Dale:

Most people use bigger pots but I'm headed in the direction of 5 gallon. I'll keep the plants about 3ft tall by 2ft wide and expect 3-5 lbs per plant per year.

This past year I harvested 15 and 18 lbs off two 7 year old plants in 15 gallon pots. Here's one of those a Star.

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The same plant after pruning.

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A one year Sweetcrisp in a 5 gal pot.

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Then a 15 gal pot would be sufficient for the long haul? Is bigger better? Beautiful plants!!!.

Dale

Bigger probably is better but my back gets weaker every year. I'm going with more smaller plants. It's so much easier to move them around. Even with a light weight blueberry mix, a 15 gal pot gets heavy.

I did put the Sweetcrisp in a 12 gallon pot after harvest this year. My reason was the fruit is sensational and I want all I can get next year.

I now have 15 new Sweetcrisp in 5 gal pots. That's where they'll stay.

I'm probably getting more Sweetcrisp this fall. They'll start and stay in 5 gal.

what are you using for your mix?

This is a good video on youtube about plants in pots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3TzYSn3_s8&feature=related

Here is another good one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw2g-ETb2mA

My plants are in 15" pots mostly but I also have some in wine barrels that are doing wonderfully!

The soil you use is very important! Make sure you use an acid mix or your plants will not thrive.

RM

My mix is coarse, wood-based compost and spaghnum peat moss. It drains very well.

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Could you be more specific on the wood base portion of the mix

Dale

Composted rat bedding which is wood shavings and rat excrement. Not something you can easily duplicate. Go to the container forum and read about the 5-1-1 mix for blueberries. You should be able to find past threads on that subject.

Fruitnut, a related question about your fertilization again. You mentioned before that too much fertilization may promote stem blight and that may have killed a few of your blueberries. Did the blight start at the top of the stems because you have to top them or do you also have cases where the blight started at or below the soil line?

The reason I'm asking is that I can usually deal successfully with the occasional blight that starts at a cut by pruning again at a lower level. But this time, I just saw some blight on one of my potted plants that seemed to have started below the soil line. I'm trying to decide whether that's related to the fertilzation it received or not.

Thanks.

tc:

Mine all started down low. Or at least it seemed that way. I've not seen any that appeared to start at the tips, well maybe one case. But I'm not sure that was stem blight and I cut the tip off.

All my stem blight has so far been one batch of plants from one nursery that I ordered in spring 2010. The first thing I notice is leaves start to dry up on a branch. I cut that as low as possible and the stem appears dead on one side. So the disease is lower than I can cut out, down in the crown and often comes back on more limbs weeks or months later.