Blueberry

Wilson

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Nice! I have been eye balling all the types of blue berries, one year I will have one! Keep us posted on how it responds.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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Nice start. Blueberries need a long winter rest, most northern types are very cold hardy, especially if covered with snow so don't baby this one over winter, it wants a cold rest.

Looks like a ''highbush'' type, They will trunk up. It is possible to get a 2 in or more diameter trunk on highbush and ''half high'' types.

Warning, they really demand an acidic soil. Significantly lower pH than azalea. The pH ideally needs to be between 4.5 an 6.0, which is quite low. In nursery pots use a 50:50 blend of fir bark and canadian peat moss. In a bonsai pot I am using 50% perlite or pumice, with the rest being Kanuma, fir bark and peat moss. Kanuma by itself is not acidic enough for blueberries.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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continued.

Life cycle - they are long lived shrubs, my blueberry farm (well, partly mine) has a few acres of highbush blueberries that were planted more than 50 years ago and they are the best producers on the farm. They will live ''forever'' in theory. But the normal habit is to send up a long whip from the roots, in year one, second & third year it branches and continues to grow. The fourth year the shoot begins flowering, each year adding more ramification, more flowers, but as the ramification goes up fruit gets smaller. Eventually, around 20 - 30 years the branch will get ''senile'', the root system will abandon the older cane or trunk in favor of a newer shoot. To keep an old branch, to seve as your main trunk, you must get rid of new shoots from the roots the first or second year. If you do this, they will keep their style for quite a while. But if it does ''abandon'' an old trunk on you don't be surprised, plan on regular replacements every now and then, by letting one new shoot develop.

Most will set fruit without cross pollination. Better fruit set when you have multiple varieties. A 25 gallon nursery pot is big enough to grow a blueberry to full size, and get 4 to 10 pounds of fruit per bush.

Fertilizer - blueberries prefer ammonia over nitrates. Use ammonium sulfate at 1/2 teaspoon per gallon. Or various manures. (farm or feed stores carry ammonium sulfate) Don't use a fertilizer that supplements calcium, the MSU formulas and the Dynagrow, and Peters Cal-Mag all have too much calcium and may kill your blueberry. Mira-acid fertilizer for acid loving plants is good, it has some ammonia, some sulfur, and no calcium.

Hope these tips help. Blueberries are easy if you get the soil right.
 

just.wing.it

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I was working on a literati blueberry for a while...all was good, until August....
It started pushing another flush of growth.
It seemed OK at first, but then by the time the shoots got to about 5 leaves, it just stopped, more buds we're half opened, and it stopped taking up water, dried to a crisp and died. :(
 

Underdog

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Daughter has rows of very old neglected Blues I've been eyeing. All multi trunks per tho. 10 1.5 inch trunks per bush. Love the berrys tho. One needs to come home w/me...
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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@GSCarlson - lovely flowers, check for fragrance, late morning to early afternoon fragrance should be at its strongest. Some cultivars have a moderate but distinct fragrance, like 'Bluecrop' some have very little fragrance like 'Jersey'. None would be classed as having powerful fragrance, but they do have a light but distinctive fragrance. One blueberry breeder (geneticist) at MSU' claims he can tell cultivars apart by flower fragrance alone.

You might put it outside during the day, to let the local bees pollinate the flowers. If you don't, you might not get fruit. There are many bees, beyond just the honey bee that will pollinate the flowers, solitary bees and bumble bees

You probably did not need to bring it inside to protect the flowers. When buds have started to grow, and you can see individual flower buds, but they are still tightly closed, they are still hardy to +25, once completely open they will get damaged at about +28 F. They will take a few degrees of frost without trouble.
 

Soldano666

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Good thing I don't have to worry about flowers this year. She was pushing buds and I'm 3-4 week from proper weather and about 5-6 weeks before last frost predicts. So chop chop
 
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