Sorry for the epic gardening saga to follow. I have 2 half-high varieties of blueberries (Northblue & Jellybean) that are in 10-gallon grow bags. I bought them three years ago as two-year-old plants, I think, put them in a 50/50 mix of peat and potting mix, and then a bunch of life and health issues got in the way of gardening. They survived three years of ignorance and almost total neglect, not realizing how shallow their roots are the first year and scrubbing fertilizer into their roots that first year, and my non-gardening husband adding sulfur in really large amounts. He meant well. I took the pH this spring and it was at 3!

I'm making it a point to start gardening again for my well-being and I am hoping to nurse my babies back to health. We got about 15 blueberries last year and we pinched the buds the previous 2 years. The leaves were red-tinged last year. I have re-potted (re-bagged?) them into a mix of pine bark, peat, a pinch of perlite, a handful of worm castings, a handful of sulfur, and a couple handfuls of DTE Acid Mix and covered them with pine bark mulch. My husband had just put the old bags on the ground so unfortunately they grew into the soil and I had to rip those roots out of the soil. They're now on u-posts that cross over stacks of pavers (elegant, I know). We rent so I don't want to put them in the ground.

Plus, about a third of the Northblue's crown ripped from the roots as I was trying to repot by myself and couldn't get the momentum to level it in the new bag without a bit of force - the 50/50 peat and potting mix was so compacted around the roots after 3 years that I was trying to spray it off with a hose and eventually gave up out fear of doing more harm than good, so it was very heavy. The Jellybean was easier; I scrubbed the roots a bit around the outside and bottom to loosen the compacted soil and then made extra sure that the soil was level in the new bag before I put it in.

I waited a week and then, after saturating the soil, fertilized with 1 gallon of Jack's Acid Special split between the two. I was conflicted between their lack of being fertilized and lack of growth over the past few years and wanting them to recover from such an assault on their roots (especially poor Northblue).

I also got a new Reka that I put in a 7-gal bag with the same bark/peat mix. The oldest cane must be more than three years - it's gray and the bark is peeling off. I know I'll need to pot up the Reka but I didn't realize I had run out of 10-gal grow bags. I haven't fertilized the Reka yet.

Questions:

- Should I pinch all/some of the flower buds on the Northblue and/or Jellybean? What about the Reka - I think it's very clearly over 2 years old, even though I just bought it.

- When should I next fertilize?

- I did notice that some of the roots had a brown coating - is this normal? They were white inside but had a brown sheath-like material outside. Some of the upper roots where the massive amounts of sulfur were applied are definitely dead.

- Do half-highs need pruning? Northblue has a productive cane that could not be growing in a more irritating and inconvenient direction (about a 40 degree angle from the ground and 2 1/2 feet out from the grow bag). I did prune according to high-bush recommendations (twiggy growth, dead canes, crossing growth, low-growing shoots, shoots that will be shaded by the outer growth) but left most of the canes except obviously weak ones. I think it's too late to prune now (I'm in zone 6a).

- Do the Jellybean and/or Reka have recommended cross-pollinators, or any variety will do? I see that Northblue does better when paired with Northcountry, but I kinda wanted to get a Northland or a Blueray. We're obsessed with blueberries so I wanted to add one more member to the family after Reka.