Blueberry bushes at Lowes

I was lucky enough to be at Lowes yesterday when they were unloading a truck load of new plants, including blueberry bushes.

Nice looking two year old plants for $7.97 apiece, needless to say I bought 4 of them and got the pick of the lot! One each of Blue Ray, Bluecrop, Northland, and Elliot.

Now to figure out how to amend my soil so that's it acidic enough. It's just about neutral where I'm setting them out. Any suggestions?

Quick and dirty. Green light soil acidifier available at most nurseries. Pine straw and oak leaves will usually maintain once you get ph down below 5.5.

Thanks Farmer.

Red: I was not thinking too clearly on a rainy day. I f you happen to be in the limestone area, you will have a constant battle with pH. It is almost impossible to maintain with acidic mulches. Green Light works better than anything that I tried, But I gave up blueberries in Radford because the pH in that limestone based soil had to be amended heavily and often.

Farmer,

I think you're right, I found this site about raising blueberries in KY and they recommend adding ammonium sulfate yearly to each bush to regulate the ph.

I'm determined to grow blueberries in Utah. My neighbor has tried and failed twice. He just put a soil acidifier in our wonderful alkaline soil and didn't test it to see what the pH was. He said the plants got smaller and smaller every year until they died and he didn't get a single berry. This year both of us are going to try growing them in pots. We are thinking that it will be easier to control the acidity that say. Does that sound logical? I talked to a man at a local nursery and he said that because of our dry climate the blueberry plants will need some shade. Around here they sell an acidic potting mix. I also purchased a pH soil tester and I know I will have to check the soil often to be sure a 4.5-5.0 pH is maintained. Does anyone have other suggestions?

Tee Hee! I bought some berry bushes from Lowes here in Calif. but I bought the "bargain basement" ones. They were $4.97. I bought 3 blueberry (Jersey), 3 raspberry(Latham Red), and 3 blackberry(Ebony King). I don't know if they are good ones for my area or not but I was so excited about the price and they had so many of them I just got giddy and bought em. My DH just shakes his head slowly. Tee Hee!
-Juli

Darn it! I just found out that I was supposed to buy two different kinds of blueberry. I hope Lowes still has some of the other kind.
-Juli