I started picking a few Reka berries in late May, O'Neal during the first week of June, and Southmoon and Duke during the second week of June. This was my first year for the first three, and Duke definitely suffered in comparison. It's still good (it's a blueberry, after all), but I really enjoyed the plump, sweet O'Neal and Southmoon berries. Reka was very good, as well, with more tartness than the other two. What are you still picking at this point? My Tifblue, Bluebelle, and Brightwells are winding down -- they'll probably be finished in another week or so. I'm hoping to extend my season next year with some Ocholockonee and Centurion rabbiteyes that I'm currently growing out, both of which are supposed to be very late. EDIT: Never mind the question, Eric. I just read your other post, and it's very helpful. I'll continue the conversation in that thread since it's OT for this one. This post was edited by shazaam on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 20:15

Not sure it anyone will answer this seeing how old this thread is, but I am a farmer and getting out of the produce side of farming . . . I am wanting to establish and begin growing blueberries. I have a high fence plot with a drip system already established. I live in Springtown, Texas, which is in Zone 8 . . . north Texas. I am on city water. My parents had a blueberry farm in East Texas for about 10 years and it had been established for about 30 when they had purchased it. He doesn't feel blueberry bushes will survive on city water and that the chlorine will surely kill them. I am going to get a soil test in the next few days; but, I am wondering if this is even possible? Can this work?

I was going to ask about your containers too Ceresone. I'm very jealous. I have supplement containers about as tall as a five gallon bucket or maybe a little taller, but quite a bit wider. I'm guessing they would be about 15 gallons. The blueberries that I got from Stark Brothers were potted in five inch pots so I thought they might be too small to put in large containers. I put them in three gallon pots for now. I think I will put them in my garage the first winter and then pot them up into larger containers next spring if they grow well. Bonnie - Yes I was sore! lol My arms and back were protesting. I was actually a little creeped out when I was digging that big hole and not hitting any rock wondering why. I thought I might find bones or something. lol Glenda - I'm sure I've never dug three foot deep without hitting rock. That's even more amazing. You must have been wondering if you were on Candid Camera. Let me know when your grapes start to leaf out.

Like you, I wanted a berry hedge. I decided to plant them along a road shoulder, so that I could just walk along the road and pick berries without getting bitten by copperheads or rattlesnakes. Twice, copperheads have crawled over my boots or snapped at me while I was picking berries in the fields. The road shoulder was an ugly miux of rubble, rocks and clay, so I dumped leaves and brush over the rocky mess and made dirt. Then I planted currants, blueberries, raspberries and gooseberries, and I let wild blackberries stay. Turns out, the red currants LIKED the ugly rocky clay mess and did not do so well in the black humus dirt I made. All the berry plants are doing "okay", but not thriving. Also, I made three mistakes with the raspberries: I moved wild raspberries out from under a giant walnut tree because I thought they were trying to ramble their way into the sun. Later I read that raspberries LIKE being under trees, if it shades them from hot afternoon sun. I tried to weed all of the yellow coneflower (Rudbeckia lacinata) out of the raspberry patch. It turns out, they are perfect for each other. The coneflowers don't even start to grow until after the raspberries have berries. When the coneflowers bloom, honey bees go crazy, so that's a plus for them. Also, they have a marvelously strong stalk with a fork, and this FORK becomes a perfect support for the raspberry canes! Last fall, I broke the tops out of the dead weed stalks, and helped the raspberry canes into the forks. Right now, the canes are loaded, since I pruned them back in winter to force them to make berries instead of ramble. I moved some wild raspberries to part of the road that caught water draining down the mountain. Water stood in the road in winter, and it drowned the berries: They do not like wet feet. I question whether or not your servicebery will grow under the tree canopy. When I saw wild serviceberry, it was growing all alone on top of a cliff! I haven't heard about these irrigation ditch hedges before. Is this a common practise in permaculture? Areyou trying to imitate the seep on a cliff or something? (I read that sandstone cliffs hold water, and that's why water seeps out of the base of these cliffs. Blueberries grow on top of them here, even though they appear to be "dry" cliffs.) If not, why are you irrigating? Isn't that a really artificial practise? I mean, irrigation has drained the aquifers in the midwest , so why are you interested in irrigating? Are you diverting water or it there naturally? I guess you can tell I haven't read much about permaculture. [I read Holmgren's book, that's all.] But I am really, cincerely curious why you would irrigate and call it permaculture. It seems artificial to me, any irrigation. I don't water anything. If it won't grow where I plant it, I move it. Instead, I am tryiung to add humus to the soil to make it hold water better. But ifyou are trying to imitate a sandstone seep, then it makes a little sense. I do collect rainwater, but I keep it covered so the mice and bugs don't drown in it, and I only use it rarely.