Retail Blueberry Plants / Wholesale Blueberry Plants

Kris Finnigan Asked:
I am considering buying 9 blueberry plants as part of my backyard fruit/vegetable garden. There is lots of sun on the planting area from about 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM or so, more in the summer. The soil in our yard in Columbia, SC is basically sandy, no clay at all. I wanted to get 3x 2-year old plants, 3x 3-year old plants, and 3x 4-year old plants, to expedite fruit production. We plan to plant them in 3 parallel rows, with a bird netting screen over all. Questions: 1) Do you sell 2-yr old, 3-yr old, and 4-yr old plants? 2) How much would shipping cost? 3) How long would it take to get the plants to Columbia, SC? 4) Can they all be planted right now in January/as soon as we get them? 5) Would they produce fruit the first year? 6) Which combination of varieties would you recommend for cross-fertilization and for our area? We like bigger, sweet berries with good flavor. Thanks for your advice. Kris Finnigan

Axson Berry Farm Wrote:

Kris;

         It sounds like your planting site is ideal for rabbiteye blueberry plants. Blueberries grow in both shade and sunlight, although they do produce better in the sunshine. Your sandy soil should be great if you have good drainage. You will have to make sure that your soil pH is slightly acidic (4.3 to 5.6) which can be accomplished through amending the soil with pine bark, peat moss, or other organic materials. Supher can also be added to your site to lower the pH. You need at least two different rabbiteye varieties for cross pollination to increase your yield (although rabbiteyes are self pollinating). I would suggest Brightwell and PowderBlue. They flower at about the same time but the PowderBlue ripen slower so you will be able to have a longer period of having large, sweet berries. Premier ripen even earlier than the Brightwell, which would increase your "fresh picked" window.

         All of our older plants have either been sold or spoken for, so all we have is the 8 month old cuttings. You can plant them now and expect a small harvest in June 2010. Check out my blog on this site entitled Getting Your Yard Ready and also check out this informative site CLICK FOR UGA BLUEBERRY SITE. Look on my Links page for more informative pages on blueberry cultivation.