Thank you for the sage advice, Drew!
Sorry I didnāt reply earlier, Iām just swamped with things to do. Are the leaves still red?
A couple things cause this, the soil is still too basic, not good. Or itās cold out, which is fine.
If you feel itās not working, still stuff you can do. Iāll wait to hear how itās going before I comment.
No worries! I appreciate all of your advice, at any time! As for the red leaves, they just were planted in the last week, and there was a little cold weather in the time before they were planted (while in transit?), so Iām hoping itās that. Otherwise, there isnāt much soil to their āsoilā, save for what some of them came with (mixed with peat and pine and a bit of compost, etc.), and I think they were green when I first received them, so Iām hoping itās only that. I will try to do a āsoilā test of the planting material; I just re-read that you recommended sulphur with everything else at planting time (I was thinking it would be overkill). Now I am thinking of topdressing with some, or putting it in around the roots and covering it again. Do you think that would work out, or could there be some unforeseen danger to the plant?
Sunshine Blue does really great here, near the NC/VA border. Mine hardly gets afternoon sun, too. Itās not nearly as picky about pH, but it sounds like you are covered on that now 
It blooms pretty early, though. I always have to cover it at some point after itās started blooming. Itās short, so that works well.
I like Chandler very much, too. That one is with my other blueberries, so I donāt know if it tolerates higher pH. It doesnāt seem particularly shade tolerant, either. Just a normal blueberry, but they are huge and it produces a long time per season.
Yes, sounds good![quote=āCafeaulait, post:24, topic:9606ā]
I like Chandler very much
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Mine does well too. I had trouble with Liberty and Toro with pH. It did OK, but once pH was adjusted, these plants just exploded with berries.
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You guys are giving me hope! That Chandler looks amazing! 
Thank you both for the information. Letās hope the Sunshine blue and Chandler do as well here!
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Chris did you measure your pH yet? I am often surprised at readings I get so you definitely want to see what it is. Speaking of that I should probably check out my bed, its been about five years since I checked on the pH.
No, I havenāt checked the PH yetāthanks for the reminder! I had misplaced the strips briefly, and maybe I got a little cocky with all that peat and pine. I have to remember to be ever vigilant!
By the way, Scott, I put in the Hoyt Montrose by your recommendation last week. Itās about 5ā tall and branched; I am hopeful! Certainly a sight better than my Manchurians when I first received them from Burgessā¦ oh boy.
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Oops, that is Liberty, I just wanted to show after pH was adjusted it exploded. I never had problems with Chandler, but all of my blueberries were checked and adjusted. I just got in 100 test strips, with a limited pH range. Super easy to read. I ran out last year.
Here is my Chandler
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I did nothing but watch my blueberries plants grow smaller each and every year for 3 years till I undertook my Ph improvement program. They started to rebound last year and now they are actually knock on wood flushing.
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Ha! Now Iām glad that I made that mistake, because we got to see some more gratuitous photos of amazing blueberry bushes! Iām going to have to make some more mistakes to induce more beautiful picture posting. Niceā¦ Duke? 
That is really encouraging to hear. It has been very slow going, but I think I will have enough time and energy this year to dedicate to evaluating and improving/maintaining the PH of mine, hopefully to better success than I had before.
I did pretty much the same as you. I added lots of pine bark mulch, peat moss. To over come the gradually of improving I added organic sulfur + holly tone. Elemental sulfur does not raise PH until soil bacteria process it, but I added a lot and Holly tone provided the boost in bacteria. I also used it to prep my Camellia bed. We will see how they do this year I just planted them.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GHYF57Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.espoma.com/product/holly-tone/
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Wow! Are those current? Or from last season? Seems a bit early for this season, but I think most of the bushes in the mid-state area that I saw were late season (Jersey), ripening around August. Those are some nice berries! What bush did they come from? Your plants/berries look great to me!
Thanks for the advice, Carroll! I have purchased a big bag of sulphur from Amazon which I had been using in my bed last year which came to an untimely endā¦ I checked my order and it is the exact same as you posted! Ha! Great sulphur users think alike! I plan to mix it in with the others this week. Iāll pick up some hollytone and add it too on your recommendation; I just didnāt know it was necessary and thought it would be overkill before.
All photos from last season. Mine are just starting to leaf out, well not even there yet, they are awake, flower buds are swelling like crazy. Thursday and Friday nights will be below freezing here. The only thing with flowers open are honeyberries.
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Here in Ellicott City I have 6 year old bushes of OāNeal, Climax, and Blueray and 2, 3 year old Southern Sweetcrisp. The OāNeals are spectacular. Itās my favorite blueberry. Very sweet, big and juicy and full of flavor. Bluerays are a bit later, but delicious. Love them.
I had Early Premier and it was indeed early- but it had small blah berries so I yanked it. Climax is OK, but Iām probably yanking it too because itās soooo late in production. By the time itās ripe Iām sick and tired of picking blueberries and all the neighbor kids have had their fill for the year. I let my chickens finish them off.
I havenāt picked enough Sweetcrisp to speak on them.
I planted mine into a topsoil/native soil/peat moss mix. I just add some soil acidifier to it using the label directions. My bushes are huge, 5ā tall and 3ā around. The amount of fruit from each bush surprises me every year.
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That is fantastic! I wish I had properly attended to the ones I planted 6 years ago; perhaps Iād have a similar story! I can hardly imagine getting tired of picking blueberriesāsounds like a good problem to have!
I am sure the existing soil bacteria worked a littel on it during the winter. Do not add more sulfur yet to places you already added unless you get a soil test first. Sulfur is not very mobile and will stay in place until consumed into various organics. I still found streaks when I planted in the bed last week. Is your soil clay like mine is in DC? Sulfur made it noticiby more manageable.
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Iām in Ellicott City too. I know Scott is in Baltimore, but good to know somebody else is so close by. I just planted a bunch of blueberry and honeyberry varieties, but didnāt get OāNeil. Sounds promising in our area, so I may have to get one eventually.
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