Hi Kev,
It's one I haven't grown,but is fairly popular.May I recommend getting another variety for better fruit production.The Patriot will produce on it's own,but one or more different ones in the vicinity will increase the amount.Brady

Hi Brady,
Thanks for the reminder. I was actually thinking of planting it near two huge, old, non-hybrid blueberry bushes that I have on my property. Think that will increase production, to have my hybrids close to open-pollinated plants ?

Thanks. Kev

I planted Patriot since 2009. It sets a lot of fruit every year but fruits are small. You may need to thin fruitlets to increase size. It tastes OK with some tartness to it. I happen to like blueberries that are sweeter than tart.

I also have Duke, Elliot, Toro, Bluejay, Blueray and Chandler.

Like Brady said, you should look into having different varieties. This will help with cross pollination which will increase production and help to extend the season.

Plan your planting rows well so you can convenient cover blueberry bushes. Without protection against birds (and squirrels), you may not have anything left.

Good luck.

Kev,
The Patriot blueberry is a little more acidic, but are typically larger for me. letting them ripen properrly will be key. Get rid of the twiggy flower buds growth in the winter as that has produced better canes. Duke would compliment them nicely with their sweet lower acid characteristic. I also love bluejay and guess they'd pollinate fine.
Expect the patriot to flower before Duke and keep away from low lying areas as the early-frost prone problems have caused this variety to fall out of favor in commercial plantings.
I'm considering putting these mid-height plants in 7gal containers.

Hi Kev -

I live in central Ohio and now grow all my blueberries in pots in a mixture of half peat moss, half pine mulch as described by backyardberryplants.com. I have had a lot of success with this method. I had no success in my highly alkaline soil even though it was heavily amended with peat moss. The blueberries lived but didn't grow or fruit much.

I bought a Patriot this year and wish I had more. Good-sized, tasty berries, very productive, extremely cold hardy (which is especially important when growing in pots). The fall leaves and the winter twigs are a lovely shade of red.

My Patriot is in a pot next to a Reka blueberry, which I also recommend.

Good luck with your blueberries!

Mary Kay

Consider Reka. At the beginning of the year we're happy to get whatever is around, but in all reality Duke is rather bland. Good luck.

Not one of my favorites but it's a good and large fruiting blueberry for its early season. I agree that it's more acidic than most.

It would seem foolish to use it as your only variety- much better to get blueberries for a couple of months or more than just for 3 weeks. Get some later varieties like Berkely and Elliot to extend your season.

Patriot are one of our most popular u-pick varieties. Large berries, slightly tart with good flavor. They are hardy (zone 4) and have a good upright non-twiggy growth habit that makes them easier to maintain. I would suggest Aurora as a late season variety. It has frost damage here some years but should be good for you. Here Patriot is mid-July, and Aurora is late August to early September.

Maybe,I did not feed my blueberry bushes enough. Comparing to other blueberries I grow. My Patriot fruit size is small. Both my Patriot and Duke set lots of fruit. Others are not as many. All are relatively young bushes.

This past summer was the first time I thinned the fruits. The remaining berries were definitely bigger.

Mamaung, misidentified plants sometimes occur no matter where they are ordered from.

H-man,

That could be. I admitted I took some short-cuts and bought a few potted blueberries.

I bought Patriot from Costco,Duke and Chandler from a local nursery. The rest I ordered from Burntridge. Chandler's berries were huge!!! Even if they (2 bushes) were not Chandler, I like the taste and the size!!

Many thanks to all of you gardening experts with my Blueberry question. . .now, just a few more questions to be answered and I'll be ordering my Blueberries on this 1st day of 2013.
In addition to the Patriot, I'm also going to buy these that many of you mentioned as being good: Duke, Reka, Blueray and Chandler.
Now just 2 more questions regarding these above varieties.

Question #1: How large are the berries on each of these?

Question #2: Of these above mentioned varieties, which do good in pots? (I'll be planting all of my Blueberry bushes in 7-gallon pots using a 50/50 mixture of peat moss and pine bark mulch nuggets as many of you suggested.)

Thanks and a Happy New Year to you.

Kev

Duke is quite large, Blueray, if my labeling is accurate, is medium.

What about Elliot? It is much later than the varieties you mention, isn't it? Why not add 3 weeks to your harvest window?

Thanks for the quick reply Harvestman....I had forgotten about Elliot. And yes, I definately don't want all ripening at once, I'll add Elliot and add almost a month to my window.
This aspect will be particularly good in my Zone 6 garden here in deep southern Illinois where, would you believe, we have such a long growing season that we OFTEN have daytime temps on the mid to upper 60s through the entire month of November!
Thanks again for the advice.

I've found that Elliot lasts longer during cool seasons when I've harvested them into mid-Oct, I think. The seasons we've had lately they hardly get into the first week of Sept- an earlier and shorter bearing period.

Elliott was incredible this year and a lifesaver due to it's late and profuse flowering. It's also 'reliably self-fertile'.
I ate them from mid august through mid september, but they usually hang on later than that. I also highly recommend Legacy since it'll ripen from early august though Elliott season. Blue Jay or sister Blue-crop. Both are fantastic, but BCrop gives you a longer season by bout a week.
Noogy
Good luck!

Chandler has one of the largest berries and one of the longest ripening seasons, too.

All mine are in the ground. I don't know how well blueberries in pot will do in zone 6. It can be very cold in my zone 6. Whatever you plan to do, I wish you great success.

I live in eastern Washington and we get some very hot winters and reasonably cold winter. A local grower that had about an acre of Patriots told me he took them out because they couldn't handle the sun. We typically get temps in the 90s through July, August, something to think about. Good luck!

RM

should read "...blue ray or sister BlueCrop"