Recent transplants are not able to take up water and nutrient from the soil at 100%. It takes the root system maybe a month to achieve this. You can help the process along by shielding the shrub from sunlight during this period. You might notice that it seems to recover a bit overnight. When the sun goes down, metabolic activity in the leaves stops, and the roots have a chance to re-hydrate the plant. Do you have hard water? If so, it would be better to water the blueberries with rain water.

Thanks for the info. I can easily shield them some from the sun. We do have hard water and we dont have allot of rain water. I will try to collect some but I dont know when we will get our next storm. I found a link that talked about a lack of phosphorus making the leaves redishbrown because of the cooler temperatures. I think it sounds like maybe a combination of things. I am feeling a little more hopeful that they will bounce back. Everything I have read makes them sound like they are such temperamental plants. They are worth it, I love blueberries. Thanks again.

Smiles:

I am not sure exactly what has happened here, but it sounds as if you purchased leafed-out, potted blueberry plants, dumped them out, "ruffed up" the roots, and put them in the ground.

You cannot do that.

If you are going to plant a containerized blueberry, and it is in active growth, you must be very careful not to disturb the rootball when you set it in the ground. Disturbing the roots of a growing plant, already leafed out, will have immediate effects on the leaves. You can do just about anything you want to a dormant, bareroot plant, but not one that is in its growth phase.

The plant may survive, but it may drop all or most of its current leaves before growing in new ones. It could also simply die. If you are determined to grow blueberries, and it sounds like you are, I suggest you order in dormant, bareroot stock well in advance of planting next spring, then plant in the months of March or April. It sounds as if you have done a lot of good soil preparation, and there is no reason you shouldn't be successful if you stop trying to transplant plants in active growth.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks. I didnt know that either. I just got them at the nursery and assumed you could plant them anytime. I also just followed the instructions for planting them on the instruction that came with the plant. Well now I know. Any suggestions to help them make it?
I just re-read my original post which doesnt make much sense. I didnt describe very well the problem. I just said my plant was doing the same thing. It is that the leaves are turning redish brown, curling inward somewhat and looking almost burned on some of the new growth. Almost like a fertilizer burn. Some of the new growth has turned black.
It did have new growth growing when I planted it and that sounds like that was another mistake.

This is what worked for me. I dug a couple of big holes and filled them full of 100% peat moss (well watered...that stuff takes a while to absorb water it seems). Put in my plants and they've never had one problem (second year now, all leafed out and flowering). I also use Miracle grow that disolves in water and is for acid loving plants. Give them a hit of that a couple times a summer. Last thing i do is use only rainwater to water them. This may be pushing it, but i like collecting rainwater (its free!) so i continue to do it...

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When transplanting i just try not to disturb the roots at all.

Note: Galvanized garbage cans are not water tight and require a liberal dose of silicon caulk!

I hope your blueberry shrubs have begun to recover. If not, then I have a suggestion for next spring, or possibly this fall. You might try to plant dwarf or half-high(lowbush) varieties of blueberry, like Northsky or St Cloud. We have several of these in our yard. They don't produce as much fruit as a highbush shrub. It might take 4 or 5 lowbush to equal one highbush. However, the lowbush shrubs are more tolerant of exposure to wind, they don't use as much water, and they spend the winter buried in snowdrifts. Since they are under snow, the rabbits leave them alone. We don't have deer, here in the city of Madison, but I suspect that being buried in snow helps to reduce deer damage as well.