Your biggest issue is not which variety to grow, but finding or building good soil. While there are pockets of good acidic loamy soils in MTN, it is more typically thin, neutral, clay/chert on limestone bedrock, or if you are up on the Highland Rim, acidic clay/chert. If you have the thin limey soils, then raised beds may be needed. The acidic red clay on the Rim will need lots of organic soil amendments. A soil test is essential. The one variety that has done best for me so far is Ozark Blue. Mine are just coming into good production, or would have been, if not for the big Easter freeze. I do have scattered berries on most varieties, but lost most of the crop on just about everything. Oneal is a good early variety. It needs more acid soil than most, but flowers over a long period, so spring frosts usually only get some of the earlier blooms. Others doing really well are, Legacy, Sierra, Blueray and Aurora. Blueray is probably the most heat tolerant northern highbush. Aurora is very late ripening and also suffered the least damage from the freeze. Star is a newer variety that a friend with a big blueberry farm near Lebanon really likes. It blooms late, but ripens really early. Aurora, Ozark Blue, and Oneal probably have the best fall colors, although most varieties are really good in that area. If you get a chance, go visit Kelly's Berry Farm just north of Lebanon. After many years of growing many varieties, they now grow mostly Ozark Blue, Oneal, and Blueray, along with some of the old rabbiteye standards, Tifblue and Climax. Unfortunately, they will not have any blueberries this year due to the freeze. They do still have some strawberries, although it is getting late in the season. They also should have a good blackberry crop by summer. Avoid the shade as much as possible. I just moved some bushes that got some partial shade. They just did not grow much or produce well at all, but the same varieties out in full sun were doing great. ~kiwinut

I planted 10 unprotected blueberry bushes this spring and something has been occasionally shearing off the growing tips - not eating them, just snipping off anywhere from a few inches to a foot of cane with a clean diagonal cut and leaving the cut piece next to the plant. Likeliest candidates seem to be rabbits or deer, as I haven't seen any groundhogs this year. I don't know if this is going to harm the bushes' growth over the long term and if the critters will back off once the bushes are bigger, but it is distressing. ~emmers

Jen, First of all, I should not be the one responding to you. You see there is no cold frost or so called winter season in Hawaii. Being that this is the first year that I've grown blueberries here in Hawaii, I can only wait and see if it blooms all year. I just picked some the other day. I waited this time after they turned blue to see if they ended up being sweeter and they were. My blueberries have been providing fruit ever since I bought them in August. I have all types. I think the Fruitnut is the one you should be listening to. KennyB

What you are suggesting I have tried on other single stem plants, but was not successful. If it were possible to split the stem, or trunk down through the roots so each half would have some of the crown AND some roots you might do it, but I don't think it is possible with the plants you have. I also do not think any dressing or sealing material would help. Al