Hi cody,

Oh wow, it does sound like it's gonna cost you a small fortune to set up a blueberry plant. Why is everything so expensive in your area though? Are you living in the middle of no where? Most rural places have pretty cheap pinebarks, plants and gardening supplies for sale.

I have done the maths and it costs me about $25 to set up a blueberry plant in a container. $18 for the plant (2 yo), $10 for a new 5 gallon plastic pot and $10 for a bag of acid potting mix (8 gallons, splitting into half, 4 gallons per plant).

At the moment, I have 25 blueberry plants and collected 19 different varieties. 4 rabbiteyes, 7 southern highbush and 8 northern highbush. Like you, i'm very tempted and thinking of adding a few more blueberry plants to my backyard. Collecting and growing Blueberries have become an obsession!

Since your blueberries aren't doing great in the garden bed, why not dig them up and pot them? They're more resilient than you think, just give them the right ph soil and they'll bounce back in no time. Don't leave them there to die. It's so distressing to hear that!

I think you may be able to acidify the composted wood chips, i don't see why that wouldn't work. Maybe try mixing them with a some elemental(agricultural) sulfur and test it in 4 to 6 weeks time and see if the ph has gotten lower? You could lower the ph gradually over time and stop once the ph is within 4 to 5 range.

Once you have mixed in the sulfur, make sure that your composted woodchips stay moist, don't let it dry out. The bacteria require a moist environment to break down the sulfur. Since you won't be needing it until next year, there's plenty of time for the composted woodchips to turn acidic.

I think that's the route I'm going try, I will work on acidifying the mulch now. Maybe I can find a cheaper source of pine bark in the mean time. If I remember correctly the stuff I got is Shultz brand.

As for the blues in the ground im going to reamend their soil and baracade it off from the native soil, making a big spot for each at ground level. Probably 15 gallons worth of.space for 8 blues, plus potting up 3 new ones convincing my wife that I need the potted ones because the others might not make it = more blueberry plants in the end.

I figure if I wanted to buy the Shultz brand I'd need 5 or 6 bags of the stuff for each blueberry for a 15 gallon pot....

If you're in 4B, that's going to really limit the types of blueberry plants you can get, unless you're willing to move them around in pots. Potted blueberries can do pretty good. You can control the pH and winters.

If you really want them in ground, why not try a simple raised bed? It'll be easier to maintain the pH, and cheaper than huge amounts of soil.

I started adding ammonia sulfate crystals every time I water my blueberries. This lowers the pH and adds nitrogen. They're growing really well.

I've got about 20 bushes now, and moved all of them from ground to pots for easier growing and harvesting. The exception is 2 huge tiff blue bushes that are too big.

edit: I used cheap potting soil mixed with maybe 1/3 peat moss. I'm sure there's better ways to do it, but this was very cheap and it's working just fine with lots of blueberries.

Samsaraedu, are those carmine jewel cherries? What do you think of the flavor for fresh eating? I know someone who wants to pot the Juliet but I wasn't sure how it would do long term. Still waiting for my Bush cherries to start producing. Maybe next year. I have all of them but the Valentine and Cupid. Got to try one Romeo this year and it was good less tart than other sour cherries which is good but lacking in flavor, but just tried one so not a good test.

I may need to check some more stores for the pine bark sounds like if the stuff I found was over priced. I stopped looking when I found this stuff at the 3rd store.

Good eye, I had Carmine but it failed last spring, those are Romeo and they taste great. I really couldn't tell the difference between them as long as I let them get as dark as possible before picking, kind of 1 step short of store black cherries. We ate and never made it to a pie. Wish I could get another to replace, but I dont see deals on them anymore. Juliet should do fine in a container especially staying so small even if you have to root prune in a few years, you're not wrestling a beast. I have mine in a plastic wine barrel from Big lots. As long as I move it to the side of yard with wind break it doesnt mind the snow or if we have -20F wind chill. They're short & easy to cover with garden fleece in winter and net for fruit in summer. Once mine hits 5ft I'll move it to a blue barrel.

My first blueberries are for your zone, since I thought potted I would need to be more cold tolerant to ensure they made it thru winter. But they are all very resilient from my Burgundy to Sunshine blues. What variety did you get?

Growing on a budget is possible for just about any fruit if you're creative with containers or discount bins and compare prices for your mix. As long as you have a place to store big bags you can score enough supplies to last a season or 2 of multiple plantings and up-potting and keep costs way down too. Walmart and Home Depot like throwing things on discount tables, during season $20 but in Aug/Sept $1-2 to get it out the door.

I don't think my one Romeo cherry was ready, it wasn't nearly as dark as yours. I picked it maybe 2 days after turning red because I was worried a bird might grab it. I know your supposed to wait a while, but I've waited 3 years or so to try one of these cherries and couldn't risk a bird getting the first taste lol.

For blueberries I have a northsky, Polaris, kabluey, jersey, and 4 blue crop in the ground. Getting by but not flourishing, not even a handful of blueberries this year on their 4th year. I potted a patriot this year, which really made me think about potting a bunch more with it being $80 for one. I plan to pot the polaris, northsky and jersey next spring plus i might buy a couple chippewa to pot and maybe a reka. The ones i leave in ground im planning to replace a large amount of the soil they are in...

Everybody gets nervous with the first blush. If it catches our eye, the animals already knew last week.The only way not to "share" is declare war sometimes.

I think mine turned red but disguised in lime green organza bags for another 7-10 days to get darker and sweeter.

Its taken me a while since the first crop of cherries to eat any (1st year experimental picking at different color stages. 2nd yr worms in almost all, 3rd yr birds 99 - me 1. I decided no more open to the elements tree which is why I'm glad for dwarf size. Now 4th year of fruit, I did the works - when pea sized tied bunches in organza bags then bird-X drape on front of an old soccer goal as a net "cave" and hung tanglefoot traps around yard for all fruit trees. No worms, no birds, lost a few to heat wave couple weeks back but enough for us to eat and sweeter since I was able to leave on tree for maximum flavor development.

The photo with my thumb is a Patriot, I just picked today and they got even bigger. It definitely lives up to quarter sized fruit claims. $20 local loaded with fruit, left in pot til picked then transferred. Northsky is great for potting and Polaris and Kabluey should be too but I know a friend who struggles with his Jersey and Kabluey in ground no matter how much amends.

If the current ones are past flowering stage and there's no fruit dont wait to pot. If they get in good mix now they will take up nutrients and have plenty of time to develop good roots and branches and harden off for winter to fruit properly next year since they are old enough.

samsaraedu, what are you using for a mix for your potted cherry? what is your yield like so far? I had a carmine jewel in a wine barrel, using store potting mix with some extra pine fines mixed in. did really well for 2 years then suddenly died think maybe over watered. I'm starting out a new Juliet this year trying to avoid the same mistake.

Drainage is the key since they will have winter snow and ice on them. Lots of holes in bottom and sides of container for air flow. My blues love it with a piece of Better Than Rocks in bottom, the Burgundy grew 3x size in one season. Its filled the barrel almost 3ft across (going to be propagated for additional plantings this year). I think thats why Carmine is gone. I thought I would "decorate" and transferred from proper container to ceramic large planter and not only altered the freeze/thaw cycles but drainage and air.

I went a little intricate with my mix but not expensive since I had to pot 3 blues, 1 cherry and a cranberry. The Dr Earth Acid lovers mix isnt available here anymore, it was my base to help me with ph concerns since I was a noob, plus lots of added peat, perlite, turface, grit and crushed pine bark and made it really loose. Started in April with the "pre-fab" blues etc., the Carmine cherry was a whip that looked like a short brown straw. I had blueberries picking that July then transplant and fruit next year no problem while the cherry got girth as well as height. Success made me add more stuff. The Romeo got the best mix formula and was bigger than Carmine in a year even though younger. Each year I add a little soil acidifier and couple of tablespoons berry ferts or a little compost they have all gotten better.

Most cherries I've picked so far was worm year with 3 & 4yr old trees got almost 3qts from Romeo & Carmine that birds didnt get, but wasted as I pitted for pie and saw them infested. I never did find out what they were but It made me invest in organza bags and netting. I lost a lot of flowers this year with 80F in Feb then snow in March and constant wind storms. But since now only 1 tree gave a over a qt of the darkest, sweetest yet, I'll just make sure to provide wind break next year and net sooner.

So I just got back from a pine bark hunt as I saw the free mulch i could get is kinda big for a potting mix. We checked lowes, Menards, home depot, Lewis and the biggest non chain nursery around. Zero luck. Ive looked at all the labels as i kmow it can be called a number of things. The closest thing I found was forest bark i think it was called but didnt say what type of tree it was from... Anyone know of a cheap place to order this stuff from? Also, when do the annual plants such as blueberries go on sale during the summer? Home depot had probably 15 chippewa left but were not on sale yet... might buy a few from there if they go half off sometime this summer...

If you go to Agway website enter your zip. They go by many names such as EBS Building Supply store in ME or horse & chicken feed/purveyor as I had here in NY at Chestnut Vale.

Here's a reference to the bag I got for $6. Didnt have in stock but order took a week.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1469647/mike-finally-bought-bark-fines-from-agway?n=5

Also had poultry grit and turface cheaper than I got on Amazon, cant remember perlite or peat since I got at Home Depot (Vigoro 2cu ft perlite for $16 and Premier Brand peat moss 3cu ft bale in green and white bag $9) they last me a whole season of planting veggies and up potting trees.

Talk to workers at HD since they know sales or when plants are discarded/abandoned by season change cycle and out in dumpster. Some Walmarts, Costcos and Bjs sell too. I got my Tophat/Northsky free w/discount shipping for $3 and 2 Premier highbush free w/ship total $8.

Hi cody, i was doing some research for mulching blueberries and came across this article which is very interesting. It says fine mulch is bad for plants and is water repellant.

I think you might want to have a look at it since you're mixing/creating your own mulch for your plants.

https://www.ozbreed.com.au/articles/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-mulch/