Any suggestions?

Here's my suggestion, although I have never grown rabbiteye blueberries in pots; only in the field. From the way it sounds, you have given them "too much love" and they're dying from a lack of oxygen (i.e., they're drowning). Personally, I would go to your favorite supplier and get a bag of simple top soil and some more peat moss (if you have already used up your initial supply). I would then replant the bushes in a 50-50 mix of the soil and (dampened) peat and remove all of the remaining blossoms and small green berries. That is if you want your plants to live a happy and productive life in the later years. Then I would give them a little water every few days. However, the damped peat moss should be fine for a couple of days. Then, a couple weeks later after the soil has settled, I'd sprinkle a little Osmocote around the plant, but not right next to the trunk. Note: blueberries don't like a lot of fertilizer, especially right after being transplanted). Then about 2 weeks after that when they start to look a little more cheerful, I would sprinkle a tablespoon of magnesium sulfate (e.g., Epsons salt) around the plant to give a little boost to its vegetation growth. I've also included a link which gives some pictures as to different blueberry ailments. Hope this helps.

Ken

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberry Diagnostic Pictures from Cornell

Sounds like they need some iron to me. The yellow leaves are usually due to iron chlorosis. Get some iron sulfate. Ironite will also work well for a short term treatment, but I avoid it now due to the heavy metal content. Your pH is fine, and the drainage issues can wait for now, just don't overwater. Just give them some iron and let them recover from the shock of transplanting for a while. The yellow leaves will probably never turn back to green, but new growth should become green. Do not give them any additional fertilizer until they start to grow, and never give them any nitrate based fertilizer.

Thanks for the help guys,
It looked last night like it was getting a litte better but now that its been on my porch gettin sun for about 2 hours its looking droopy agin!
I think I may try to let it sit a couple days and just hope it can recover.
If it doesnt then I will re-transplant,sure hope it can pull through.
Thats very dissapointing news to here that I should take off all my little berries and blossoms,I know you would know better than me what to do but not sure if I can bring myself to do it yet.

Once agin thanks for the help.

Ok so Im stumped...

Leaves are still yellow which is to be expected but now that its dusk and cooling off here the stems are looking better.
They are not droopy anymore insted they are starting to look strong agin.
Is it already too hot here in zone 8 for my blueberries to have full 8 hour sun or somthing?
They are rabbiteye so they should be fine,I just dont get it???

They droop in full sun because their root systems are small and haven't yet extended throughout the potting mix.

Would you say this is harmful?

Should I not let it get full sun,or just let it run its course?

You should provide temporary shade during the heat of the day until the plant has a well-developed root sytem and can, then, cope with the heat.

You don't say where you are located. I have discovered where I am (Sacramento CA) my blueberries HATE full sun. I had them in pots for the first couple of years, and had them in sun in spring and moved to shade in the summer. They were very happy and got very big. I then thought they would appreciate more room, so I put them in the ground, with sun until about 3:00 in summer. Their leaves just FRIED and they are very unhappy. So this year as soon as I get the energy, I am digging them up and putting them back in pots, where I can sun or shade them depending upon the time of year.

Carla in Sac

Hi Jean and Carla
I live in Charleston SC
Lucky for me I can move them around my back porch to get full sun for 8 hours or I can also put them in a spot that gets about 3 hours shade.
Looks like they will be getting some shade today.
Its looking pretty good right now but its just now starting to warm up this morning.

I have also noticed that the canes on my Powder Blue are mostly red while my Tifblue still has green canes,does this mean anything?

This plant looks so sad:-(
Yellow droopy leaves,weak stems,red canes,and the soil hasnt dried out much at all.
I dont know how much longer it can hold on:-(
I put it in shade today but that didnt even seem to help.
Wish there was somthing I could do but it seems Ive already done too much!

Set the plant in a bright but NOT sunny site until it receivers.

It's wilting/drooping because the *original rootball* is dry. This occurs even if you have been watering because the water goes through the new potting mix easily but NOT through the more dense rootball.

So, make certain that the original rootball is moist.

To do that, you will have to drizzle water directly onto the top if the original rootball.

Or make a crude drip system by putting a pinhole or two in the bottom of a plastic jug, then set that jug directly on top of the rootball. Refill the jug as needed.

Do you think just LIGHTLY misting the rootball area with a spray bottle 2 mabey 3 times a day would work?
Should I use my superthrive with it?

I am going to have to be VERY carful and make sure not to soak it too much because its already holding too much water lol.

Kev843:

On the blueberry plant you transplanted from a 1-gallon to 5-gallon pot, you may have a simple case of transplant shock, which may cure itself if you take Jean's suggestion of leaving the plant in shade for a while.

I assume that in SC, the plant was fully leafed out when you transplanted it, which makes a successful transplant more difficult, though not impossible. I don't know how much of the rootball with the original soil you retained, but if soil fell off or was knocked off, the roots will have to become re-established before the plant can function again. Meanwhile, the leaves are demanding water and nutrients that the roots may not be able to supply.

It is not a good idea to fertilize a newly transplanted blueberry, even with a high-quality fertilizer. Wait until the plant is established and growing before trying to fertilize it. If you used a 50/50 or so mix of peat moss and a good potting soil, it should not be necessary to add perlite to the mix. And if the plant drains for a long time, you may be overwatering.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Hi Don
As far as the over watering maybey you can help clear this up for me.
I was under the impression that I should water until it starts to come out of my drainage holes,is this wrong?

Kev843:

Are you watering every day? Every other day? Once a week might be about right, but it's a judgment call, based on temperature, ambient humidity, and sunlight, among other factors. Nothing wrong with a good soaking, but peat moss holds moisture very well, and any containerized plant should be allowed to dry out between waterings.

You don't mention your transplant technique, and whether or not you removed the soil from the roots, accidentally or deliberately, which might go a long way toward explaining the drooping of the plant. If this is what occurred, you cannot compensate for disturbing the roots by pouring on the water afterward. Blueberry roots are very fine, and sensitive to soggy soil, which can cause them to rot.

Lightly moist soil is what you are trying to achieve, and you will have to figure out how much water will give you that result.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanx Don
Yes I always let it dry before watering agin:-)
I have watered it once on the 25th and it wont need another watering for a while judging by the weight of the pot,I dont know if its soaked anything up yet.

As a matter of fact I did have some trouble transplanting...
I have never transplanted a plant this big and it was a little awkward.
I expected the roots to hold on to the dirt and it didnt.
I went ahead and loosened the roots(very gently)since they wernt holding onto any dirt anyway.
I hope it can recover,how long does transplant shock last?

Also how cold is too cold if I already have some berries forming?
Its about 47 degrees here.

Kev843:

I don't know how long your transplant shock will persist. There are too many factors involved to make even an educated guess. If roots are severely disturbed and lose most of their soil when a plant is in an active phase of growth, the result can be death of the plant. In that case, I guess you could say transplant shock would be permanent.

Under the circumstances of your transplant, the best thing to do would have been to prune the plant way back to balance the top growth with what the newly establishing roots can supply. While it would have been better to prune at transplant time, you may be able to give the plant a better chance at survival by pruning it back now. It is always easier to successfully transplant a smaller plant than a larger one.

47F is not at all too cold for blueberry fruits to form, but on a new transplant you should remove those berries and any blossoms you see pronto. Immediately. The last thing your plant needs at this point is the demands of fruit formation. Once the plant has fully recovered, if it recovers, you may be able to ripen out some blueberries next season.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Ok well then I have just a few more questions to bother you with lol...
My plant is about 3 ft tall,so its not that young of bush,do you still always pinch out blossoms anytime you transplant no matter the age?

I still have another Tifblue that is in the 1 gallon pot I bought it in.Should I not transplant this one?
Should you always wait till the winter to transplant?

Kev843:

When you transplant a large, leafed-out blueberry bush like yours, and the soil is knocked off the roots, the plant is placed under great stress. Stress is greatly increased when you do this with an actively growing plant vs. one that is in its dormant period. Pruning back the top growth and removing blossoms and berries reduces this stress.

If there is anything you "always" do, it is to use judgment. If you were able to install the rootball intact into the larger container, stress would have been greatly reduced. At this point, I would recommend removing not only the berries and blossoms, but also pruning the plant down, or you might end up with a large, but dead plant. In your SC climate, the days will be rapidly growing warmer, which does not favor your plant. A smaller plant may be a little disappointing, but there is a great advantage to having one that is alive.

If, having practiced on blueberry #1, you think you can do a better job with blueberry #2, go ahead and try it. But you know what you have to do: Keep that rootball intact. And prune the plant down and remove blossoms no matter what else you do. It's worth your while to wait one season for your first blueberry crop. Patience is the name of the game in fruitgrowing.

It is always easier to transplant blueberries or any other fruiting plant in the dormant season, which in your climate would be the months of January and February. In the dormant season, you can transplant blueberry bushes bareroot, with no soil at all, and they will do just fine. If you decide to plant more blueberries in the future, look for smaller plants, and do your transplanting at least a month earlier.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Once agin Don thanx for taking the time to answer my questions.You may not have given me the answers I WANT to here but you have given me the answers I NEED to here:-)

I did try to keep the rootball intact but the mix was very loose and just fell out.I did wait untill the mix dried out a little cause I figured it would hold together better but,WRONG agin LOL

Well after barberberryfarm gave me a very useful link I think I may have a blight issue as well:-(
I have the pink/orange leaves around the small amount of fruit that I left on and also on the tips of the fruit.
I have the feeling that it will infect my other bush because of how close they are.
It actually had these signs when I bought it but didnt know enough not to buy.
As a matter of fact just about every blueberry bush I have seen selling around here looks like this.
Maybe I am overreacting,I guess I will know when and if the fruit rots and falls off:-(