Highbush blueberry. I Purchased today these two burlap blueberry plants, they are labeled highbush, but from what I’ve been reading online that specific variety of high bushes is that correct. and if so how do I find out which variety these are.
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Highbush is a generic phrase for vaccinum species. They didnt tell you the cultivar? rhey can be southern or northern or a hybrid. Nice bushes though…
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never seen them sold that size. worth the money for big plants like that.
Thanks guys, I’ve been looking for a full grown blueberry bushes for the longest time and finally, I got lucky and found them after years of searching, at my local nursery
my other blueberry plants are slow growers and they might be 4 feet tall with only four canes about a half inch caliper. This is after 4 years in the ground.
I’m a little disappointed that they weren’t more specific with the cultivar of blueberry bush
I could probably use this chat on ripening dates to get me in the ballpark and then try to narrow it down by flavor
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your branches are big enough to easily graft any cultivars you want on them if you dont like the berries.
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Ok thanks Steve, good to hear
Sometimes they are labeled just highbush when they originate from a wild highbush, a species example, not a cultivar.
If you are experiencing slow growth something is wrong, when in ideal conditions they grow like weeds. Chances are the ground is not acidic enough, and one should never water with tap water. It’s way too basic to put on blueberries. If during the summer leaves show any red, it usually means that they lack nutrients as the soil is too basic for them to absorb. They naturally turn red in the cold. So you can’t tell early and late in the season.
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(modifying post this isn’t bog blueberry or is it? )
Those are pruned very bushy the ones at the college Waubonsee here, (sugar grove)
are pruned like a tree they are 20 feet high.
Hopefully you’ll get ‘instant gratification’ and a big crop. But, it’s going to take quite a lot of big crops to recoup 130 dollars per plant!
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With SWD ravaging the industry, in Michigan I see backhoes eliminating many later season, extended season blueberries that require too much pesticide input costs to be profitable. Ex: Rubel, Jersey, Elliott, etc…
Wouldnt take much to BB them and make money.
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Agreed. Costco sells 20 oz of blueberries for around 11 dollars online. Not sure what they sell for in store. I know the frozen blueberries will last quite along time. It would be a lot of blueberries to get that amount and blueberries can be hard to grow depending on where you live. My soil is naturally alkaline so I am forced to grow in a peat bale with a smaller plant.
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I thought we were all in agreement that growing fruit in a backyard scale is never about saving money?
If you consider your time and effort is worth money then the time spent planting, protecting and maintaining will always “cost” more at this scale than just going to the store and paying a few bucks for relatively fresh blueberries any time of the year.
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I like gardening so I don’t consider my time as a cost. A honeycrisp apple costs around 3 dollars a pound where I live. If I grow two apple trees or grow pear trees they will produce for 50 years and produce a abundant amount that will save for months to a year. Costco sales pink lady and honeycrisp for 20 dollars each or many apples will be a little over 30 at somewhere like Stark Bros and pears are 30-50 dollars online plus shipping. If I get disease resistant apples on a standard rootstock I will hardly have to water the eventually and they will live 50 or more years meaning they will live my whole life. With the cost of those I will make my money back.
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I agree with @dimitri_7a , this has nothing to money. For me it’s about the pride of growing something on your own. it’s about the quality and freshness, compared to some of the garbage you get At the supermarket. nothing compares to the taste of picking a blueberry off the bush or an apple off of a tree.
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I’m in Michigan and last year SWD was way down in my area. The wasp is coming too. I’m optimistic about the future. Something local is feeding on them now. Probably humming birds. Sparrows seem to be eating Japanese beetles now too. I’m at a point I don’t even see any.
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I actually ran across “buy one get one” for $6 at Save-a-Lot in Mt.Vernon KY on pints of blueberries.
I’d have grabbed a couple, except I still have 3 or 4 pounds in the freezer. 
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i was hoping nature would find a way to deal with them. havent seen any here yet but maybe theyll get eaten before they get up here. our winter hit -43f. that should thin them and the tick populations out quite a bit.
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Im with you on eating from bush/tree. After dedicating evenings picking berries, eating and sharing them with appreciative friends and family is very rewarding. However when my adolescent child sits and eats a half gallon of my fresh berries I realize the value of “releasing them to the berry patch for all you can eat” allowing me to freeze some too;)
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Wow!!! $129.99 per plant?! Please allow me to direct you to Doug Wiley in Kansas City. He owns True Vine Ranch, a high bush blue berry farm. He raises these babies to sell them. I thought Doug’s prices were a little high until I read this post. Google him and see if you can’t save a few sheckles. I have bought from him for years and have nevah been disappointed except in my own self for not altering the pH of the soil enough. They like 5.5 a lot. Doug will send you the planting instructions with each order. You will need to acquire some Canadian Sphagnum Peat moss for those big ones you got. Looks like on the order of 3 cubic feet each. Hole will need to to be about 30 inches across and 30 inches deep. And don’t let them produce fruit the first season. There’s a lot of info on raising and annual pruning on Google.
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