growing blueberries by the veggie garden

Does seem like a no no ha? but their furthest away or going to be. I want to know what your opinions are for planting, soil recommendations and all. I 'm having a soil test done now. Result s aren't back yet. But I know we put alot of lime on the garden this past fall, and we don't want to do that for blueberries do we? wasn't sure.

What do you put into the hole besides the plant? anything else? I lost the last batch of blueberries , lack of water I think, these are going to be closer to a water hose and I'm going to take better care of them.

Blueberries are pretty easy if you have acid soil. You want a pH of 4.5 -5.5 so no lime anywhere near them. I would think that in your zone you would want to plant rabbiteyes or southern highbush. Rabbiteyes are the easier to grow. The Northern Highbush does not do well in with warm summers. Won't grow here at all. They don't need a whole lot of water, so I suspect that either you planted northern highbush or your soils was not acidic enought for them. If your soil conditions are marginal, you can use a soil acidifier available at most nurseries. Follow the directions on the bottle. A good mulch of pine straw or oakleaves, sometimes with a little boost from MirAcid, will usually keep them going.

WEll, I have ordered blue ray and blue crop blueberries, will those work? HOpefully they will. I guess I can get some sulfer and reduce the ph in the ground. I need to buy a ph tester

Also, got any ideas what soil requirements for heritage red and fall gold raspberries?

thanks farmerdill

Keep your fingers crossed, those are northern types. I don't know your climate, so you may be ok. Get a soil test, most of the testing kits, either chemical or electronic available to home gardeners are notoriously in accurate.

I don't grow raspberries so have no experience to offer you there. In cultural requirements , they supposedly are not picky about about soil pH or type. They are suppose to be intolerant to heat, which may explain why you seldom see them in the south.

I think I can still change my order on the blueberries, I forgot which other kind they had available, will have to check and see.

Do you know , i'm sure you do, LOL the best way to lower the ph inthe ground?

Soil Acidifier (Iron Sulphate) - Green Light is the brand I usually use - Sulphur will work but not as well
http://www.doityourself.com/invt/u546671

Thanks farmerdill.

The only other choice blueberry is jersey,

http://www.uaex.edu/news/june2006/0616blue.htm
http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/fruits_nuts_vegs/small_fruit/blueberry.htm It seems there are sections of Arkansas where the northern high bush will grow.

Kathy, I have found my northern highbush pretty resiliant in the heat we get. I am in MD 6B/7A. I know others in zone 7 in the east also doing well. The only thing is to water them if it is dry. Also of course fix the pH -- I initially had mine wrong and they were not doing well at all. Some of the new southern highbush varieties are supposed to be very good, I am trying O'Neil and Ozarkblue. If you grow both northern and southern highbush you get a blueberry harvest over a long period. So if you expand you could add some of those in a future year. For this year I would try out the ones you already ordered.

Scott

I changed my order to jersey blueberries, their southern highbush right? I thought theywere after doing a google on them. HOpe I do better with these

Nope , Jersey is northern. A late season cultivar tho. Normally southern high bush are available at southern nurseries, although I have seen O'neill and Ozarkblue at national mail order nurseries.
Southern highbush culivars include but not limited to: Jewel, Sapphire, Millennia , Star, Windsor, Southern Belle , Emerald, O'Neal, Sharpblue, Santa Fe , Misty , Bladen, Bluecrisp, Reveille, Marimba, Southmoon, Avonblue, Gulf Coast, Georgiagem, Cooper, Sampson, Cape Fear, Flordablue, Magnolia, Jubilee, Blue Ridge, Pearl River, Summit, Ozarkblue, Legacy, This list is in order of ripening. When you go looking for a southern highbush, I would start with the cultivars recommended by the University of Arkansas. Some of the Florida and Gulf coast cultivars may not fare as well. Ozarkblue was released by Arkansas and enjoys some popularity in the southeast second only to O'Neal.

Well, that's just great news LOL. There were only 3 kinds to choose from, guess theywere all northern high bush.

I've noticed many of the mail order catlogues seem to only carry northern highbush. I guess most of their customer base is in the north. Are there any nurseries around you? I've found that the ones around here stock Rabbiteyes or Southern Highbush but they don't seem to have them very much of the year. I've even seen them at Lowe's recently. If you want to mail order, the nurseries in the south generally have Rabbiteyes.

http://www.johnsonnursery.com/
http://www.isons.com/fruit.htm#blueberry

These guys are in Arkansas:
http://www.alcasoft.com/simmons/blueberry.html

Ok, OUr lowes sells 2 kinds, burkley and toro. Have you all heard of these two? got any recommendations between the two. their 8.98 ea for 2 gallon containers, I thought I'd go ahead and get some of these. There is only one other nursery here. I'm waiting to hear back from them.

What do you think of this farmerdill
He said it worked for a long period of time and I wouldn't have to go back and reapply for longer periods of time like the powder or liquid.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270078565057&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=017

Toro is a northern highbush. http://mtvernon.wsu.edu/frt_hort/blueberry.htm as is Berkeley http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/74870/index.html . What is surprising is that neither cultivar is in the list of recommended cultivars from the University of Arkansas.

Stark Bros. Nursery carries O'Neal and Ozarkblue southern highbush varieties.

Well, I can't figure out why they would sell a northern high bush variety, that's kind of stupid if you ask me. I hate to go on line to get them. The other nursery in town doesn't even sell them at all. I will check out those links too. thanks

kathy

kathyann; In response to to your e-bay ad., Most local nurseries will sell both elemental sulphur and iron sulphate much cheaper. Sulphur has to oxidize into a sulphate, ( sulphur in the presence of water combines with oxygen to form sulphurous or sulphuric acid depending on conditions) It lasts longer because it takes longer. Iron sulphate is more readily available and is much faster acting. I only apply once a year in the spring.

As for the northern high bush, the University of Arkansas does recommend some varieties for northern and central Arkansas at higher elevations. I was surprised that Lowes did not choose varieties on their list. Have no idea where Judsonia is, but if you are north in mountains, the northern high bush may do allright.

I'm in the central (middle of the state ) area, one hour north of Little Rock Arkansas. We do live in a big valley and temps are normally l0 degrees cooler here, but still reach l00 during th e middle of the summer.

We're in a river valley NW of Atlanta so we're probably similar to you. You can probably get any of the blueberries to grow there, just a question of how well they'll do. The Northern Highbush kind are grown commercially mainly in New Jersey and Michigan so they probably won't be thrilled with the heat down here.

Rabbiteyes are a native Georgia plant so that's what attracted me to them. Theoretically the easiest thing to grow should be plants that orginally grew wild in your area because they already like the climate. The Lowes here had Tifblue and Powderblue Rabbiteyes and O'neal and another kind of southern highbush. I was impressed because they carried two different cultivars (needed for pollination). They weren't out in the regular plant area but inside with the seeds and bulbs in cardboard boxes like a seasonal item. I went back recently and they weren't there any more.

Another idea for you, are there any u-pick blueberry places around you? It's fairly easy for them to separate some 'suckers' with some root attached off the main plant. They might sell or give you a few.