Some blueberry variety talk mainly Sweetcrisp and Springhigh my favorites

Pink Lemonade is an odd hybrid and from what I’ve read,the plant contains some albino genes.
The flavor is good though.Brady

I removed all the blooms from my Pink Lemon-aid for the past 2 years, so I have not tasted them. Hope they taste OK. I bought the plants to capture the attention of the kids, but they seem to be growing a little slower than the other blueberry variety. Its going to be a couple more years before I get to 4 feet.

Once mine started growing,there was excellent branch development.
I gave the plant to the property manager’s girlfriend,because she was always coming over and picking the berries,with her young son and sometimes damaging other plants in the area.
I made a clone though. Brady

Agreed, flavor, size, vigor and texture are all excellent, now that I know how to pick them, things should go a lot smoother

How do you clone them? What is your method? Hardwood cuttings? Softwood cuttings? Division? Timing? Sand? Perlite? Peat? Bin or open air? How did you do it?

I first tried using small pots and Summer (softwood) cuttings,with a plastic bag covering and had very limited positive results.The trouble is,keeping the leaves moist until roots form.This method probably works better with Winter (hardwood) pieces,as there are no leaves,but when growth does come,that needs some moisture for awhile.
Then,a couple years ago,I saw this video and that helped a lot.I tried to put a link here, but somehow, it didn’t play.It is on Youtube and entitled,Propagation of Blueberry Cuttings Using Fog.
I made a version of the one in the video and have about 60-70% success with Blueberries.Other plants can be even higher.
Here is mine.The pond fogger can be bought on Ebay for about $10.



Sometimes I’ll use two foggers,if the temperatures are hot.I recommend getting some as backups.Sometimes they stop working.
I use Perlite and Peat moss mixed at about 60/40 to 70/30.
I also purchased a used Mist-a-Matic,that works well,but the fogger setup does a very good job and is much less expensive.
Softwood and hardwood cuttings can both be done this way.After taking some during the late Winter pruning,I put them in dampened Peat moss baggies and store in the refrigerator until being stuck in the bed. Brady

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You’ve inspired me to go try fog propagation! I blaim you if this works.

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@Bradybb. Thought I would try. Thanks for letting us know about fog method.

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Hey nice Bill.Thanks for posting it.Brady

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The problem I have with Darrow is knowing when it is fully ripe. When I pick them they all look the same to me but some are not fully ripe and too sour.
I have a similar problem with Bluegold except when not fully ripe they have a sour and slightly bitter taste.
While being negative I might as well mention Tophat. It’s a nice little compact plant with plenty of berries. It’s the first crop I’ve had from them and they where sadly very bland. If next year is the same they will be removed.

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I wait for them to be totally blue all around, and then I give another day or 3 before I start picking. Blueberries can hang forever in my experience, critters not withstanding.

Another technique is to give a soft pull or a gentle roll to get the ripe ones to come off. I get impatient and pick some that are not ripe. It would be nice if the color determined ripeness. An idea for the GMO guys?

How do commercial growers do it? Are there any varieties that all ripen over a short period so the entire plant can be harvested in on picking?

I would think some yes, at least have a shorter time period of ripeness. I too, hate trying to decide if ripe or not. Toro and Liberty are actually sweet, even when under ripe. The under ripe berries are very edible. One fallback is the berries are rather soft, and not much resistance or texture to them. Cara’s Choice to me is the best tasting I have tasted. Very subjective though.
The worst tasting to me is Indigocrisp. Blandest berry i ever tasted.
I had a honeyberry last week, just one ripe on my small plant. It was tart but the flavor was outstanding. Better than blueberries for me, I can knock down the tartness by processing for jam or syrup. Looking forward to a real harvest of those puppies.

I have a Draper and most of the berries ripen at the same time.The flavor is not bad also. Brady

Good information here. Since blueberries are easy for me to grow I’ll plant some new varieties next year. Also try some grafting.

I’m cutting a major branch off of Liberty this fall. Well as soon as it is done fruiting.I killed my Toro, it got dry on me. I replaced it, so my plant is young. I did get an excellent plant, it will produce some next year. From Raintree. I know some complained about Raintree slipping, but with this plant, it’s a very nice plant, they came through!
Anyway I can give you cuttings if you want them? Probably liberty, and chandler, and maybe Legacy. I prune after fruiting. All are fruiting now.

I just went and bought my new blueberrys for fall planting today (currently growing 6 varieties, adding 7 more)

New ones include 2 Sweet Crisp, and 1 each of: Indigo Crisp, Farthing, Brightwell, Savory, Powder Blue and Vernon

If anyone in SE Texas is looking for blueberries, I bought these from Creekwood Farms just off Hwy 12 in Vidor Texas, They are mainly a commercial blueberry farm / commercial nursery, but will sell retail also, suggest call ahead though. the Owner Mike Beard is very knowladgble on blueberries, also teaches people how to grow, and has been growing blueberries for decades (they are the exclusive blueberry supplier for HEB (big texas grocery chain)) They only advertise 7 or 8 variteties online, however he has at least that many more in limited supply / test crops some of which I have never heard of online.

If you are interested in Sweetcrisp though, get them soon, as he has limited number (maybe a couple of hundred when I was there) and plans to dropping them (putting them in his burn pile) in favor of Indigo Crisp due to poor fruiting performance on Sweetcrisp in our area (he claims Indigocrisp fruit about 4 times the amount of fruit as Sweetcrisp here) Prices were good too, he charged my the 50-100 rate of $6 per 3 gallon plant even though I only bought 8 and the plants look far better than the typical garden center plants, well worth the 70 mile drive for me.

Ike
p.s.if you need to contact them their web page is out of date and published email does not work, you must call on the phone. (I learned that one the hard way)

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Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about the nursery but was on his place several years ago. They are cheaper for me than anywhere else.

My Climax rabbiteye put on a lot of growth this year.

Jersey northern highbush grew pretty good too.

Northcountry also put on a respectable amount of growth, especially for a Minnesota-bred bloob.

Legacy might be dead or dying. It appears to have been eaten and defoliated by bugs! Crazy.

Yes bizarre! I was impressed with how it’s fruit buds grew after being frozen, so don’t give up on it yet. Spray it maybe, and next year hit it after harvest. I had little growth on my plants this year. I lost Southmoon as it came out of dormancy early. I really wanted this one, but I’m not replacing it with another. Sweetcrisp was hit hard too, came out of dormancy early and the main cane was injured, not growing well, I removed dead or injuryed canes… It struggled all summer, and now looks better but is smaller, as many of the canes and foliage was damaged. It’s going on 4th leaf and no fruit yet, so it looks like this cultivar is not adaptable to my area. Maybe if it was in ground it would do better? I replaced Southmoon with a very hardy cultivar, Pink Popcorn. It is the 2nd pink cultivar to make it to distribution. It’s lighter than Pink Lemonade, can even be white or off white and ripe. Hardy to zone 3 developed in the north. It supposed to have better production than Pink Lemonade. 5x5 at maturity. I have to grow in a container, and this is making it difficult to mange. I should probably put them in root pouches. Last winter I had a yellow cap raspberry in a root pouch and left it outside all winter, it was fine, produced a huge crop. If I have problems this winter, I will try it with the blueberries in 2017-18 winter.
I’m storing them in the shed this winter instead of the garage, hoping to stop any early growing by keeping them colder. See how it goes…