|
Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 16:03
| Blueberries in the north are good ornamantal plants too. Very pretty in the fall. Here are my three Northern Highbush plants. Chandler Liberty Toro Plants have strawberries as ground cover, and that's raspberries behind them. My dog chewed Toro and Liberty to one stick each, but they came back decent, A little behind Chandler a bit in growth. |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
| I have 4 plants in pots. I bought all of them this spring from various vendors. Some color changes in them too, even though a couple are SHB. Sweetcrisp  Southmoon, Legacy, and Cara's Choice I will transplant the last 3 there into bigger pots once dormant. First year's growth was awesome! I used mycorrhizal fungi for blueberries in the pots. The last berries of the year from Chandler |
This post was edited by Drew51 on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 18:02
|
| I grow 16 northern highbush blueberries, but I do not have any of the bushes you mentioned. You must be someone special.... |
|
| All are fairly common except Sweetcrisp. But thanks! I have to move so i can't add any at this time, but 16 sounds about right! Congrats! I hope to have about that many one day. All different cultivars too. Southmoon and Sweetcrisp are Southern Hightbbush, the rest are northern, or probably northern. I thought Legacy was a SHB, but I saw a place that listed it as Northern. All are winter hardy to at least zone 6 except Sweetcrisp. I will winter in an attached garage. I hope one day to plant the others in the ground. But not till I move in about 3 years. I would like to add all wild types, low bush and half highs and also add Bonus, Hannah's Choice, Top Hat, Sunshine Blue, Sweetheart, Pink Lemonade, and Spartan. And I'm sure others as time passes. Oh Raz, the raspberry tasting blueberry. Well that already puts me over 16. I can't wait to move and add them. |
|
| Beautiful plants you have there Drew. NHB look truly spectacular in Autumn , pardon, Fall...It's a pity that where I live the fall color won't last long as it gets very windy every other day so that the leaves are stripped away. Here are some pics of what they looked like today : Berkeley |
|
| The rest of the gang : Duke, Goldatraube, Elliot and Northland |
|
| Another Berkeley |
|
| Thanks for sharing! Yesterday mine looked even more red. I should have taken more photos. Today the wind is up, and it's cold too. Autumn is used in these parts too. Yes some words are not, We use a flashlight here, not a torch. Torch to us are sticks on fire, or someone who likes to set fires. Or the guy from Fantastic Four. |
|
- Posted by rehaberman_s 5B (My Page) on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 10:43
| Nice. which one made the big fat berries? this year is my first fall with blueberry's and it was a nice surprise when they changed color. |
|
| That is Chandler, known for large berries. I think it is Darrow that also has large berries, but is restricted in this state. I heard it is a little better, but I thought Chandler produced awesome tasting berries myself! You have to make sure they are ripe, takes some time and hard to tell. I figured out that if any green where stem connects they are not ripe. Unripe berries are rather tart. Although I like them like that myself! Some in that handful were not fully ripe, but I cleared the bush of fruits as I was leaving for a week. Was the last harvest. It produced about 50 berries, but the plant is only 2nd leaf. Next year I expect more. It is far from mature and should produce more and more every year for a few more years. 6 or 7th leaf it should be full size. Here is a photo from today, light was not perfect, yesterday the light was awesome, wish I took a photo yesterday! If I had a better camera I could take better photos. If sun comes out the angle is so perfect it really lights up.  |
|
Toro lost many leaves the last couple of days, but Chandler and Liberty are still holding on. Liberty today, An MSU cultivar.  |
This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 11:29
|
| Hey Drew, I like the way you have your raised bed a sort of different boxes for each cultivar. I have a side of my garden where I grow raspberry , blackberry and blackcurrants in a long narrow rectangularish raised bed along the fence and I was thinking to add a few "boxes" to suit more BBs. Out of curiosity what's the ph of your native soil ? And what media do you use? Mine is very alkaline and clayish almost water proof. |
|
| We have pretty good native soil. But not for blueberries. PH is 6.5 (perfect for most plants). About 15 inches of a good clay loam, below that is 12 inches of pure clay. Below that is a sandy-clay mix. I know from digging 4 feet down to put posts in. The raised beds for the blueberries have pine bark fines and peat moss, and a very small amount of garden soil, bagged garden soil.. I add pine bark and a peat based compost yearly. Cover with pine straw. Sulfur was also added. In my pots I use pine bark, peat and diatomaceous earth about the size of regular perlite, sulfur, and other amendments mentioned. I collect rainwater and since the air is now pretty clean even in the Detroit area, the PH of the rainwater is 7.0. I use it straight, or add sulfuric acid until PH of water is 5.0. I ran out of acid, and will be buying more soon. So for now just straight rainwater. I store enough rain water for indoor plants in the garage over winter. About 100 gallons. In the spring and again in mid-summer I add an acidic organic fertilizer, like Holly-Tone, Cottonseed meal, or Micro-life acidic fertilizer. On the first of April and until August, once a month I fertilize with Ammonium sulfate. With all these amendments, and such, PH of soil is about 4.8-5.5. When it deviates I amend to correct using sulfuric acid Doing this for 2 years has kept PH steady. I did have to amend in the spring only. I noticed over winter it tends to slowly rise, so in the spring all water is at 5.0 or even lower to get to ideal PH. Here is a photo of Chandler from this summer
Here is a different view of my raised beds. the other beds have peat and purchased bagged garden soil. i also recycle old potting soil into them in the spring and add manure compost every fall or spring. Organic fertilizer, mineral supplements, and covered with leaves in the fall. I use the leaves now as a mulch, or pine needles if I run out of leaves. Leaves are shredded. |
|
I grow in pots too  Harvests are decent. About 60 raspberries a day A 2 day pole bean harvest |
|
Tomato harvests were crazy good this year   Strawberry daily harvests were great in June |
|
The peppers did well too.    |
|
- Posted by northwoodswis4 4a (My Page) on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 16:19
| We should call you "Count Drew," since you like to count your produce! Northwoodswis |
|
Someone asked how many daily. It's about 60, sometimes 80 on a good day. I already miss them and I picked my last crop yesterday! Only about 12. i wish i was more anal, I'm not very anal, my garden looks like a jungle! Kinda messy, much like myslef, clean! But messy! As is my house, look at all the junk on my counter in the previous post. Here's another view of my jungle!  |
|
| Great stuff Drew. You're garden/orchard is impressive considering that , at least from the pic, looks like is in the middle of a suburbia kind of place. The pics with the peppers and the tomatoes make me hungry and remind me of my childhood back in Italy. Also thanks for the infos re-Blueberry, I pretty much use the same media and feeding criteria minus cotton seed meal and holly-tone not available in Ireland, and sulfur is only sold in 10oz cans and is quite dear too. Thankfully AS is ready available and I use it once a month from May to late July , also I use a bit of iron sulfate twice a year and loads of coffee ground mixed with peat moss.I picked a few raspberry the other day , autumn bliss, and looks like if the weather dosen't get any colder I might have a few more whithin the next few days. As for rain water I got plenty of it , yesterday it rained 2 feet of water and there is more to come , much more I am afraid... Thanks for sharing pics and infos , I am a newy in berry growing , back in Italy , with plenty of sunshine and fertile soil I had no problem growing all sort of vegs. Thanks, Sal |
|
| Sal, great to meet you! Keep us updated on your garden. I'm done harvesting. But I have cleaning and covering up to do. I covered the strawberries today. And yes I live in the middle of suburbia. Turns out to be a great place to grow stuff. Nobody hardly grows any edibles so no pest pressure, no deer. It's amazing! The birds never seen this fruit living in suburbia and do not touch it. I love it! |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Fruit & Orchards Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here
