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blueberry bushes

Started by Engineer, April 11, 2008, 10:18:16 AM

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Engineer

There's an "orchard" of sorts up the road from me that changed owners a few years ago.  The orchard consists of about five acres of highbush blueberries and three acres of poorly maintained apple trees.  It was done as a business venture and not for a hobby, and now the current owners want to get rid of all of the blueberry bushes. 

Rather than mow them down, due to considerable investment potential, they placed a newspaper ad offering 2500 highbush blueberries, balled, bagged and tagged for variety.  Since most local nurseries and big-name national nurseries offer blueberries for between $4 and $8 each, and these are 5- to 7-foot tall mature heavy producers, I figured they'd be asking five or ten bucks each.

So, would YOU buy a mature blueberry bush, that is already 20 years old, for FIFTY DOLLARS?

Tom

Not me.   If they pulled them out of the ground, bare root, I might take them off of their hands to keep them from going to the trouble of burning them.   I'd take them home, prune them way back and stick them in the ground in a well watered spot.  Chances are some will grow.

pineywoods

Talk about wishful thinking !!! I wouldn't give 50 bucks for the whole lot. I grow blueberries, and my survival rate for transplants is poor. Besides, a 20 year old bush is way past it's prime production years.
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beenthere

Hopefully they didn't invest their time, labor, and money into balling them BEFORE they had them sold. 

I think they are barking up the wrong tree....but then they may get some suckers to bite ( I hear they are good smoked  :) )


Engineer
How much would you pay for them?   :) :)
south central Wisconsin
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Engineer

Quote from: beenthere on April 11, 2008, 10:54:21 AM
Engineer
How much would you pay for them?   :) :)

Well, I was a teenager when they planted them.   I live about four miles away and drive by there about once or twice a month.  They are very good producing bushes, you can see the huge berries from the road.  It's been both a pick-your-own as well as a truck farm operation, where the owners picked for local markets.    In light of all that, and they are "organic" berries, they only fertilize with local horse poo, I'd be happy to fork out ten bucks per bush.  Immediate gratification, and I know I can get a gallon of berries per season on some of the larger healthier bushes.  Blueberries in the store are four bucks a pound, so that's gotta be twenty-five or thirty bucks a gallon for good berries.  But I just can't see fifty bucks a shrub.   They said they're only gonna sell them until the 20th, and I'll probably drop by then and see if I can get some leftovers for the ten bucks.  I was planning on dropping some coin at Miller Nurseries for a bunch of highbush plants anyway, so this might be easier.  And I won't have to wait three to five years for good yields.

little Bark

I love blueberrys.  I can taste the pancakes now.  I may try a couple of bushes but I would also go ahead and get a couple new bushes also. 

We are redoing are strawberry patch and my wife is not doing well w/ not having any strawberrys this year.

Back to the bushes i would think that transplanting a bush that size is not going to be an easy task.  I think that there survial rate is not going to be good.  And I don't think that you will get many berrys this year.  It will take a whole year for the bush to recover from the shock.
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KGNC

I transplanted a few blueberry bushes (got them for free) they produced a few more berries then the new plants I bought but not much more. A good portion of the old wood died so the bushes got a lot smaller.

Don_Papenburg

Ya gotta get the PH way down before you plant the bushes.
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thecfarm

I am too lazy to dig a bigger hole that they would take.That does sound like alot of money.I've seen other things that were priced high,but that seems alot high.
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SwampDonkey

Soil around here isn't sour enough. They never take, and die within a couple years. Where they grow in the wild here is on sandy soil that was host to spruce and jack pine. $50 is too much for a bush.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

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thecfarm

I'm lucky here.I have at least a foot of good top soil in one field.Cross the dirt road and it's prime for blueberries.Only have about 2 inches of so called top soil.Soil gets real dry on this side of the road.We have mostly low bush blueberries,about an acre of them.The last 2 years have not been too good.We're due for a real good year.I have a few high bush ones.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

maple flats

I grow 4.5 acres of blueberries. That price IS too high. I have accidentally yanked some out with my weed badger while cultivating (a tractor mounted vertically rotating cultivator, that can from the tractor seat be moved in and out between the bushes controlled by a joystick,  while driving down beside a row of bushes). If they are replanted real soon and pruned big time and watered 2 or 3x a day you might save about half. The PH needs to be between 4.2 and max 5.2 either naturally or by adding sulfur. This must be done a year before planting or the sulfer will kill them. If PH is close you can fertilize them with ammonium sulfate starting after they have had a real soaking rain after planting. If trying that use 8 oz/bush/yr. The first year I might try half that. My bushes are 26 yrs old and they are still real productive. According to experts in the field bushes should last about 60-70 yrs. They must be pruned annually and properly or they will not produce well after the first 15-20 yrs. I suggest anyone wanting to grow blueberries buy the young bushes from a nursery. I have tried with some success deviding a bush  by just cutting it in half with a sharp spade, prune heavily and water, water, water the half you are moving.
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Don_Papenburg

My soil is at 5.8 to 6.5  I have been trying to bring it down with Amonium sulfate  now for about 5 years .  I got soil sulfur  from Jungs seeds this year . Could I put it in the row middles an  not kill my plants?    I also have a bunch of Miracid  I was going to use.   I think that the row middles tend to sweeten the row keeping my ph up.  I put in peatmoss at the time I planted ,was told that would make the soil acid enough for the berries.   I also mulch them with corncobsjust in the row and have a grass/weed mix in the middles. anything else that I can do ? 
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Dave Shepard

OK, now that it's been mentioned twice, I have to ask. Why are people pruning newly transplanted bushes? Are blueberries different from other plants? When you move a plant, you have usually removed a large portion of the root system, this is where the plant has stored nutrients. The plant now has to rely on what little it has stored in the roots, and what it can make through photosynthesis, which requires leaves, right? If you chop the plant up, you are taking away valuable leaves, which the plant needs to survive, and to help reestablish the root system. Am I way off base here? Because pruning a trasnplant goes against everything I was taught in my career as a tree mover.


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

beav39

IF I WAS SPENDING MY MONEY I WOULD GO WITH MILLERS I HAVE HAD VERY GOOD LUCK THERE
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fencerowphil (Phil L.)

Wait, then make an offer.

Last price I saw in Georgia for picked BBs was at Sam's Club.
$6.88  :o for a little package !

There's gold in them berries.
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SwampDonkey

They're green house berries that's why. They even do the same with raspberries here. I wouldn't buy them but I suppose some do.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Engineer

Well, to follow up, I am downright amazed, astonished, dumbfounded etc.  They sold all 2500 bushes at $50 each and are planning on selling another 500 in the fall with preorders and prepayment.

I cannot imagine spending that kind of ca$h on a blueberry bush unless they produced blueberries that were already chocolate-covered or had a high alcohol content or something.

ellmoe

    Some people have more money than sense. ::)

Mark
Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

SwampDonkey

Either that or someone else's.  :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

maple flats

I am finally getting around to answering Dave Shepards question about why prune the bushes. When you dig the bushes you damage or lose some of the root. The energy left is not enough to support the leaves in place or that will try to open, until the roots re-establish themselves. The leaves or leaf buds as they tried to open would take too much energy and weaken the bush further. In pruning you let the roots establish in the new environment and the new growth will occure as the bush is ready. New sprouts will emerge from the roots or the root crown. If you did not prune you would lose many more of the bushes because the roots would not have enough energy to support the leaves. Most or all of the leaves would drop because the bush would try to protect it self by using it's energy to build a good root mass first.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

moonhill

With wild blueberries we prune every other year and harvest every other, there is a growth year and a bearing year/harvest.  I'm not digging them up and relocating.  A couple of pruning methods are fire and the new and widely practiced method is flail mowing.  The visible part of the the plant is taken right to the ground, the rhizome is left intact.  There is a lot of leveling of the fields going on, they use excavators to reposition  the underlaying gravel with minimal damage to the root stock, it takes a few years to fully recover.  The land is now more even, allowing the use of harvesters, flail mowing and other treatments.  We see more migrant workers than in the past.  The locals were the harvesters, it's now gone to machinery and migrants.  I have gone in the opposite direction, raked by hand, fresh packed and frozen.  About 10 acres, 5 each year, we are a small operation.  The big boys are estimating a crop of 86 million + pounds this year.  Tim
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Dave Shepard

Quote from: maple flats on August 03, 2008, 09:08:09 PM
I am finally getting around to answering Dave Shepards question about why prune the bushes. When you dig the bushes you damage or lose some of the root. The energy left is not enough to support the leaves in place or that will try to open, until the roots re-establish themselves. The leaves or leaf buds as they tried to open would take too much energy and weaken the bush further. In pruning you let the roots establish in the new environment and the new growth will occure as the bush is ready. New sprouts will emerge from the roots or the root crown. If you did not prune you would lose many more of the bushes because the roots would not have enough energy to support the leaves. Most or all of the leaves would drop because the bush would try to protect it self by using it's energy to build a good root mass first.


And where is it going to get this energy without leaves?


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

SwampDonkey

I think what he means is the newly transplanted bushes with all their lush growth would further stress the roots as they seek available water. Not enough water intake, because a lot of the feeder roots are lost, and the plants burn up from excessive evaporation through the leaves.


Balsam fir with shade needles being released in winter harvest will burn up that spring as the snow cover melts, ground is still frozen and the hot spring sun causes excessive moisture loss. Can get winter killed too if the snow is shallow. All I know is a fir thicket thinned out in summer heat is doubly hot with radiant heat of the bows.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

moonhill

Transplant in the fall. In the Spring there will be enough energy in the root ball to sprout stems and leaves, than generate energy for the plant.  Will that work?  Tim
This is a test, please stand by...

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