We have the first ripe berries in the country so ours have long since been picked. I do have some that are getting ready to bloom:) always get a few hundred fall blossoms. Have never heard of a reasonable explanation as to why some of the plants send out a few fall flowers.

There are still a few on the two Chandlers,Darrows,Jersys and even the Spartan which is an early producer.Our summer though, in the Seattle area,has been mild,even for this region.This week has been the hottest of the year with about 85F average temperatures.Brady

I have Chandler, but it didn't fruit this year although it did the year before. I think the kids picked them all as soon as they turned.

I'm still able to buy Michigan grown blueberries.

I ate a whole bunch the other day at a local blueberry farm. The variety is Elliot.......tons of berries on the plants still and some still a couple weeks from ripening. All the rest of the varieties are mostly done.

RM

Franktank,
My Chandler only had a few berries this year, but more last year, too. Although many catalogs list them as zone 4, I saw one that said zone 6. I suspect the same applies to the Kablueys. I guess I need to figure out some way to cover them. Shoveling snow on them works on small bushes (if there is snow), but these are waist high now. I wonder if one could cut the bottom out of plastic 55-gallon drums so they were open on each end, set them over the bushes and stuff them with straw and a few mousetraps? Has anyone tried this? I have some plastic drums and straw on hand. My latest blueberry so far has been Jersey. I have a couple Elliots, but they haven't born berries yet. My goal is to have ripe blueberries from late June till frost. Northwoodswis

Chicken wire might be better, put it around the plants then some straw and/or leaves. I would be afraid the drums would hold moisture and cause the stems to rot. I probably wouldn't cover the whole plants, just the bottom 6 inches or so. You are probably in a colder climate than I am but my plants endure zero degrees every winter for a week or longer and months of freezing and they come out fine every year with just leaves piled around the base.

RM

North-

I've seen die back in the winter on my blueberries. I think it was Bluecrop the one year. Chandler handled low -20Fs and had fruit the next year, but it was one of those winters with a lot of snow. I really don't know how to protect them. They are rabbit magnets, so you almost need to protect with fencing. One year all the tops were chopped back because the rabbits just walked right on top of the snowbanks and started chomping. I guess leaves could work but you'd really have to watch the voles. I'm to the point where i pull snow BACK from the trunks of young trees to keep the voles away. Maybe a tarp?

I'll add Elliot to the list.

I shoveled snow over all my bushes two years ago, and had the best crop ever. Last year I was away from home in early winter, so did not do that, but the snow was a couple feet deep. The only berries on the Chandler were near the bottom where they would have been under the snow. Some other varieties that stuck out of the snow did fine. I have every individual bush encased in chicken wire year round, but it is a pain. Northwoodswis

It must be really cold where you are at North. My plants come out of winter fine every year and we have long winters here.......you must be living at a ski resort! lol.

RM

river-

I'm right on the Mississippi River just outside LaCrosse. Our all time record low I think is -43F (OUCH!)... I haven't seen -30F in years, maybe a decade.

Riverman,
We are east of St. Paul. Most of my blueberries do fine over winter unprotected, but the Chandler and Kabluey don't seem as hardy. I have about 53 bushes now, half of which are rated zone 4 and half zone 3. We are near the north limit of zone 4 here. Only occasionally does it exceed -30F. degrees. Most winters about -27 F. is as cold as it gets. Although global warming would have harmed many places, it would have been welcome here, but it didn't pan out as predicted, so I'm safest sticking with zone 3 rated plants. The new varieties are so tempting, especially when they get a dripping write-up in the nursery catalogs or glowing testimonials on here. I'm trying to resist the urge to plant an Aurora or Reka. Better some average-tasting blueberry fruit than just a foliage plant in my orchard. Northwoodswis

still picking jerseys this year, but we had a very late spring. I might even find a few patriots if I really looked hard.

I'm just a little further north still from northwoodswis and average 2 to 4 degrees colder. Will Elliot and Jersey handle those temps and still produce? I do have 4 Bluecrops that do get winter damage and all of the rest (32 more plants) are all 1/2 highs. Mostly Chippewa, St'Cloud and Polaris. They do well over winter but none are late producers. I agree with franktank.... it would be nice to have a reliable fall producer for our climate.

My Elliot and four Jerseys were planted in 2008, with a second Elliot in 2010 Finally this year I had a handful of berries on two of the Jerseys. None on the Elliots yet, so I can't really say how hardy they would be up there. I got mine cheap as puny bushes, so don't have a lot invested in them, except for all the chicken wire. If you have the space, like to gamble, and can pick some up cheap, I'd say go for it, but otherwise you are probably better off sticking to zone 3 varieties.
Northwoodswis

I was worried about the jerseys as they were boarder line for this area. So far we have had no winter damage to them (4 years) we have had some pretty extreme cold during that time (25-30 below 0F) but we also had great snow cover and the bushes are only 3-4' right now.

It's a nice berry very sweet, almost no tart which to me is a draw back. It seems like you get a large first flush of fruit and then a long delayed ripening a few weeks later on the last 1/3.