How to Grow a Blueberry Bush

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Ok, thanks so much for all the info on the varieties and I will make a raised bed thanks. I will look for the Montgomery. Should I try a 350 chill hour plant when I am in the 800 chill hour zone? I don't know if I should try early blooming ones or not because lately we keep getting a late frost that won't even let our fruit trees set their blooms.

 

[Arielle]

YOu bring up an interesting question CHickadoodles. I too have had latest frosts and cooler weather in to the spring. Flowering fruit trees and bushes can be a real challenge.

 

[vehve]

How is this chill hour calculated? I took a stab at it, if looking at daily mean temperatures, we get about 2900 hours of below 0 deg C (32 deg F), or about 4300 hours of below 10 deg C (50 deg F).

 

[chickadoodles]

vehve that sounds like a lot of cold. lol

 

[Highcotton]

How is this chill hour calculated? I took a stab at it, if looking at daily mean temperatures, we get about 2900 hours of below 0 deg C (32 deg F), or about 4300 hours of below 10 deg C (50 deg F).

I believe it is hours below 45 degrees F.

 

[LindaB220]

I believe it is hours below 45 degrees F.

Hagar, I just googled chill hours for zone 8 and it's anywhere from 450-800. I had no idea. I thought it was freezing temp. Thanks a lot.

 

[Highcotton]

Hagar, I just googled chill hours for zone 8 and it's anywhere from 450-800. I had no idea. I thought it was freezing temp. Thanks a lot.

I didn't know how many hours that we get here. I live in Peach county Georgia. the home of Georgia peaches. I grew up in the very Southeast corner of Alabama and it did not get enough chilling hours to grow peaches except for the short chilling varieties. I am on the boundary between 8A and 8B.

 

[LindaB220]

I didn't know how many hours that we get here. I live in Peach county Georgia. the home of Georgia peaches. I grew up in the very Southeast corner of Alabama and it did not get enough chilling hours to grow peaches except for the short chilling varieties. I am on the boundary between 8A and 8B.

I live in northern La and Ruston has a ton of peach orchards down here. About an hour away. I should just bite the bullet and drive over. Love peaches. I too am right in the middle of 8 a & b. Twenty miles south of A.

 

[gjensen]

Ok, thanks so much for all the info on the varieties and I will make a raised bed thanks. I will look for the Montgomery. Should I try a 350 chill hour plant when I am in the 800 chill hour zone? I don't know if I should try early blooming ones or not because lately we keep getting a late frost that won't even let our fruit trees set their blooms.

That is a good question. Do not take this as the gospel, but my experience with blueberries (in the south) is that chill hours are more relevant for whether or not you have enough. They are early bloomers anyways. They will bloom with the first warm weather of the spring. There will always be a risk concerning blueberries in the south. Bushes pruned to 5' tall are not hard to cover with sheets, unlike trees.

For an 800 chill hour area, I would stay away from the excessively early bloomers like Climax or Woodard.

I would think along the lines of higher chill hour plants, but the chill hours do not tell all of the story. Chill hours is a need to bloom, not necessarily when they will bloom. For example Brightwell is a 350 chill hour plant, but blooms with or just before Tifblue, a plant with almost twice the chill hours.

All of the varieties you mentioned are worthy of consideration, and will do well there (as far as chill hours). I have all of them except Climax, and live in a similar zone. If I was to suggest 10
varieties for your area I would say . . . . Tifblue, Powderblue, Columbus, Ira, Briteblue, Gardenblue, Beckyblue, Brightwell, Premier, and Centurion.

A mature rabbiteye can give 15-20lbs of fruit so . . . . 8 plants is enough for most households. 12 certainly is.

Now think about cross pollination. In the above group, Premier is the outlier, but should overlap with Brightwell.

 

[gjensen]

How is this chill hour calculated? I took a stab at it, if looking at daily mean temperatures, we get about 2900 hours of below 0 deg C (32 deg F), or about 4300 hours of below 10 deg C (50 deg F).

There are some discrepancies in how it is figured. Some growers account for hours above certain temps and subtract. Some count hours only after so many consecutive. It can get rather complicated, but it shouldn't. It is just a general guide anyways. Many say pick within a couple hundred hours of your area.

Some plants are pickier than others.

The easy general rule is hours below 45 degrees like another poster mentioned.