Sheri,I have several blueberry trees. I want to increase the number of trees so I can call it an orchard.:-)
I recommend that you keep pinching the buds off as you have been doing. Be patient,they'll begin to show signs of growth. Most likely they are setting their root system and getting establish. Blueberries love acid soil. If the soil
is alkaline,you can fertilize the plant and it will starve to death. That is how important acid soil is.
Mulch it really well. Pine needles work really well.
Azalea fertilizers is good for them.
Felix

Hi Felix,

Thanks for the reply. I have them planted in a pine bark, compost, peat moss mixture in large containers. I fertilized with azalia fertilizer at planting time and also mixed garden sulphur in the soil. I'm hoping we get enough chill hours here in zone 10 for them to set fruit. From what I understand, the Sunshine Blues do well in zone 10. They are getting blossoms (which I'll keep pinching off) so I guess that's a good sign they'll eventually set fruit.

Sheri :)

You might consider waiting until the flowers turn into fruit, then pick them off while immature. That will make it less inclined to quickly send out another flower stalk. They should stop anyways and go dormant soon and lose their leaves. Don't expect much to happen until after they break dormancy next spring. Don't allow them to hold anything but the smallest quantity (preferably none) fruit next year until they gain more size, to focus their energy on vegetative growth. I started my blueberry bed last November, so far, so good. Just augmented it with pine bark fines this weekend.

Gary