Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL Garden and Farm Moving blueberry palnts

I need to move 4 blueberry plants that are relatively small but producing. The area where they are planted is being annexed into my sheep corral/barn area and the sheep eat pretty much everything that has a leaf on it. Being this late into the growing season, do I need to try to just take the plants and the dirt they are in all at once and basically not disturb the roots, or can they be dug up and re-planted in new soil? These thigs are only about 2ft tall but they all have berries and seem to be doing really well.

I'd fence them in with some sort of welded wire that your range maggots, um I mean sheep can't get through and move them in November. If you move them now they are likely to die.

Yea, I was thinking about that too. I kinda hate to waste the wire and space but I don't want to kill the plants.

Damn sheep.(Kidding, they make great weed eaters).

Im going with Fur's approach. He's a smart feller.

third Furs advice....

Wire it is. Dang it.Thanks fellas - you probably just saved my berries.

What breed you got?

I don't think goats and sheep are as destructive as yall make out. I pass a yard full everyday and they seem like happy content animals just lumbering about.

Katahdin(sp). Hair sheep. One of you guys on here reccommeded them and they are exactly what we needed.

These things would graze a chia pet slick.

That's debatable.

I had all kind of advice, realized I was dollar short and a day late.

I followed Fur's advice and left them in place. Had a few spare cattle panels lying around and just partitioned them off. Also, we've got a wild huckleberry bush that is loaded this time too. Tiny little berries but a ton of flavor. Blackberries will be ready to pick next weekend too I think. Had a few ready Sunday but most are still red.

I'm wondering if they even respond well to being transplanted. I have two that I moved from smaller containers into wine barrels. After a couple months or so, I don't detect any spreading of roots into the new soil. I think they got root bound and I didn't disturb the exterior enough when moving them. They are still alive though and one in particular is producing well.

What kind of soil mix do you have in the barrels? Blueberry shrubs must be planted in acidic soil or potting soil.

I wouldn't move them until November myself. When I plant mine I always break up the root ball, throw a hand full of sulfur, and mix half peat moss with the dirt.

I have just pulled shoots up from around plants in november and did them this way and they lived.

Yea, I would like to start trying to do cuttings off of these and get some more plants going so it wasn't worth it to try and move them and risk killing them.

I've got some blurberry cuttings that looked sort of dry that were given to me by a friend. He said to soak them in water and plant the ones that green up. How long should it take to see some life coming back into these things? They've been sitting in a barrel of water that I keep refreshing for about a month and I'm not seeing much change at all.

I have acidic soil which they like, but we moved then 3 years ago in febuary. This year they finally started doing better. Lots of leaf mulch from the yard and we also use azelia fertilizer. I picked a few hanfulls yesterday. Mabey next year they will produce like they used to. We always have to baby them a few years. We also bury our fish scraps around them.

I found several wild huckleberry plants today and dug some up and brought them home. I dont know if they will withstand this late transplanting so we will see. At least I was smart enough to flag a bunch of others that I can dig up in the fall if these dont make it.