[nafex] northsky/northblue-blueberries
Ginda Fisher
ginda at concentric.net
Sun Nov 18 16:13:36 EST 2001
I have both. Mine are about as old as yours. The first year, against
all advise, I let them fruit, and got a smattering of berries. The
first fall, the set a good crop of buds. The second spring, the buds
had all been stripped off. (It happened in about a week, late in the
winter.) I got only a couple of flowers, and they produced another
smattering of fruit. The second winter, I set up a fence. I got a good
crop of buds through the winter. One of the Northblues set so much
fruit I was worried for its health. It didn't grow a lot of foliage.
We had a very dry spring, and at some point it dropped most of the
fruit. I got a couple of handfuls of berries all told. So maybe you
don't want to take my advice. I think my bushes are still immature,
though. A dozen fruit buds on six plants sounds like very few. My
plants are small and scrawny, but have about a dozen fruit buds per
plant.
The northblue is larger and more fruitful than the Northsky. All but
one of my plants look healthy, with minimal die back. I have had a
running battle with chloriosis, and keep trying to acidify the soil.
(Which seems to have worked, finally.) The northblues are now about a
foot by a foot. The northsky is much smaller - maybe a bit larger than
yours, but not much. The other cultivar I grow in the same plot is St.
Cloud, which is the largest of the three, and as such is easiest to
manage. For example, I can mulch it without fear of burying the plant.
They're probably 18 inches tall by a foot wide.
All three are very tasty. I'm still anticipating that they will get
larger and more fruitful with age. Wish me luck :)
Ginda
del stubbs wrote:
>
> Does anyone have either of these? It might help me compare.
> Thanks to Ginda's comment about examining buds...altogether on six 3 year
> old plants I found about a dozen of what looked like fruit buds. Most plants
> showed 1/2 dead wood, 3 plants were only 6" diameter and 4" to 5" tall.
> Thanks! Del, in N. Minnesota where we just got a half hour hole in the
> clouds for the Leonids, some show!
More information about the nafex
mailing list