Once ideal soil pH is achieved, fertilize with acidic fertilizers, Cottonseed meal or Ammonium Sulfate based fertilizers.

Rabbiteye blueberry plants are less vulnerable to soil problems and can grow with a 5.0 pH. (In comparison, beans and lettuce need pH 6.0 to 7.0, azaleas 5.0 to 5.5, and hydrangeas 6.0 to 6.2.)

Soil drainage and moisture are important since blueberries require moist soil but roots will rot or suffocate in standing water during the growing season. If the top one-inch of soil is dry anytime during the growing season, irrigation is needed. Soil moisture should be checked every day. Pruning is also important since all flowers must be removed the first year before fruit forms so the plant can mature before bearing begins.

In following years, pruning is done during plant dormancy to keep the plants healthy. Thin the inside growth, remove weak, dead or dying limbs. Highbush plants require more pruning; Rabbiteye plants develop more extensive root systems so they can support more plant growth.

Prune Bluecrop Highbush plants by one-third each year. Fertilization of blueberries should be cottonseed meal since or ammonium sulfate based fertilizers. Use caution with ammonium sulfate types as they can be over-applied and damage the roots. Slow release fertilizers such as Osmocote can also be used to avoid burning the roots.

Most Highbush blueberries are self-fertile to some extent but having more than one variety will increase pollination and therefore fruit production. Rabbiteye blueberry plants are non-self fertile and require two varieties to produce fruit.

“In 25 years of growing blueberries I have seen them bloom as early as mid-February and as late as mid-April like they did this year,” Qualls said. “Every single year has been different.

“Bluecrop and Blueray are older varieties that are hard to beat for berry quality and production,” Qualls said. “We will be selling the Highbush plants May 22 and 23."

Finch Pottery and Nursery, www.danfinch.com, telephone (800) 245-4662 sells Highbush and Rabbiteye plants. More mature will produce fruit sooner in your garden. At Finch, 3-year-old plants are $6 each or $3.25 each on orders of 100 plants.

The plant sale at the Muskogee County Conservation District is a fund-raising event to help finance projects such as the development of the newly donated 152-acre nature preserve.

“It costs $50 to $60 an acre to restore land, put in trails, restrooms and other amenities,” Qualls said. “The money we make at the sale benefits those projects.”

The sale will include shrubs (several colors of crape myrtle, forsythia, lilac, wisteria, Rose of Sharon), fruit (blueberry and thornless blackberry) and trees (redbud, red maple and pine).