Springhigh and mild winters

[Blueboy1977]

So this past winter wasn't much of one for us on the TX gulf coast. I didn't record one night of freezing temps for the first time that I can remember. It's shown me something that I was on the ropes about for the last couple years. Springhigh has been one of my hands down favorite for taste the last 4 years. That being said, I always noticed it didn't seem to really produce much in the way of leafs ever. Even when we had several nights of freezing temps and cooler winters. This past winter has put the writing on the wall for me with springhigh. Once again it has good fruit set as always but the leafs are almost nonexistent this spring. I'm not 100% on the chill hour requirements but if I had to guess its between 300-400. We haven't got out of the 200's the last 2 years and it's starting to show. No other problems with Emerald, Sweetcrisp or Raven. To early to tell with Indigocrisp. Looks like I will be getting rid of springhigh after/if the fruit ripens. Kinda heart breaking! I've been showering this plant with sweat blood and tears for 4 years now and this is how it ends! Guess I got room now for another MANGO or LYCHEE

[WillsC]

Rob,

That is the same issue I went through with the rabbits, it just wears the plant down.

Since you mentioned the mango and Lycheee they are LOADED with blossoms. Sadly the one mango had too many blossoms as it snapped the main leader right off one of the Mango trees, the weight of the blossoms was just too much for the tree.......

[Gina]

That is the same issue I went through with the rabbits, it just wears the plant down.

That's a good way to put it. I've had several that have, or are being just worn down. When it's not cold enough over winter, the plants bloom, but just don't put out enough leaves to support either the fruits or the entire plant. O'neal, Star, and Southmoon are/were like that, and perhaps Raven. Raven just blooms and blooms and puts out very few leaves here. Southmoon, one of my favorites, has lots of fruit set this year, but very few new leaves. I did get 3 replacement/back-up Southmoons however.

Rob, sorry to hear about your springhigh. I just tasted my first one the other day, and it was indeed good. But if you are having trouble with yours, I'll probably have trouble with mine in time. Though this year it has put out good leaves. But it's young.

My plan for the coming 12 months is to keep their leaves super healthy with rainwater and serious pruning, so they'll survive next winter as evergreens, and still be green come blooming time so there will be less stress on the plants.

Older low chill standards like Jewel, Sharpblue and Emerald just don't seem to have this problem - they leaf out like demons.

[Blueboy1977]

Good to hear Wills! Hope you get a few mangos this summer. I made the mistake of pugging my mangos this past month and instead of getting nice leaf flushes I got flower flushes where I wanted my scaffold branches to form. Still in the learning curve with mangos. Turns out I shouldn't have pugged them until the flower flush was over. Lessons learned!

Gina, that's why I keep emerald around. The fruit isn't great but it's good and you just can't help but appreciate how easy and productive it is no matter what the weather does. Raven leafed out well this year but it's only in its second season so time will tell. I left one fruit bud on Indigo and every flower held and turned into a fruit! Very promising sign indeed!!!

[drew51]

I'm in a super high chill area and Springhigh wants to come out of dormancy too early here, and would if I had one. I may consider trying depending on how well my other SHB plants do. I have been having a hard time growing them in pots, outside is too cold, the garage is too warm, the shed looks like the next place I'll try.

[figwood1]

Do you have an old michigan well pit around? I got a new well now I use my old well pit for winter storage. I just use a light bulb on a thermostat keep it between 35 to 39 degrees.

[Gina]

More than a year later.....

My Springhigh plants are still suffering from not having quite enough chill hours. But they do have fruits... too many. For the first time, however, I've been able to taste some really ripe ones from a couple branches with fewer fruits,... and am finding the flavor very pleasing. I now can understand wanting to pull this variety through. I'll give them at least another year and make sure I thin the fruits next year. I have 3 of them. One has more leaves than the other two.

Too many of my varieties seem to be marginal here, and all '300 chill hour' varieties do not react the same. There is no way to really know without trying them. Thank goodness I have lots of plants so there is 'enough' berries. I've also noticed the super low chill varieties seem to bloom and be ripe earlier in the season. And those that struggle with the warmer winters are those that tend to ripen slower. There are exceptions of course. Since I want to extend the season as long as possible, that's another reason for keeping the 'high chillers' as long as they are healthy enough to bear.

[drew51]

Seems we are on opposite ends of the climate spectrum. My low chills or more like SHB plants experiments show mixed results. Some do well, others do not. Indigocrisp seems fine. Nobody told it it's not supposed to work here. It is loaded for a small plant. It bloomed along with my Northerns.

If I could send you some chills hours I would! Mine are in the 4 digit range.

[Gina]

If I could send you some chills hours I would! Mine are in the 4 digit range.

Lol, no thanks. I'd love to have a fuller range of blueberry plants to choose from, ...but not at the expense of our lovely winters.

[drew51]

...but not at the expense of our lovely winters.

I would love your winters too! But you can have your summer, not as hot here, easy to be outside all day. I thought about moving to a zone 9 or 10, but I like it here too much. I hate the winters, and they are long, ideally I could leave from January till April 1st. The rest of the year here is fantastic in many ways. I could not live without the fall. Probably my favorite season. The colors, the brisk air, the polarized light from a low sun angle. The smell of burning leaves. And being on subject the red color of blueberry leaves is cool. Some are really nice.