There is a lot of good information in this thread..... Kansas, I would not depend on the neighbor saying you have acidic soil have it tested or amend the soil anyway as getting the soil too acid is much better than too alkaline. Most BB problems are caused by a too high PH but as Harvestman said you can grow a BB in higher PH soil and have it happy if you make sure the plant can get iron. A lot of the nurseries follow that line of thinking and that is why as one of the posters stated they tested the plants soil right from a nursery and it was more toward neutral. The only trouble with that is people will not continue to care for the plant as it was at the nursery where they spray the plants with the nutrients they need. Home gardeners are more likely to simply wait until problems arise where the plant shows it is not happy then treat it...sometimes guessing wrong and making things worse. It seems to me to be a dumb way to handle the plants......give them what they want and plant them right the first time and then you will not be chasing your tail and causing the plant to constantly cycle between happy and unhappy. One other issue is what is the soil like, what is it's texture? The BB do not like soil that is too heavy or compact. Because you state the other plant looks healthy I am leaning toward a soil problem not a PH problem. If the PH was wrong and you were not giving it supplemental iron it would not look happy. Too heavy of soil can cause what you are stating. Salt in the water can also cause what you are stating...here people will have problems similar to what you are stating and come to find out they were watering with water softened water. It tends to stunt the growth of plants and just kills the plants vigor the same way compacted or heavy soils can. If a BB especially a young BB is not growing at least 12" a year in zone 6 the plant is unhappy. A young plant should also be putting out new canes from the base and if not it is not happy. In warmer climates 2 feet of growth should be the minimum growth per year with proper care. The leaves on the plant are another indicator as you should on a young plant see the size of the leaf getting larger. If you could post a picture of the surviving plant that would help a lot as while it might look great compared to the dying ones it could help with a diagnosis. Contrary to popular opinion BB are very easy to grow....just plant them the right way when you bring them home. The young plants are much more sensitive so do it right the first time and when the plant is older it is far more forgiving.

apeach: First don't feel bad even if your plants die. My friends and I have killed them by getting the pH too high, getting it too low, by applying too much or wrong fertilizer, and by over watering. But I'll probably harvest 40 lbs of blueberries this year and have some plants 7 years in the same pot without repotting. The issue I've had with over watering has been stem blight on a few plants. A couple plants lost branches and a couple died. These were all in the first year. On bigger plants watering once a day in hot weather has caused no problems. My soil mix drains very well. Water poured in disappears in seconds and drains out the bottom. A tall pot is better because the upper soil will be better drained. And I don't stand the pots in water.

I was going through my draw and found an article about pruning blueberries I'd stashed away from an Oct 2003 issue of Fruitgrower News. In the summary there was a paragraph that might be relevant. "Remove the low growth that would touch the ground when loaded with fruit. Cut out short, soft, new wood that developed from the base of the plant late in the season." Generally I would follow the advice of Fruitnut as he has the major experience of container growing. I don't like moving plants in the garage, however. You can also either insulate the pots and mulch the top or set the plants into soil for over wintering. The problem is that garages can get too warm and mess with dormancy and timing for taking plants out can be tricky as the environment can make them tender. If your garage consistently sustains a temp around freezing this may not be a problem. I don't know about blueberries but I've seen lots of trouble with figs kept in garages. I don't believe that pruning stimulates late growth once terminal buds are set and I also don't believe that if you manage to stimulate such growth it endangers plants- from my observation of fruit trees this is one of those horticultural myths. Late growth itself is tender but the rest of plants seem to harden off normally. This is based on anecdotal observation only but I've yet to see any actual research on the subject so I'll run with that because it's my own. Anyway thought someone might find it interesting. I certainly recommend pruning most plants that you're still trying to get bigger when they're dormant.

How tall of bushes are you looking for?? Some get really tall, some are half high and other are dwarfs. I picked the half high ones that bloom mid season. A bunny ate one of my Chippewa last year. I found my Sams Club had Chippewa this year!! My bluegold is still going strong. The spacing of my plants are based on the varieties I picked. I agree that you need to prepare your soil now and plant down the road. I picked up a hugh bag of sphagnum peat moss, blood meal, cottonseed meal, garden sulfur, my neighbor's pine needles for mulch and a ph meter. Here are some link for research: http://web1.msue.msu.edu/fruit/bbvarbul.htm http://www.fallcreeknursery.com/Nursery/VarietyChart/SouthernHighbush.htm http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/Blueberries.htm The people on the GW fruit forum can help too. Bluecrisp was a new one they were talking about. My favorite azaleas are the deciduous exbury azaleas. They are more slow growing upright ones. I have mine in the partial shade. Is your area full sun?? Or does it get any shade? Here is a link that might be useful: Evaluation of eight low chill blueberries