NO, don't even think about it. Plants flower this time of year because they are happy and well fed:) It is a sign you took good care of them. Emerald is one of the worst for the fall flowers. If it was my plant I would remove the flowers. Mine put out flowers also this time of year but the berries never are any good and all it does is suck energy out of the plant that could be used in the spring. If you get rid of those buds mature buds will swell that will produce in the spring.

I am in zone 9 also but I fertilize till the middle of October. Not sure why your source said to stop in August.

Thanks for the reply Bamboo, I have been removing 98% of the flowers and buds that have broke. I left about 10 or so flowres that have started to swell into berries just out of curiosity. Alot of the buds have swelled but havent broke and thought for sure they would so i assume this is normal for emerald and these swelling buds will break in Feb and produce berries this spring? If so i should have plenty of friut.

I quit fertilizing in Aug because the fert. I use feeds for 3 months so it should be finished up in Oct. i thought i fertilized to late so u cleared that up for me. Thanks again for your help. Im sure i will have more questions soon.

Blueboy,

Spent the morning preparing a new bed for 25 more sweet crisps and added 10 more 3 gallon Jewels Friday. The joys of the south, 80 degrees at the moment lol.

The Emeralds over produce anyway so don't feel bad for ripping those flowers off as some thinning should be done anyway. Absolutely 100% normal on quite a few varieties, my emeralds are flowering also. Yes those swelled buds will stay until spring and don't be surprised if a few more you thought were leaf buds swell and become flower buds.

The reason for stopping the fert is you don't want to trigger a late flush which would not be hardened off and could be damaged in the winter. On some varieties that late flush and subsequent die back is very bad as it leaves a wound that allows the blight to get in. You will always get some late growth anyway and for some reason quite often fall is when the older bushes will but out new canes from near or at their bases.

Man i wish my wife would let me turn my yard into a blueberry farm like yours! I assume u like Windsor? Ive been wanting to try 1 of those and also Jewel to see how they grow here. Since i have your attention i want to pick your brain alittle.

1. My Sunshine is absolutly loaded with fruit buds. How do u prune that variety. Its got a ton of small wood but then again all the wood is small on this variety with alot of shoots at the base.

2. Do u have any experience with strawberries in zone 9? i have close to 50 or so plants that i pulled all the flowers off. My question is what to do with them over winter.Should i cut all the leaves off and cover with hay or just leave them alone?

On another note i was digging around on youtube and found a guy in china or something who does some cool stuff with blueberries. He has a bunch of rabbiteyes and highbush. Type in fukuberry in the search engine and check him out. He grafted tiftblue on to spartan root stock and shows how to graft buds onto other plants. I was impressed!

Blueboy,

It does not take that much space for 100 BB plants. I love Windsor, in my opinion it is the prettiest bush of them all. I have some that are 9 years old.

I have 9 sunshine blues that have been in the ground since March of 2010. Mine are about 3-4 feet tall and have grown great. They are a smaller finer stemmed plant for sure. They are supposed to be more shrubby and I wish mine would shoot more from the base as I would like them to be more of a hedge. I may have to plant more of them to fill in the gaps. My fault...spaced them too far apart. I really have not pruned mine much. It all depends how you want it to look. I want mine to look more shrubby as they are along the front of the house. How long have yours been in the ground?

Sorry I have never grown strawberries. Here we have 50 acres of strawberries just a mile or two up the road so have never bothered.

Those are very interesting clips. His pruning video really showed how they should be done. The grafting was cool as well.

Blueboy,

I noticed that the Urban Harvest Fruit Sale price list this year includes Windsor. They also say they'll have Emerald and Sweetcrisp. If you had to pick just one for our area, which would you suggest? I'm hoping to make it to the sale this year (it always falls on my kid's birthday weekend, unfortunately) and plan to pick up a second highbush.

julia:
Just my opinion but if you have the chance you really need to try Sweetcrisp. Emerald will probably yield twice as much and is more precocious. But the fruit of Sweetcrisp is much better IMO. I'll take a lb of Sweetcrisp over two lbs of Emerald any day.

With Emerald you'll need to think about controlling crop load. It sets too much fruit for my liking. That can lower already only fair/good eating quality.

With Sweetcrisp no worry about over setting fruit. The fruit is amazingly crunchy and sweet compared to all other blueberries I've tried and that's been quite a few.

Hey Julia, Froburgs is out of blues. I went this past weekend and they will re-up Jan/Feb. If i were u I would get all 3. Plus a couple extra sweetcrisp because they dont put out a whole bunch of fruit but the quality is outstanding. I have 2 Emeralds and they r doing great. The 3 sweetcrip i have are tiny, like 6 to 8 inches tall tiny so i cant really comment on that variety yet. I just got them last month so by next summer I will know. I dont see any reason why they wont grow just fine. From what ive read about Windsor they should do fine also. I plan getting a couple my self. I really dont think u could go wrong with any of them. Emerald will large crops in a couple years, Sweercrsip has high quality but not alot of fruit, and Windsor should have large crops also and Bamboo says they are gorgious plants to boot. Get all three;)

Hey Bamboo, i forgot to answer your question on my Sunshineblue. I got the plant last Feb as a 2 yearold potted plant and put it in a 15 gallon pot. I pulled all the flowers and berries off then in aug i had to cut the top 5 inches or so off of every branch due to thrip damadge. The plant still put on what i cut off but offcouse it branched alot after prunning. Its about 3ft tall and 3ft wide and thick as it wants to be! There is so many branches i dont even know where to start. I was thinking about trimming all the branches in the interior of the plant and leaving the tops of all the major stems to fruit. I guess there really is no wrong way to trim as long as i severly thin the crop load?

Alright, so I think I'll try to pick up at least and Emerald and a Sweetcrisp or two. I'll need to look into the Windsor more. Hmm. My planned second row of blackberries is losing space...

I'm curious if anyone knows anything about a blueberry called "Elliot". I know there's a northern highbush called Elliot, but one of the more reputable nurseries here (Buchanan's in Houston) carries an Elliot blueberry they describe as "the native blueberry in our area". The foliage looks nothing like the rest of the rabbiteyes and southern highbushes I've seen - much finer, lacier, and less green. I didn't turn up anything with a google search. Anyone know what this is?

Also, Blueboy, I realized I never answered your thrip question on the previous thread. I look at your link describing thrip damage, and no, I didn't have any trouble with it this year. Like I said, lots of them on my blackberries and roses, though. Maybe those acted like a trap for me? I don't know...

Huh. Well, I just did a google search for "Elliott's Blueberry" and found a whole lot of information. I must have searched for "Elliott" instead of "Elliott's" before. I guess it's Vaccinium elliottii, also known as Mayberry.