Alrighty then, here are some pics from my order from Indiana Berry.
My puny Hinnomaki Red gooseberry seedling:
Poorman GB, a little more substantial:
And the four blueberry plants, nice roots and branches, and already budding. From left, Patriot, Bluecrop, Blueray, and Nelson.
All of these are going into the ground tomorrow.
Watch out for those gooseberry thorns.
Tony
Yep, that’s why I was wearing those gloves. They might be tiny plants, but those thorns can still bite. I can only imagine how painful it’ll be when it’s time to harvest the berries off a full size bush.
Do you have any GB plants? If so, how long did it take for them to start producing?
Well, since it was sunny and warm today, I took advantage and got the four blueberry plants in the ground. Was a bit of work, but not like planting five trees last week.
I put some peat moss in with the soil to give it a bit of organic material, and help with the pH, even tho it’s already at 4.9. Put some pine straw down for mulch and put up my double fishing line fence.
Next month I’ll put a bit of fertilizer down. I wanted ask @Drew51 what kind of fert do you use for new plants- I have some triple 10, straight N (34-0-0) with some elemental sulfur and some 27-0-0.
For what it’s worth Bob, I use cottonseed meal and my blueberries have flourished with this organic non burning fertilizer.
Thanks, Zack. I remember you talking about using cottonseed meal on your blues in another thread. When did you put it down, and how much after planting? I went down to the barn to check out the ferts I had, and the straight 34-0-0 has 10% sulfur. The N in that formula is 27% urea, so pretty potent stuff. I do wonder what’s in the CS meal that blues like. I’ll have to look that up.
I remember you saying yer NHB blues have really struggled, but the rabbiteyes are doing real well? I don’t think RE would work here, too cold.
I put one cup of cottonseed meal with each planting. I planted 40 blueberries 3 seasons ago. Since than I add a cup to each in early Feb and middle of April. The Rabbit eyes are doing best. Most of them are up to eye level on me now. I had a ton of fruit set on them but that last freeze got over half of them. I still expect a very nice 3rd season crop.
“Cottonseed meal provides blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) with nitrogen while lowering the pH of the surrounding soil, a perfect combination for these acid-requiring plants. Composed of crushed cottonseed left over from the oil-extraction process, cottonseed meal contains roughly 6 percent nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorous and 1 percent potassium.” I use cottonseed meal because I don’t want to take a chance to burn them. It’s very easy to burn blues with synthetic fertilizers. With cottonseed meal it also feeds slow and steady. I don’t have to worry about over applying as the blues will only take in what they need and the meal they don’t use immediately will be consumed weeks later.
Nitrogen in the form of nitrates should be avoided. They can handle some nitrates, but on a young plant, I would avoid them… Anything with Urea,can be used. Water first and use at 1/2 strength or less. We want to take it easy till they are established. I use Holly Tone on new plants, but that’s not a choice. If you can get cottonseed meal, that would be an excellent choice to add trace minerals, and P and K NPK is typically 6-2-2 in cottonseed meal.
Be careful with sulfur, your pH is decent already. If it ever does get too low (pH) flush with water. In your situation Urea would be the best choice. 34-0-0 is that urea?
Ammonium sulfate concerns me too, just worried pH will get too low.
You can use sulfur and Ammonium sulfate, just be aware that too much could mess you up.
Here with our 6.5 pH soil and very basic water, I obsess more about pH. You don’t need to. I think ideal pH is 4.5. 4.9 is darn close! Below 4.0 should be avoided.
Oops I didn’t see the posts afterward.
I agree, I killed two with them. Water first! If I did that, they would have been fine.
I still use them once a month as I find blues to like nitrogen a lot. I like to use Ammonium sulfate if they stall, or I need to quickly lower pH. Usually why they stall. Long term to adjust I use sulfur.
I use Holly-Tone also as it’s cheaper than cottonseed meal here in the city. It is a much more complete organic fertilizer for acid loving plants than cottonseed meal. Holly-Tone has sulfur, and all the micros you need. I use it on my raspberries too. As I use tap water which is 7.9 on them. I collect rainwater for the blues, if I run out I add sulfuric acid to tap water. I set pH at 4.5 to 5.0 in tap water. I guess if @subdood_ky_z6b using basic water to water, he could use AS or sulfur (sulfur takes 6-8 months to work, so be careful!)
Thanks for all the replies from you and Zack.
Yes, the pH is 4.9. I can’t attest to the pH of our tap water. Well, since the 34-0-0 has sulfur in it already, it should be avoided? It has 27% urea. The 27-0-0 has nitrates in it, to a certain degree, I’m sure.
My soil report shows that this plot is low in K and medium in P. So, since I don’t have cottonseed meal, maybe triple 10 would be a better fit? I think I read BB’s are heavy N feeders, a bit of K and not a lot of P.
I’ll call my local feed stores to see if they have CS meal. I do wonder about chemical residues in it, as cotton can be heavily sprayed.
I don’t see a problem with the 10-10-10 As long as you do not over do it. Also some sulfur won’t hurt, But wait till plant is established before giving it a high nitrogen dose.
BTW those blueberries look nice, so does the gooseberry, that will grow crazy big,
I propagate by sticking a 8 inch branch in the soil outside in the fall, and most grow in the spring.
You talking about blueberries here Drew? I haven’t tried that. Maybe I should.
No sorry gooseberries, and currents. Blueberries are super hard. I have had zero success with blueberries. Brady has a misting system and he sent me a rooted Spartan in a trade. very nice roots on a cutting, very cool!
@subdood_ky_z6b You know you can buy a 36 pound bag of Holly_Tone at Amazon
for 25 bucks, buy something else for 10 bucks and shipping is free. You can use it on gooseberries too. Has sulfur 5%. It should not lower it that much.
https://smile.amazon.com/Espoma-Holly-Tone-Plant-Food-36-Pound/dp/B00F2QOZ1M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491238013&sr=8-1&keywords=holly-tone
Well, I wish those GB twigs I got were 8in long. They are lucky if they’re 6in. Are you saying these little twigs will grow pretty fast once planted? I’ve read that they don’t like full sun, that the berries can get scorched if exposed to too much sunlight. Do you have yours in a somewhat shady spot?
Mrs Dood went to town yesterday to get some stuff, and came home after I had finished getting the blueberries in the ground. She said, “I hope you don’t get mad, but I picked this up at Tractor Supply”. She showed me an Oregon Champion gooseberry plant. So, looks like we’re going to have four GB plants when it’s all said and done.
She was afraid of spending $5 on that GB plant, and I still haven’t told her about the two other trees coming from ACN this week! Our three tart cherry plants and the last gooseberry (Jeanne) will be here this week as well.
I’ll wait on the triple 10 until next month, to give the plants a chance to get rooted. Incidentally, I did look for some ammonium sulfate fert, but wasn’t successful. About the best I could come up with is the 34-0-0 with the 10% sulfur. I was looking at our new blueberry patch and was wondering if I could put some new raspberry plants in that same plot, even tho the pH is so low. I know rasps need a higher pH, so I prob shouldn’t put them there.
Thanks for the Holly Tone rec, I was looking into that last night.
Well, this afternoon, Mrs Dood was gone for quite a while and I was wondering what was up. Well, she drives up and hanging out the back of the Jeep was what looked like blooming trees. She came in and said that there were some red plum trees growing about a mile up the road. She asked the owner about them and if they’d mind if she dug up some seedlings. She ended up digging up four of them, the biggest one is about 5 feet tall, and has pretty good roots on it. There was a smaller one that had good roots as well, but the other two hardly had any roots at all. So, looks like we have a couple that we’re going to try to transplant. We dug a little trench for them in the corn patch and buried the roots. I’m going to try to find a place for them tomorrow. I’m in the middle of doing my veggie seed starts today.
I said I don’t know where we’ll put them, but we’ll find a place. Then I said “well, we’ll also have to find a place to put in a couple more trees come Wednesday.” She said why, and I told her that I ordered another pear and peach (Harrow Sweet and Contender) from ACN. She asked why the Contender and I said I had been looking for one for the last two seasons, and they’re supposed to have hardy buds, good for our area. She then asked why the pear, and I said ACN charges $20 to ship 1-4 trees, so I just got the pear to offset the shipping. Told her that HS is a very good variety, fireblight resistant and hardy. So, she didn’t seem too bothered by it. I did tell her that we’re done with trees, and prob with fruit in general this season. Time to get our veggie plots going.
SO, here is one of my “mid-night impulse orders” I placed with Henry Fields. I was extrmely impressed with the roots. I mean, WOW! On the far right are Carmine and Romeo Romance Cherries. They were out of Juliet. I am thrilled with these 2 plants. I got some last year from Honeyberry USA that were about 1/4th the size of these and after growing all last year aren’t nearly as big as these 2.
THe one on the far left is a Manchurian Apricot and the roots on it are a huge ball of roots and look great. However, they are unlike any tree or even bush roots I’ve ever seen. They are all the really wispy, thin, stringy roots more akin to a plant than a woody bush or tree. But lots of them and I’m sure tree will do fine- even though I sort of have buyers remorse on this $9 tree.
The other two in the middle are a Mericrest and a Yumm Yumm Nectarine. Dave Wilson says Yumm Yumm is always a high scorer on their taste tests. I don’t know anything about Mericrest but I’m all ears if any of you do! Anyway, I was pretty happy with the look and health and roots on all these.
Coke bottle is, of course, for scale.
Below is a shot of only the roots for the 2 Romance series cherries:
Looks good, my Honeyberryusa order is due Wed, I’m not getting my hopes up on my tart cherries looking as good as yours, but I’m sure they’ll grow fine.
My order came in today! From left to right black star cherry on krymsk 6, Harrow Sweet on OHxF87, jewel raspberry and Caroline raspberry.
I just got everything in ground. I couldn’t find ideal spots for them. Raspberries got a spot bottom of a slope. Water does collect there but drains away fairly fast. Trees had to go under the drip line of my silver maple trees. I’m worried about root competition. But my yard is full of huge trees so no matter where I plant them they’ll have root competition. I had to cut down 7 pine trees to make space for these. I cannot believe the amount of pines and maples the original owners planted in this yard 
