I can't answer your questions, but I do have one thing for you to think about. Many garden centers use Aluminum Sulfate to lower pH. It works, but it will eventually poison the soil. Blueberries can tolerate a fair amount of aluminum ion in the soil, but many other acid loving plants can't including my favorites, rhododendrons and azaleas. The harmless way to lower the pH is with sulfur powder or iron sulfate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Changing Soil Acidity for Rhododendrons

I looked at blueberry bushes in the White Flower Farm catalog this morning, but they were $36 for two... too expensive!

I like reading WWF and try to buy from them every once in awhile, but ouch... that's too much for mail order plants.

I only had one blueberry plant at my old house & it was a Blueray. It did great & I didn't do anything special to the soil.

Hi look for "blue crop" they seem to do well in Pa. They are also a large rather sweet berry also. I bought mine from a local buleberry farm last year. They were rather small plants and only cost me $7 each. But by June or July they had berries the size of my thumb. If you have a local "Pick your own" berry farm in your area you might want to ask if they have any plants you can purchase. They seem to be better then you average store quality and the prices are normally good.