Do any of you guys in hot dry locations grow blueberries? I have an extremely large tree root i am going to be removing and i stole some of my clay for my raised beds. I have made sort of a clay lined pit with this and it will fit say 2 cubic yards of pure peat (like 5 bales). I have never tried blueberries as the only time i have seen them happy in colorado they were in a greenhouse with humidity, i have seen people put them in pots outside and they always look half dead and misreable. I was also thinking of getting a sparkleberry or two as rootstock and trying to plant 2 blueberries in a 3ā x 6ā area.
There is a grafting thread about sparkleberry i would defiantly try it. . But planting in peat is not the solution, incorporated that peat into your soil and add a whole lot of elemental sulfur.
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Zaz, that help a lot, appreciate it much. A 50 lb bag will last a while, for $14.95 that aināt bad. I suppose I can be use for other treeās/ plants too?
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Thank you @lordkiwi
The sparkleberry grafting thread was very cool!
Yeah so definitely a large issue is i stole too much soil, I did it a while ago while putting in french drains and using the clay to slope around my house. Then i stole more soil this week so now i definitely have a extremely large hole that will be hard to mix into my native soil (will make a larger non clay area) I am concerned about water retention and was thinking of making this more like a container and bury some terra cotta with it to keep moisture levels. I need to put a persimmon around here and would like everything else in my native soil so my goal is to not expand the area 
. I definitely have plenty of elemental sulfur, fish bone meal, neem seed meal, alfalfaā¦ to make a nice mixture for them. This is only about 3ā deep so my thought was i would still need a sparkleberry once it taps into my ground clay (which would be good) and i could put pine needles on it every year and slowly add in soil as i dig more stuff up or make my last swale. My compost is now 2ā down and i am out of soil.
If you dont think this would work (I was concerned about them just dessicating in my hot wind and sun) I can just fence it.
Once your organics are there clay holds water just fine. just keep topping it off organics and it will be fine.
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No problem. Cottonseed has been outstanding for me and I use it on several other trees and bushes too. It only helps and never burns so itās very safe. You can literally use it on anything. Just best for me to use on blueberries.
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I would add pine bark to the peat. Look for soil conditioner at private nurseries. It is usually all pine bark. Studies were done with blueberries in peat alone, pine alone, and a 50-50 mix. The latter was the best result, although all grew. I would mound it up too. As it will breakdown with time. Add more as mulch. When they break down pH does go up so after two years add sulfur. I would not mix any native soil in. Mostly because we had a user her called milehighgirl and she had no luck doing that. She planted in pure peat.
Have you seen this?
Good luck with it.
On cottonseed it was removed from Hollytone because it is impossible these days to obtain GMO free cottonseed. It all has GMO heritage these days. That does not matter at all to me, but being informed is always good.
By 2014, 96% of cotton grown in the United States was genetically modified[7] and 95% of cotton grown in India was GM.[8] India is the largest producer of cotton, and GM cotton, as of 2014
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Should work if you can regulate the moisture correctly.
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I took down a big section of hemlock hedge and chipped the smaller pieces. Is green wood good for a blueberry mulch? I think Iāve read that straight wood chips lower nitrogen, this has the little pine needles so maybe that makes a difference. Should I put down the wood chips with 10-10-10 or Holly Tone? Iāve been putting them in the paths in between rows in the vegetable garden but thereās too many chips just for that.
You donāt want to use pine chipsā¦so just sent them to me.! 
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Thanks Drew, My main worry was the plants totally desiccating in the dry heat and wind. When i worked at a nursery years ago we saw lots of people try blueberries here many ways and everytime you would see them they just looked so sad. One guy i tried to help after planting some trees for we dug holes to put his whiskey barrels into the ground and i had him put shade cloth over and move them to a pretty protected spot. They did better but still struggled, however i do not know what varieties people were trying. In greenhouses here they would be huge and thrive so i figured it was a aversion to the wind heat and sun combo?
Excellent article @Lucky_P Thank you! I really do love the tart and tasty blueberries out in the PNW and have a nice spot to try it as well as extra peat I had purchased for my raised beds but quit 2 beds early. I really have nothing to do with this huge hole here and i like the idea of trying something that may be difficult but its great to see others having success with this. They will get around 3 bales of peat each and i will make some colorado concrete out of my clay walls
I think i will try to source some sparkleberries!
Yes, not that easy to grow. I have a cottge just 35 miles away and the growing conditions there are a lot worse. Itās hard to get fruit to grow there and has been a challenge. I have 11 different blueberry plants although one is on life support. Still I get a ton of blueberries.A very cool plant, fun to grow. I also grow honeyberries and they are almost ripe now. They are very early fruits. They like a normal pH!
Aurora is my favorite. It took 5 years but now they produce well and are sweeter this year than ever before. Super good this year. Usually a little too tart just to eat, best for processing.
From last year
I already harvested one plant, and I have three others that need a week or two. I have them in cloth bags for 5 years. Iām putting them in ground in the fall.
Birds love them so under the net they go!
The bushes are loaded with fruit.
Once processed the flavor is excellent.
Honeyberry Flip I love this hot with ice cream.
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I wonder if it works on figs? I did it on a couple of my container figs. Donāt know what it does. Zazlez, is it a acidic fertilizer?
Yes cottonseed meal is an acidic fertilizer. Iāve used some in figs as well. ā , cottonseed meal as a fertilizer for the garden is slow release and acidic. Cottonseed meal varies in formulation slightly, but is generally made up of 7% nitrogen, 3% P2O5, and 2% K2O. Cottonseed meal feeds nitrogen, potash, phosphorus and other minor nutrients over a period of time, eliminating runoff and promoting vigorous growth.ā
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Excellent, Zazlev thatās good to know, I can use it now on all my citrus treeās also. That 50lb bag might not last.
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Thanks for the answer :).
Iāll dress with some peat moss and holly tone, then top with pine chips. There will be more next year. The hedge I took down was about 50 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 20 feet tall. Thereās a lot more of that that I still need to take down.
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Yes, I use cotton seed meal on my blueberries too.
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Honestly i think the honeyberries i grow may taste better than fresh delicious blueberries? they are extremely close but i also love tart over sweet berries and the honeyberries are just kind of magical! Mine do not produce near that much yet but are being moved to partial shade and will do better!
I definitely need to net and will do that once i am getting more than say 50 fruits a bush? I love that they keep the berries on the inside and do a good job at hiding those delicious berries. I have a bunch of peas and veggies in pots to help add some shade to this one who is 4 years old.
Does anyone know of a good source for sparkleberry rootstocks or other zone 5 varieties of blueberry that handle the heat and lack of humidity well? The site that lucky listed had people reccomend reka and rubel in colorado springs which is even hotter than me. I definitely want tart blueberries and not those annoyingly sweet ones that come in every once in a while to the grocery store.
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