I'd say even on Sweetcrisp no flowers is very unusual if they are growing OK. They don't go biennial like some fruits. Last summers new shoots should have set fruit buds last fall. Are you sure they didn't get frozen off at some point?

That may be possible fruitnut.The temps went to about 15F a couple of times last Winter,but I have a number of other Southern Highbush that have a lot of flowers now. Brady

I have two Sweetcrisps that are potted and they had blooms this year but they arrived too early (February) and then just fell off. I had tried to over winter them outside but then brought them into my garage mid-winter during a bad cold spell and then left them inside. I guess they had already met their chill hours and then decided to bloom. No berries this year on them. I may just leave them out all winter next year, since they serve little purpose to me without fruiting.

jt:

Sweetcrisp needs another variety or two for cross pollination and some insects to get the job done. In my greenhouse with 10 other varieties and no bees Sweetcrisp sets about 5% of it's flowers.

Those Columbia Star blackberries are kicking into gear and sending up a strong shoot. I'm planning on berries next year!! I wish blueberries were as easy to grow and fruit.

"Those Columbia Star blackberries are kicking into gear and sending up a strong shoot. I'm planning on berries next year!! I wish blueberries were as easy to grow and fruit."

Mine is just kinda waiting for it to get warmer, not doing much. Because of the double digit cold, many of my blackberries were damanged. A lot more than i thought at first, Really disappointing. On the other hand the blueberries were hardly hit and I expect a big crop. The NHB seem to love that cold weather! I had a few tips dies on one blueberry plant, but it still has ton's of flower buds. The other 2 have no damage at all.
Now the raspberries are just going crazy. Wow, they are the easist thiing to grow here ever! Yeah no fruit buds left on any of the fruit trees, but all are alive at least.

Drew:

Sorry to hear you've no fruit buds left on your trees. That's a bummer!! It does point out however one of the reasons why MI is and will remain well behind CA in tree fruit production. TX is even further behind despite having better soils and land that costs 1/10 as much!! Homeowners can cope with losses here and there. Commercial growers not nearly as much.

I'm still waiting for my first Sweetcrisp berry too. Granted, my growing season is much shorter. This is the third year with mine too. My other SHB which is a Farthing is kicking into gear and has lots of flowers.

Fruitnut,

What is strange is we are the 6th most productive peach state on average. I guess not this year! One year we were 2nd, the south had problems, so we beat all the southern states that year.
Going back to subject I now have a sweetcrisp, if it wants to bloom early I may need to get rid of it, It seems we best stick to fruit that grows well in our area. I'm still going to try though. I mean they call it gardening, not harvesting! :)
I like to garden, failures help one learn.
Also just for clarity, my cherries are OK, just the peaches.
I didn't expect many anyway, next year will be a good peach year! My trees will be that much more established.
My blackberries are a puzzle, they looked OK, but then a number of canes just died. It may not be weather related? I'm not sure what happened? Ironic in the sense the trailing ones, I was most worried about, all are OK, go figure...

I have about a dozen blueberry plants but thought rabbiteye's were the only ones that were not self fettle. By the way, my tifblue blueberry plants survived -7F and are blooming now. I'm hoping my pink lemonade blueberry will pollinate them since it is half rabbiteye. My Columbia star blackberries are growing but not as fast as some of the others like boysenberry and siskyou.

If I recall correctly Tifblue are self fertile.

Bradybb, wish I had an answer for you. Do you mind letting us know what you did/paid to get your Sweet Crisp BB bushes? I got an email from Amazon last week for Sweet Crisp High Bush Blueberry for $42.00! Does that sound even close to reasonable? I've never seen this bush locally,

Not to detour anyone's sense of adventure or exploration, but this is why I'm not a fruithunter and why I stick with what I can find easily, cheaply and with what is known to work well locally.

mrclint,
I bought them a couple years ago from Mail Order Natives for $10 each plus shipping.They are out of them right now,but said they are growing more and may have some this Fall. Brady

$42.00 is too high and a rip off. So stop hunting! :)

I myself enjoy a challange, you tell me I can't grow, then I'll have to buy it. I grow many tropical plants, unusual plants. Not just edibles. This year I added a jasmine hybrid, I love those plants.I have three cultivars, many exist. A black pepper vine. Some variegated dogwoods. I have three species of elderberries. I love plant hunting! I'm growing plants from Peru, Spain, South Africa, Guam, China, Japan, Italy, and Mexico. It's fantastic, and so much fun!
Here's a 2 year old Orange Habero tree. Some peppers can be overwintered and will grow into trees. This is not my plant. I want to overwinter smaller ornamental peppers. But I may grow this one, I have seeds from this plant. The grower sent me some.
{{gwi:97142}}

Many peppers can be turned into trees here's a 7 pot brain strain .

Anyway sorry to be off subject, I just wanted to comment on how I live to plant hunt. I'll never stop!
{{gwi:97144}}

I myself want to overwinter one tall pepper and that is the starfish. They can grow to about 6 feet and live for about 10 years. I have 2 of them growing this year (from seed), and will overwinter the better plant. Here's the fruit...
{{gwi:97146}}

These are good examples of plant hunting. I have many peppers and tomato seeds from cultivars you can't buy online. The orange tree habanero is a rather rare pepper.
You can find it, if you hunt deep enough. Getting it from the grower was free! He also sent red habanero tree seeds, I have not seen that anywhere. So I'm beyond buying online, looking for cultivars only available from collectors. A lot like scion wood, minus the viral infections.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, May 6, 14 at 1:03

I have about a dozen blueberry plants but thought rabbiteye's were the only ones that were not self fettle. By the way, my tifblue blueberry plants survived -7F and are blooming now. I'm hoping my pink lemonade blueberry will pollinate them since it is half rabbiteye. My Columbia star blackberries are growing but not as fast as some of the others like boysenberry and siskyou.

Brady,

Sorry to pull up an old thread, but how did they do in 2015? Did you experience the same thing? I was considering on getting some Sweetcrisps myself.

They did get a fair amount the past Summer.I'm not sure what went on the previous year.

Where's your source?I think Just Fruit & Exotics may have some plants. Brady

Okay, good to know.

A person named "helloorganics" is selling it on ebay. He has good reviews, but I don't know if they're truly sweetcrisps. Anyone has experience with this seller?

No,I've never heard of "helloorganics".I tried in the past though,a couple of times to get some on Ebay from different sellers,but they weren't Sweetcrisp.Also Florida Hill Nursery was a bad choice.Is there really a hill in Florida? LOL Brady

If it's your decision to buy them on Ebay,please post the outcome here,whether they are the real thing or not.The fruit will be your telling answer.

I got mine at Just Fruits & Exotics , and it's the real deal. I added Indigocrisp too.

They have sweetcrisp for $11.99, but postage will get you! Sweetcrisp is not the best grower and many of us have high hopes for Indigocrisp, we shall see...

I went with ebay, fingers crossed. I'll post pictures to get your guys' assessment, I'll try to remember to get some pics at the end of the summer to follow up.

Yes, Sweetcrisp is unique looking, so yeah once it's a little bigger we should be able to tell you. They have a unique grow habit.

Following up on this, I just got the delivery today and here's what they look like, does this look right? Or is it too young to tell?

These plants are quite small and my nights are dipping to about ~36, is it safe to put them outside? My plan is to bring them out during the day (low 40s) and back inside during the night (60-70s). I'm just being conservative seeing how small these guys are and I'm not sure what I can safely subject them to. Thoughts?

Yes slowly expose to sunlight during the day. Keep them in the shade a week. Then an hour or two for a couple days, then 3 hours etc. In your zone they can probably be planted outside, but you may want to wait till the spring. The garage may be better this winter. Sometimes though the garage is worse for potted plants. It's your call. I have had bad luck fall planting. Mine is kept in the garage although I'm in zone 6a/5b. it is too cold for them in ground here. Where does it come from? If Florida, or the south, I would not plant outside till spring. Don't expect fruit next year, or if one or two, it may not be very good till the following year. I removed all buds the first year myself. Zone pushing this plant here, i wanted the plant to work on it's root system. I should get a decent crop next year.

Anyway mine is like a year and a half old, and was the size of yours when i got it.

The Chandler plant is 3 years old. It produces well, although it is a northern plant, it is not really for your zone.

Here are some berries from Chandler, they are huge!

That delivery was pretty quick.I only can tell by the fruit,to be sure.Hopefully they are.

They need some chill hours,between 32-45F,about 300 for Sweetcrisp.I'd not bring them back into 60-70 and then in the 40's.They can take some cold,just don't let the roots freeze.Maybe put them in a fair size pot,2-3 gallon of Pine bark and peat moss and put them outside,sheltered or in a cold garage. Brady

I noticed on sweetcrisp the canes are what I would call wispy, they are thin and droopy. I have never seen another blueberry plant like that. I only have one other Southern Highbush, Southmoon. It looks more like my Chandler. Classic blueberry form. I can't confirm you have sweetcrisp either, although so far it sure looks like one. The fat rounded leaves too are characteristic of Sweetcrisp.

Sorry didn't respond. Yes, the delivery was quick, it was via USPS, so it could have been much slower.

I've potted them up to whatever I have available, that ranges from 1 gal to 5 gal. They are in pine bark, peat, and perlite. Should I mulch with sawdust if they are potted?

I'll get you guys pictures at the end of the season next year, hopefully they're SCs.

I never use sawdust for anything.Usually straight Pine bark mulch or nuggets on top or really nothing is needed.I think larger pieces of wood on top may help in the Summer to hold in more surface water in a pot.By the way,Lowes carries the Greensmix brand of Pine bark.I like to mostly use the small nugget size,in the mix.The bigger ones,large nuggets or (extra large nuggets?)is what I'd try on top in the heat.

Where is your location in Washington?

Brady

My previous message was rushed so I'll respond more thoroughly here.

I've used sawdust on my Spartan that's in the ground and it's really thriving, I just don't know if it'll have the same benefit as the potted ones being this young. Also, my potted 15gal Jersey has about 3-4 inches of sawdust and the roots are growing like crazy right into the sawdust. I didn't know Lowes carried bark, I'll check it out the next time I'm there. I've been going to sawdustsupply.com (South Seattle) for their aged, fine bark up to now and it appears to work. I might try the large nugget for mulch this time, maybe even do A/B testing since I have 4 plants roughly the same size :). Doubt I'd get enough data points for it to be statistically significant.

I am in North Seattle, Ravenna area just north of U-District. You?

@drew
It really does look like your plant, just a smaller size. I also found 4 tags that says "Sweetcrisp", the patent number, and in little print saying that it's illegal to propagate. Man, those Chandlers look amazing!

What ever is working to grow your other Blueberry plants,should do well for the new ones.It sounds like they are Sweetcrisp more all the time.

I'm in Redmond. Brady

Ah, the wrong side of the lake :). Like you mentioned though, I can only be certain when there are fruits.

The reason I used sawdust was because of the acidity, however it makes watering a problem once the top layer becomes dry. It creates a crust that would direct the water to the low spots, which results in uneven watering. After doing further research, bark should give the same level of acidity but doesn't form a temporary non-permeable crust. There's also less compaction with bark.

The research also brought up this link, http://umaine.edu/blueberries/factsheets/production/mulching-to-improve-plant-cover/, which indicated that bark was more effective in helping rhizome spreading (in lowbush blueberry). Not sure how that transfers to highbush, but it's gotta be positive (opinion).

I had put them in my shed and the frost in the past couple days have done a number on them. The tip of the branches are starting to brown and are probably dead. I think I have two options right now:

1. Wait it out and hope that I gave them enough pot prevent the roots from freezing.

2. Bring them inside and get a small grow light until early spring.

Any recommendations?

How big is your shed?Is it possible to put a small space heater with a thermostat and maybe a fan to keep the inside temperature above freezing a little,until this cold weather goes away?Even 33F will make a difference and shouldn't cost a lot.

That's what I'm doing in a small greenhouse with young plants.Just enough heat to bring it above 32F.

Another option may be,to put them in very small pots and keep them in a refrigerator.That's just about the perfect temp for them.

I guess they could be made to grow now under lamps,as we've had a fair accumulation of chill for about a month.

It's okay if they lose their leaves,just as long as their central stalk and roots are alive. Brady

The shed is big, but it's not possible to have a space heater because I don't have power. I had plan on doing that in the next couple of summers or so.

I only have room for 2 small pots in my fridge, so I've put two in there. The other two remained in big pots (~3 - 5 gallons) and I added about another inch or so of bark on top. I've been checking the frost and it seems to only have reached the top inch or so. I'm hoping that the roots were untouched.

Only the top two or so inches of the tips were affected. The central stalks appear to be healthy still, fingers crossed. Thanks for the tips, I'll remember the refrigerator option next time.

I received my sweet crisp plants from "helloorganics" on eBay yesterday. Mine doesn't look like the photo ankkiet shared. My plants are more narrow and upright and have red leaves on top. Perhaps I got a mislabeled batch. :(

dynodeb,

I recently bought some also and mine look something like yours.They don't look too much different than anhkiet"s.To me though,the proof will be the fruit. Brady

Thanks Brady. Happier now.

Is pine needle mulch or pine bark mulch the better option? Especially for containers?

Dan,
I'd use Pine bark if available.Some growers use it without anything else to grow Blueberries in,while the needles don't provide much acidic value. Brady

Hm, my last post somehow didn't make it.

To recap, I got these plants last year and this is one season's worth of growth up here in Seattle. These plants, probably Sweetcrisps, have rough leaves. They feel dry and not waxy like my northern high bushes.

The growth was good this year though I didn't take care of them as well as I could have. I think the longest canes/branches are around 3ft. It's now getting cool here in Seattle (60s - 70s) and they're still trying to put out new growth. Some pictures.

December '15 when I bought them off of Ebay:

Mid august, right most pot is 7.5 gallon:

Some close ups:

Yep definitely Sweetcrisp! They look healthy.