Unless they show stress I would give them as many hours of direct sun as they can get as long as you can maintain soil moisture in the pots. Summer sunshine is next springs fruit.

I've been watering mine regularly (they are in pots around my swimming pool) but the leaves are turning a little yellow. I was wondering about too much sun also.

Hi Bamboo. I know you're in zone 9 and although you guys get even warmer weather than zone 10 in the summer sometimes, seems your veggies don't mind the heat this time of year. Maybe it's 'cause you get slightly cooler nights, or some other factor. Our best growing season in 10b is late September through April for most fruits but especially vegetables. This being said, is your garden still growing in August? Or is it just too hot then?

Billbrandi, have you fertilized lately with the non-nitrate type?

Going away for over two weeks in August. Any ideas on making self-watering containers for the blueberry plants which are in 5 to 7 gallon containers already? Would just mulching real well, providing more shade, or covering soil with plastic be enough?

Thanks.

Sheri

"Hi Bamboo. I know you're in zone 9 and although you guys get even warmer weather than zone 10 in the summer sometimes, seems your veggies don't mind the heat this time of year. Maybe it's 'cause you get slightly cooler nights, or some other factor. Our best growing season in 10b is late September through April for most fruits but especially vegetables. This being said, is your garden still growing in August? Or is it just too hot then?"

Bluesky,

In August some of the veggies are still going just fine. I don't have problems with the peppers and they produce very well all summer as long as I control any fungal problems that crop up. Tomatoes of course by August are done but are still fine as of today but starting to look a bit ratty but still producing well and over 8 feet tall at the moment and surprisingly still setting fruit.

The blueberries I pruned about two weeks ago so they are just now starting to flush. One of the reasons for the summer prune is so the new flush of growth lasts much better in the heat of the summer and the leaves are maintained much later in to the fall as well as it just makes for larger plants faster and results in more berries.

I'm a lazy gardener ( I hate watering) so I automate as much as I can. I use the 4 station orbit watering controls and it waters for me every day.....coupled with Mister micro sprinklers from Lowes. It would be a easy solution to your vacation watering problem.

Bamboo,

I live around 8 miles from you and just to show how radical the climates can be in slightly differing areas, I'm still picking the last of my blueberries and my pepper plants have completely shut down for the summer. Hard to believe 8 miles can make such a difference.

Lou

Lou,

Wow that really surprises me. I would think in your screened area they would soar all summer. There has to be more of a reason than just a different micro-climate. I have found that the peppers do much better if they are on rich soil and then pretty severely crowded. So your peppers are healthy but have simply stopped flowering and setting fruit?

What varieties of blueberries do you grow? Perhaps you have a later type?

Bamboo,

It was hard to read the faded tags but Emerald, Blue Jewel, Gulf Coast, tags were readable, I think another was Southern Belle if I remember correctly. There's a couple others that the tags are completely faded. One of the faded tag ones is still producing berries and some berries are still green as this variety of high bush was supposed to be a long season producer.

I'm looking to buy Triblue(hot weather), Sharp blue(hot weather), Abundance(new variety hot weather), Spring High(hot weather), and Bluejay(zone 4-9) from Hirtsgardens on eBay.

Lou

Sounds like you guys are blueberry lovers just like I am! :-)

Sheri

We have a lot of the same varieties but mine have been done for weeks. I just planted 9 sunshine blue this spring and two southern belle. I also have quite a few Windsor and Millennium as well as a couple rabbiteye types but they are still young. You could have got the Sharps from that commercial grower outside of Brooksvile, he was selling 8 year old HUGE plants in 25 gallon pots for $10 each as they were switching to a earlier type and switching from pot culture to field grown, they sold 100's of Windsor, Millennium, Gulf Coast and Sharps. Only drawback was the weight, at 75-100 pounds each planting them was a chore. He said he may sell more of the mature plants again next spring as the transition continues (he has 1000's. If you are interested just drop me a note at bamboo_rabbit@hotmail.com

Bamboo,

It may be the variety of pepper I planted rather than the weather. If I remember correctly they also stopped during last summers heat too, so I may have planted the same dang ones again. DUH

I just finished buying those five blueberry bushes from Hirtsgardens plus the Southern Belle too, in case I was mistaken about having it or wanting it.

Lou

Sheri,

Sorry for going a bit afield on your thread, hope you don't mind. Far as the blueberries you bet..I'm not sure if I could have too many BB bushes....the crumbles and cobblers...BB on our cereal and oatmeal....dried and added to granola....I roll them across the tile floor and the dogs chase and eat them......just a perfect food.

Lou,

It is all trade offs...I plant California wonder, cubanella and Giant Marconi (and a couple of other types) as well as a pepper from seeds I saved that they sell at that fruit stand down on Croft Avenue. I crowd the peppers so they shade the fruit and help to keep the soil cool and in 100% shade under the peppers and that is why I think they produce for me all summer. I plant a double row with just 12 inches between rows and 15 inches between each plant in the row, which is close when you consider the plants are chest high on me. The trade off is the close spacing makes the plants vulnerable to frog eye and bacterial spot. They both pop up every summer and as long as it is controlled it does not seem to hurt very much. I think this winter I will be some types that are resistant and see how they do.

Sherri,

I'm also sorry for going afield on your thread when I found a two legged bamboo_rabbit in my back yard that loves blueberries too. I would say we three are blueberry lovers. I didn't answer to your question because I grow my blueberries in containers in my screenhouse, and not outdoors all the time, that could make a difference. I put them outdoors after the fruiting season (around mid summer)and leave them out all winter only bringing them back in the screenhouse when they set fruit so the birds don't get to them.

billbrandi,

I would have some concerns about the chlorine vapors emanating from your swimming pool affecting the leaves on the blueberry plants, but If you are using the ionizer method of pool maintenance then that wouldn't be the source problem of leaf yellowing.

bamboo_rabbit,

I also crowd my pepper plants in my 5 gallon pails. I sprinkle seeds in the pail growing mix that I make, lightly cover the seeds with coir, sprinkle on water and then let them fight it out for dominance. The strong survive and usually set good peppers. I have another pot started for the fall season. I love my western 'sammiches', eggs from my chickens, peppers & onion etc. from my garden, ham from from my kids raising pigs.
It sure don't smell like heaven 'round here but it tastes heavenly.

Lou

Lou,

It could be that the difference in our peppers is that mine are in the ground and yours are in pots.

Great chatting with other blueberry lovers. :-) Mine are Sunshine Blues. Very sweet and 'blueberry-tasting' when you leave them on till they just drop off in your hand.

So other good varieties for zone 10b would be Emerald and Blue Jewel? How about Southern Highbush? Do you order some of your plants from catalogs? I saw a variety at Lowe's a couple of months ago. Think it was the S. Highbush.

Sheri

Thanks Sherri,

That was the name on one of the faded tags that I couldn't quite make out the writing. I have to agree with you about the wonderful taste of Sunshine Blue. I also like the nice big size of the berries.

The name 'southern highbush' is the type rather than the name of the individual hybrid. The southern highbush blueberry is a relatively new type of blueberry and is a hybrid of the northern highbush and one or more native southern rabbiteye blueberry species. Buying any of the southern highbush 'hot weather' types would probably work well for your area.

When I find a blueberry bush that works well for me I propagate cuttings of that bush. Why waste your trimmed wood by tossing it out when you trim your plants after berry production? It's fairly easy to do and the new starts will start producing berries in approximately three years. You can go to the 'Plant Propagation' thread on GW to learn how to propagate blueberries.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/propa/msg0711145832642.html

Lou

Bamboo,

That may be why my peppers shut down, being in pots the dirt probably warms up, where yours being in the ground the dirt stays a little bit cooler. I just bought some Giant Marconi pepper seeds (yours looked super)and will give those a try when they come in.

Do you propagate your bb bushes when you trim or do you waste that good growing wood? I try to propagate all my trimmings on all wooded plants. I have sticks poking out of pots everywhere and quite a number of them catch on and grow.

Lou

Sherri,

Where you live I would pay very close attention to the chill hours required and use that as the controlling factor in varieties chosen. Lou and I are lucky as where we live we have a huge list of cultivars to pick from. I planted 9 of the sunshineblues this spring and they are growing great so in a year or two they should start to produce well.

Lou,

I propagate tons of bamboo so have misters on timers for that but have not propagated any of the blueberries. I have a LOT of BB bushes, close to 50 and frankly I try to save the remaining spots for new varieties. I do keep the bigger trims from when I do the cane renewal as those canes are great in the smoker for meat or fish......BB smoked Cobia is to die for.

Thanks for the blueberry info. That's neat about being able to propagate the plants, but I don't know if I can wait three whole years for berries! lol

I'm still getting some small berries now but the birds beat me to it. What do you guys cover your plants with? Especially when they're in containers? A few gardeners said inexpensive muslin. How do you rig your coverings up?

Thanks,

Sheri

Sherri,

When I lived up north I had a greenhouse to start & grow my selected plants and to extend the season. When I moved to Florida I knew a double pane glass greenhouse would not work well here. I noticed people had lanai's to sit in and enjoy the outdoors without the bugs & skeeters tormenting them. My garden here was always being raided by the bugs & critters so I built a huge screened greenhouse like an oversize lanai. Sylvia calls it my garden fortress. LOL

This is what I use to cover my plants.

Lou

Sherri,

I do not cover my BB. I have enough bushes that I don't begrudge the birds a few. The only birds that seem interested in the berries here as a rule are the cardinals. They do tend to break small limbs while going for the berries and that is more annoying than the ones they eat.

The best way to cover the bushes is a overhead wire, then the netting strung over the wire kind of tent style and closed at the ends. Of course if your bushes are spread out that won't work.

Wow, Lou, what a great enclosure!

Bamboo, I might try something like you mentioned.

Thanks guys.

Sheri