BlueBerry Bushes - Plant Now or wait ?

[FruitAddict]

The Blueberry plants went on clearance at our local nursery so I finally broke down and bought 6 of them 2 each of 3 different varieties. The quesiton I have is do you think I should plant them now as we go into the heat of our summer months here in Oshkosh Wisconsin or should I wait until fall or see if I can keep them alive in the pots until next spring and try to transplant when they are still dormant? I should mention that I will be gone for a two week span in less than two weeks so I would not be able to water daily for the first month like the directions say I should.

If I wait should I be giving them a "acid" soil amendment while they are the pot too or will that be to stressful for them?

[applestar]

I would plant them now if they don't have berries forming. If they are, wait until the berries are harvested, then plant. This way, they'll will have the chance to establish roots before the winter freeze and will have better chance of surviving the cold.

It's a good idea to water well for the first month. Will you be experiencing drought or can you expect a reasonable amount of rainfall? Can you get somebody to water them for you? Make sure to soak thoroughly just before you leave and mulch well. I use pine needles and fall leaves, but I've read that wood shavings work well for blueberries.

[crobi13]

I second what applestar said.

[Skilling]

I have four blueberry plants growing in my backyard here in Texas. They seem to love the heat, as long as I keep them watered well. I would also go ahead and put them in the ground, in order to get their roots established.

While all four of mine are in the ground, I've also heard that growing blueberries in pots is easy to do, as long as they are put in big enough pots from the beginning. I'm certainly no expert though.

[FruitAddict]

How much can I really expect off these plants?

[crobi13]

The first year, not much & what they do produce will be pretty small. After that, they will grow into bigger bushes & produce more & more fruit of larger size.

[FruitAddict]

I had to share an update on my new blueberry plants... I planted tham end of june and it's rained nearly every other day since then so I haven't had to water them to much and they are looking GREAT - a lot are putting on new growth - it's amazing to me that they can grow so quickly. I had the dog on a rope tied to a tree near my blueberry patch (to keep him out of my garden while I was working on it.) and he somehow managed to tie his rope around one of the plants and pull it out of the ground... I put right back in as soon as I noticed. Goes to show how slowly the roots grow because the shaped of the rootball that came out looked exactly like the pot that it came out of - that plant even seems to be doing fine.

Anyway, Thank you all for the wonderful great advice.

[crobi13]

Glad to hear that the dog did not kill the plant. And horry for lots of new growth!