southern highbush blueberries

[kvet]

Anyone have experience growing southern highbush blueberries? These are typically low-chill varieties that don't need ice-cold. They usually taste like generic berries, nothing special.

I bought three to act as a "privacy barrier" at my front entrance, however, two years in, I'm a bit disappointed.. they are infested with white fly (see post 140 from last year, it's gotten worse, even with yellow traps and weekly neem oil spraying), haven't really grown taller than 2ft (hoping for 4-5ft), and turns out these varieties are deciduous so have begun dropping leaves. Maybe the deciduous nature is a good thing, it'll help eliminate the white fly issue over winter?

From what I've read, they can benefit with some pruning during dormancy, and potentially need to be repotted. Do any of you have experience pruning these, and can offer tips? Three varieties are emerald, o'neal, and pink lemonade. When purchasing, I wasn't paying attention to their "season", another mistake, would've been fun to do early, mid, and late, or maybe it's better they are same-ish season to promote more berries? Hmmm.

Well, thanks for your time reading.

[Shadeflower]

Hi kvet,
I killed my O'neal, the pink lemonade turned out to be my strongest variety but this can depend on your climate.

So too much sun when young can make them dry up.

They are known to be able to tolerate full sun but honestly the first few years, especially if grown in a pot they need to be in the shade. Bright indirect light without getting too direct sun in a day.

If you can keep up watering them they should be ok out in the sun but when I could not keep up with watering some of them didn't make it.

My aim was maximum sun for maximum berries but that backfired and a lot of them dried up.

I am suspecting some weekiller got sprayed on them from a neighbouring property too.

They are extremely sensitive to weedkillers.

Othrewise I am sure you know they only grow in ericaceous soil - soil that has a very low ph.

I found adding additional aeration to the pots is beneficial but since I had added aeration when it came to summer time the pos dried out too fast.

So the way I did things didn't work out long term unfortunately. The ones in the shade survive but they don't produce as much fruit. Thats still better than the other way round.

[estación seca]

Where do you live? They require lots of sun, lots of water and lots of fertilizer. They require a very acidic soil or potting mix. If you skip any of these they hardly grow.

My mother grows them in southern California in containers in peat moss and uses acid plant fertilizer regularly. The berries are delicious. If yours don't taste that good you aren't fertilizing enough.

You will need to control the white flies somehow. No plant can survive like that.

[kvet]

Southern California. The plants were my first try at potting plants two years ago, and I followed a recipe that said potting mix should be 1:1:1 potting mix, peat moss, pine needles - I couldn't source pine needles, so I used pine bark fines. I scratch in a little acidic fertilizer every month or two. The berries taste good, but nothing beyond ordinary.. simply generic berries, same thing we get at grocery stores here (I just tried fresh, wild blueberries from the northeast a couple weeks ago, omg!!!).

If you mom grows in peat moss, how often does she repot? I would be concerned about the mix breaking down after a year and causing root rot?

Seems like an ideal time to repot now, and improve the potting mixture to acidic + peat moss. Maybe just straight peat moss with perlite, and add a bunch of fertilizer?

Hopefully a repot (I might bare root them) and cleanup of the leaves will help eliminate the whitefly.

[estación seca]

They've been in the same potting mix for years. I put more peat on top as it subsides. They're in large glazed ceramic containers holding about 15 gallons of peat. Remember blueberries are semibog plants accustomed to growing in wet or damp peat.

Pine bark will have a lot more resin than pine needles. I don't know whether this would be a problem. I can tell you they grow fine in straight peat. Mixing in a lot of perlite with peat might be a good idea to make the containers lighter if you want to move them.

[kvet]

Originally Posted by estación seca

They've been in the same potting mix for years. I put more peat on top as it subsides. They're in large glazed ceramic containers holding about 15 gallons of peat. Remember blueberries are semibog plants accustomed to growing in wet or damp peat.

Pine bark will have a lot more resin than pine needles. I don't know whether this would be a problem. I can tell you they grow fine in straight peat. Mixing in a lot of perlite with peat might be a good idea to make the containers lighter if you want to move them.

Okay, thanks, I will try that! I edited my previous post while you put in your post, so I'll put it here now: Would it be good to bare root them? That, combined with the deciduous loss of leaves may help me reduce the white fly problem.

What about pruning? Any tips, or just let them go?

---------- Post added at 12:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

Hi kvet,
I killed my O'neal, the pink lemonade turned out to be my strongest variety but this can depend on your climate.

Thanks for the tips! My front door porch area faces south and gets full sun from late spring through early fall, but rest of the year it's mostly shade because the neighbor's house is right there and the sun's path falls behind it. Mine didn't dry out, I had them in self-watering containers, but probably too small.. two are 5-7 gallon-ish, and one is 10 gallons. I'm had considered moving them into large, plastic mesh bags I have for aeration, however, my experience with these and tomatoes is like yours in that they dry out fast, which leads to channeling, especially with peat moss which is very tricky to re-wet once dry. So, I may try EC's idea here and go into clay pots instead.

[estación seca]

I wouldn't bare root them unless completely dormant. White flies lay eggs on the undersides of leaves, not in the soil. Do you have any Hibiscus? They are white fly magnets you should also treat.

[Leafmite]

I grew berry bushes and fruit trees for many years (I still have currents and top hat blueberries).

As your blueberry is going dormant, when the last leaves fall, spray the bare trunk and branches heavily with a dormant spray. If the leaves will not return for a few months, spray again just before the leaves emerge. That should help break the cycle. Once it has bloomed, if you are still having trouble with White Fly and Neem Oil and Insecticidal soap have not worked, try Malathion. Wait until after the blooms drop off and then spray every two weeks. It is a contact spray and by spraying every two weeks, you usually get the different stages of the pests. We had to spray our trees every two weeks all summer but this is what is needed in Ohio to protect the trees. It might be different where you live. We would consult with the vendor from which we bought the trees (Stark Bro's or Miller's) and the local orchard (in business eighty years so they know a thing or two).

Good luck!

---------- Post added at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

I wouldn't bare root them unless completely dormant. White flies lay eggs on the undersides of leaves, not in the soil. Do you have any Hibiscus? They are white fly magnets you should also treat.

Yup. When I had my two hibiscus, I had to use a granular rose systemic every autumn when I brought them inside, then use it again six weeks later (the old formula).

In my collection, Cinnamon is the scale magnet, jasmine and citrus are the fuzzy scale magnets and passiflora and pomegranate are the spidermite magnets. I haven't had white fly since I sprayed all the plants with olive oil (and spent hours with warm soapy water removing it) but now that I am not spraying fruit trees with Malathion every two weeks....

[estación seca]

I just remembered one of my mom's is in a 15-gallon plastic pot with potting mix about 50% #4 (extra-large) perlite and 50% peat. It is among other pots so it does not heat up in the sun. This one is a lot easier to move than the ones in glazed ceramic pots. I would not use net pots, nor pots with holes on the sides, to minimize permanent drying of peat as you mentioned.

[kvet]

Never heard of dormant oil. Looked it up, and from what I've read, horitcultural oil and dormant oil are the same thing, just slightly different concentrations of mineral oil.

During the research I read a recommednation of mixing horticultural oil as 60 grams per gallon of water - it's possible my neem oil mixture was simply not strong enough and why it hasn't really been working. Tried it will repeat, let's see what happens. I realize, neem and mineral oils have different compositions and therefore different molecular weights, etc etc, but at this point, I've nothing to loose. If that doesn't work, next season I'll try horticultural oil instead.

While spraying, I noticed a large number of ants crawling all over one of the bushes, which is covered in scale.. wow, didn't even see that until now. I'm not sure where the ants are coming from though, I don't see any trails to/from the pot, maybe they've set camp in the pot itself? Hmmm.