored large berries. Though the new Krewer is the hot commodity right now.
Makes sense. I purchased an olive tree from a farmers market 3 or 4 years ago and it has not shown one sign of disease.
I’m definitely interested in the Alapaha and Krewer. I think I’m going to give it a year with the four blueberry plants that I have and then decide if they are healthy enough to keep. I’ll keep a close eye on them.
I will try to keep my olive tree away from from the blueberry plants, just in case.
Rabbiteyes are a different species, so you would expect them to resemble each other more than they resemble Sharp. Also my sharps do tend to have different twigs and foliage even compared to my other southern highs. I’d say my sharps seem a lot greener.