You're going to ... set fires between your blueberry plants? Man, that's dedication!

So, now that you're wiser, what are the latest budding cultivars? I still haven't bought any blueberries and likely won't until next year, but it behooves me to seek the advice of experts while I'm ignorant. :)

I have a few Berkeleys that are very nice and very pretty except they bud out about 2 weeks before the others. Duke, Bluecrop, Blueray, and Elliott seems to overlap quite a bit in budbreak, but this year I would say Blueray is the least far along, but just barely. Elliot is close. Duke is next and then Bluecrop. The buds don't break on a plant all at the same time. The flower buds nearer the ground and on less-healthy shoots break first. I think about 25% of my buds have not opened yet.

If I had to pick one best variety so far for me it would be Duke because the berries mature a week or so earlier. Blueray would get a slight nod over Bluecrop because it breaks bud slightly later for me thus far. Elliot would be 4th, but it is still really good, and the berries are late compared to the others so it extends the season into July.

All of these choices were based on OSU and other expert recommendations, and I think the advice really was great. I have a few others and they all have had more negatives than these main 4 that were recommended.

Unfortunately the temp plummeted from 33 to 25 between 5:00 and 7:00 here, so I may have lost some. I did my best though. Hopefully I saved a lot of them. It was tricky trying to get just enough but not too much radiant heat on them from the fires. I had a ton of wood lying around so I did not run out, but I was scrambling after about 5:30 when I could tell the grass was frozen and even the mud was freezing. I have about $1000 invested in these berries and it would have killed me to lose them all this first big year.