Ok, have the Blueberries in hand.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news is the plants are BIG this year.  The bad news is it is going to cost a bit more for shipping.  Here are some pictures.

This is 250 plants.....200 sweetcrisp and 50 Ravens all that would fit in my truck.  The sweetcrisps were bareroot as always but to my surprise the Ravens were in pots.  

This is after I got home, in fact to the left side of my truck and past it you can see some of my 5 year old sweetcrisps.

 

 


I have now buried them in rotted wood chips until I can start getting them boxed up for shipping Monday, this was right before the burial:)


 


Half of the Ravens rode home in the backseat.  

 
The Ravens


 


This is basically a before and after shot of the Sweetcrisps and what they will look like after I prune them SEVERELY and how they will look when you get them.  Most will have no leaves but you will have to trust me that it is the best thing for the plants.  Yes it means no fruit for you this spring but it will reward you with massive growth and patience is a virtue.  Buy some ammonium sulfate 1/2 tsp per gallon of water weekly if in pots and 1 tsp per gallon of water if in the ground, still weekly.

 

On behalf of those of us who are about to benefit from your hard work and generosity, I would like to shout out a huge thank you, Wills!!

Yes. I second the great big THANK YOU Wills.

Wills, do you know how old those are?  I'm just curious how fast BB grow after being rooted.  Those are very big plants!

Harvey,

They would be 2 years old in the spring.   

Yup, Wills is a BEAST!!! Thanks for your hard work and relentless pursuit! You just seem to make stuff happen man. Envious in Houston Tx;)

That is why we call him Uncle Wills.

lol getting DEEP in here:)  Glad to help, they are just too good to not be distributed.  I will get the weights averaged and the bills emailed or PM'ed out today some time.  

Wow, guess I haven't been here in a while and totally missed a great blueberry thread!

I also grow Southern Highbush berries in SoCal. I 'only' have about 60, all in the front yard in pots. I'm currently involved in the massive task of repotting, root pruning and even dividing of my plants. It is very difficult to get the really good varieties here in California but a good number of years ago I got most of my plants via a group buy through a 'Rare fruit and nut club' in Los Angeles that I saw mention of on Garden Web and successfully tracked them down. I don't think that exists anymore as the grower kept raising the bar. 'They' really don't seem to want homeowners to have access to the newer varieties, although last locally I've seen Emerald and Jewel (two of the better really low chill ones for my area) for sale, as well as the out-dated Misty and Sharpeblue.

I can't add much to what's already been said. As mentioned, I grow mine in pots, and once you have a successful formula down, you don't have to change much. I also use battery acid as an acidifier, and apply that via a venturi syphon about once per week. Prior to getting that figured out, I used trashcans and buckets - which took a lot of time. Usually also with some water soluble fertilizers, mostly Ammonium sulfate. In between the weekly acid waterings, I apply tap water from the hose when needed. Sometimes daily when it's hot. Blueberries are unforgiving if you let them go too long without water.

A couple years ago I tried dry citric acid, which is considered organic. It was easier to use, but it was not nearly as effective so I've gone back to battery acid.

As others have mentioned, be careful with the acid. With my tap water, which is very hard, the formula I fell upon is the following. (I use an intermediate step with the acid dilution - it's just easier to work with since the battery acid comes in a carton with rubber tubing, which is just plain awkward to work with. I put 2 cups of battery acid into smaller plastic bottles. Then I add one of those 2 cup bottles to water to bring it to full in a one gallon bottle. (always add acid to water). This dilution (2C acid in 1 gallon H2O) is then used at 1 cup per 32 gallon water in a trash can, or equal if you are using a (hozon) venturi syphon set up (which fortunately dilutes at 16:1).

When I started a number of years ago, there was very little reliable information for homeowners about how to grow Southern Highbush, much less in containers. I was lucky and figured out what worked well and am sticking with it.

In my location, I need really low chill plants since frost here is rare. Those that need 400 hours are just on the cusp of acceptable. And I do like the early berries, though most years the birds get most of those. Last year on Christmas day I picked 2 pounds, which was an unexpected bonus. That likely won't happen this year.


We could get rain in the next 24 hours or so. Keep your fingers crossed!

Spent most of yesterday preparing and packaging up the blueberry plants for shipment.  The plants were bigger this year than last so had to be a bit more brutal with the soil removal to get them to fit in the tubes but it won't hurt them a bit. There were a couple people that requested the plants be left mostly intact and I obliged as best I could but I will repeat it is bad for the plant.  The sweetcrisps have been pruned back to mostly one stem unless they branched out low to start with which is generally not the case in the densely packed nursery beds.   Most will have no leaves and a single stem.  Once planted they will quickly bud out and those lower branches will set a good framework as sweetcrisp likes to grow tall as it is.  PINCH THEM as they grow so they will be more bushy.  

They are headed to the post office this morning and will send the tracking numbers.

For reference here is what they will look like as I prune mine back the same way when I plant them.  These were just planted this week.

 

Looks good Wills! I do the same thing when planting new blues especially in ground. Most blues that are grown in pots have a thick root mass of very fine root hairs and they need to be roughed up or cut to free them up to spread out. Either way, you have to cut the top to balance out the root loss after cutting the root ball. Sweetcrisp is a very vigorous grower and will respond with huge flushes of growth the following year and will fruit for you the the second season. In a long and warm growing zone Sweetcrisp will get very leggy with thin branches if not tipped often! I tip my Sweetcrisp about every 6 inches of new growth and even then my plants still look thin branched and leggy but not even close to a unchecked plant. I gave my father a Sweetcrisp plant last year and this year he didn't pinch all. His branches are over 4ft long and laying all over the ground. Pinching will shorten and strengthen the branches plus promote branching which is a good thing. More branches more fruit. The best thing about Sweetcrisp other then it's flavor is that you will not need to limit the amount of fruit buds in the spring like most all other Southern High Bushes. Stay on top of watering, give it a good hard prune after fruit harvest (for southern growers, northern growers may need to take a different approach) and be sure to tip new growth during the summer after the prune and your plants will be full and strong! Happy growing!!!!!

People would be wise to listen to what Rob (Blueboy) said, his instructions are dead on.  

With potted plants I do the same thing.....unpot them and take my reciprocating saw and take the bottom inch right off the soil ball.  Then I go down and take an inch off all 4 sides which turns the round rootball sort of square.  It gets rid of the circling roots.  Then you lop off at LEAST 1/4 and personally I take off 1/3 to 1/2 of the top of the plant and put her in the ground.  Leaving a plant with circling roots and a full top is the worst thing for the plant.  That is why I prefer the bareroot to the potted plants..bareroot have no circling roots and they firm up better and faster in the ground.  A lot of times with potted plants especially potted sweetcrisps is they get so tall so fast they need staked, just extra work.  

The plants are on the way folks, will send the tracking later today.  I am potting up sweetcrisps today as I have two rows where a tree is overhanging so no sense putting them in ground until the tree is taken care of.  Sometime this week have to go get the other half of the plants as half the order filled my freaking truck.  Those plants though are going to local folks.   I MAY have a few leftovers if I missed anyone but no promises and won't know till later in the week.

I've been gone so if anyone wants to send me 1 or 2 at a profit let me know. :)

Bob,

I will know Thursday if there will be a few leftovers or not.  Part of it depends on how many Indigos I can get. 

The tracking numbers went out last night, if anyone didn't get the number let me know.

I'd take an indigo or 2 also  :)

Yippee!
That was the fastest delivery ever!,

Huge plants, beautifully packed.
Wills, you are the Best-ia, indeed.
They are now back in pots awaiting Spring.

Thanks, Wills!,

Frank,

Odds are they will leaf out in a couple weeks.  If you can protect the new leaves do so, there is no reason to let them go dormant if you don't have to.  

Thanks Wills! They arrived yesterday in good shape. Just potted them up in 3 gallon pots. Up to 6 Sweetcrisp now. 4 mature plants and 2 up and coming! Life is great

Awesome thread, Wills!  Thanks for sharing your knowledge as well as the BBs, only wish I lived further south!