Question about blueberries

[Richard]

We've got some blueberry bushes. This spring, they had a bazillion blooms on them and then the frost came and killed all the blooms.

Some told me we'd not have any blueberries but I looked yesterday at the plants and the berries have already started.

I personally don't know, but I've been told that if we have a dry summer the berries will be smaller than if we have a "normal" summer with regard to rainfall.

Can blueberries be watered TOO much?

What I'm wondering about doing... we've got a little trailer that has a 100 (maybe more??) gallon tank sitting on it. My understanding is my wifes uncle used it to carry water to his garden back when he kept a garden.

I was wondering about filling it up once a week or so, attach some kind of drip hose to it and lay the hose around the blueberry bushes so they'd get a good soaking every now & then.

I'm just wondering what the thoughts here are on doing something like that??

 

[Chuck52]

Blueberries! My next big planting project, next spring.

I don't know about over-watering blueberries, but your drip plan sounds like a good idea. I used a 55 gal barrel and some drip emitters in a garden hose to keep some fruit trees going when we had a dry spell a couple of years ago. If you use those emitters, or some other slow release system, you can probably just set and forget with the blueberry watering. Figure how many gallons per hour per emitter, and it may go for days, with the water going right where it's needed. How many plants do you have?

I'm putting in 10 blueberry bushes next spring, in two raised beds I've made. I'll acidify the soil late this fall, after growing veggies in the beds this summer, and get them ready for the blueberries. I plan to install soaker hose loops around each bush, covered by mulch. I have a hydrant close enough to run a hose to the beds, and I'll be able to easily water that way.

Chuck

 

[jimg]

Hi Richard
I also have BB which were caught by that frost and they do have a few berries which look like theyre coming right along. To my knowledge my plants havent been watered much (if at all) and theyre doing well exc do need a more acid soil. I think youre on the right track w/ the drip irrigator but I also wouldnt over do it either. Id add mulch also to hold the moisture in. Making sure the plants are well fed and correct soil conditions would be just as imporatant. Dry weather forces the plant to put down roots I think so I wouldnt judge it all on surface conditions.

 

[ToadHill]

Blueberrys are very shallow rooted so don't till around them. Mulch them and give them about 1" of water per week. With a good mulch base 1" will be plenty of water.

 

[sandman2234]

I transplanted over 130 blueberry bushes, the first 75 or so dug by hand back in 1985. I watered them from a flowing well and used live oak leaves to build up a mulch around them. Every year a cousin would rack his leaves and I would haul as many bags as I could haul on a p/u. I have been known to leave the well running and flooding the area around the blueberries, but it never hurt them. Plus I planted them in the lowest part of my property. I moved and leased out the property, and the blueberries died from lack of water one dry summer. Some of the larger ones were dug with a 3 yard loader and were 25 years old at the time I acquired them. A couple were transplanted to my inlaws, and they are still putting out berries to this day.
Daddy started growing them in Arkansas and his don't get nearly as much water as mine did.
I don't think a hundred gallons is going to hurt them once a week.
My wife started a new career in Ophthalmology as the result of me moving those blueberry bushes.
David from jax

 

[Egon]

Are you talking low bush or high bush bluberries?

 

[sandman2234]

Mine were sometimes higher than my head by a couple of feet. My wife got a new career by me poking a branch in my eye as I turned away from the one I was unloading. A very painful experience, although she liked her job.
David from jax

 

[Simpleman]

We also lost all of our Blueberries dued to a early frost. I just looked at ours and no berries . We have over 200 plants . What the frost didnt get the drought did.