Blueberries

I fertilized them today, lightly, with HOLLY-TONE PLANT FOOD from Espoma. Low in nitrogen, especially for the ones I just planted.

I need to rip my Brightwell out and put it into a pot to be closer to the Climax. Right now, they are at the opposite ends of the row. These are the two last Rabbiteyes I have left; the rest are all Southern Highbush. I fair amount of money to learn a lesson... (That said, the Climax is growing the best of the bunch.)

I need to fertilize these again at the beginning of October.

Blueberries

At the Deland Farmers Market I got three very nice, healthy blueberries in gallon pots: Mirimba, Primadonna (sic) and another Gulf Coast. I planted them this morning along the same line where my other bushes are located. I amended the soil pretty heavily with pine fines and peat.

I tore out my Sharpblue blueberry which just wasn't thriving. (I have some suspicions that it was mislabeled, since the leaves look so different from my other Southern Highbush...)

Blueberries in Florida

On impulse, a friend and I stopped by a u-pick blueberry farm outside Ocklawaha. Five bucks a pound for some delicious berries. It took, maybe, five minutes to pick three pounds. My wife made an absolutely amazing pie.
It's hard not to love Florida in April.

Sunshine Blue Blueberry

Another blueberry cultivar to add to my garden. From tony_k_orlando, on GardenWeb's Florida Forum:

"Sunshine Blue is what I have been growing for yrs now. The beauty of this variety is that they require the LEAST amount of chill hours, they are self pollinating and grow no more than about 3ftx3ft AND they are the least fussy when it comes to pH levels."

Jene's Tropical Fruit

Jene's Tropical Fruit: "Jene’s Tropicals offers a diverse collection of Florida tropical plants and other tropical fruit trees from around the world. All of these Florida tropical plants are extremely healthy and ready to be shipped to many places within the USA. Jene’s Tropicals take great pleasure in sharing amazing Florida tropical plants and tropical fruit trees with you!"

Berries:
| Blackberries | Blueberries | Mulberries | Raspberries |

Free blueberry cuttings!

I received in the mail today hardwood cuttings of five blueberry cultivars from the National Clonal Germplasm Repository:

• Beckyblue
  
• Bluegem
  
• Aliceblue
  
• Pearl River
  
• Gulfcoast

All these are rabbiteye blueberries, well-adapted to Central FLA climes, with very low chill-hour requirements (under 200). At least the Pearl River and Aliceblue are fairly difficult to come by -- they aren't appropriate for large-scale farming (they ripen over a long period, for instance), and have therefore fallen out of cultivation.

I am supposed to get two cuttings of blackberries that are Central-FLA approved sometime soon: Oklawaha and Flordagrand.

From what I've read, getting hardwood Bb cuttings rooted is tough, but I invested in some high-tech new-fangled (and VERY expensive!) rooting hormone, and I'll give it a shot. For the moment, I've got them in straight-up vermiculite, but I've read in my propagation book that I should do a 50-50 vermiculite/peat mix. The cuttings look as though they were made yesterday. They arrived in an overnight package. All for zero bucks. A great service from our government!

An Update: Some quick answers to questions from the comments section:

• Let's see... There's rumor that one can grow raspberries as an annual crop here in Central FLA: Just order the canes from up north, plant them in fall, and harvest in spring. The only other raspberry that does well in our zones (9a through 10a) is the Mysore raspberry (Rubus niveus), a tropical bramble. It's considered an invasive plant, but if you're living in a disturbed ecosystem (you are), then cultivating it in a home garden isn't a problem. What is a problem is finding it for sale.
• Here's how to order blueberry cuttings:
• Go to the list of available cultivars and decide which you'd like to order. In FLA, the main consideration is low chill requirements. (To find your chill hours here in FLA, see here.)
  
• Then read their distribution protocols and make your request here. Bear in mind that you have to request cuttings (or seeds , etc.) at particular times of the year. For instance, for the hardwood cuttings above, I made my request back in August for cuttings delivered in January (when the plants are dormant).
  

Peach blooms in December...

After our week of warm weather -- a week that saw a number of high low-temperature records sets, and three tornadoes on Christmas day in our area -- my new Flordabell peach tree decided to have a small fit of blooms. I'll pinch them off tomorrow, but they were too pretty today. My blueberries, particularly Emerald, are also flowering:

Just Fruits and Exotics order...

Blueberries:

• Woodard
• Blue Gem
• Brightwell
• Gulf Coast
• Sharpblue
• Emerald (one not listed on their website but apparently well-adapted to my conditions)
  

&c:

• 10 plugs of Sweet Charlie strawberries
  
• 1 walking onion
• Muscadine Grape
  

Great, intelligent customer service. The owner and I chattered for about half an hour about gardening—she clearly knows her fruit!

The total came to just over $100, plus a packing charge and tax.

A bit pricey, but they have the market cornered!