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Overwintering Blueberries

Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
edited September 2020 in Fruit & veg
One of my little successes this year has been a putative blueberry grove.

That is, some blueberry bushes bought between late May and July, all of which have now doubled in size after repotting. A couple even gave me a few blueberries. Though I am still waiting for a couple from Primrose.

The plan is to sit in a deckchair, eating blueberries and ice-cream, listening to Fats Domino. And I do not want to wait too long.

If i bring these into my conservatory for the winter will they continue to grow at all through the winter? Or am I being too hopeful, and is it just about frost protection, and I will only get the earliest possible start next year.

The conservatory is north facing, normally not heated but very well insulated and sometimes open to the house. It is where I have microveg.

Cheers

Ferdinand



“Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
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  • SkylarksSkylarks Posts: 379
    edited September 2020
    Personally, I would leave them outside in a sheltered spot to toughen them up. You can place them in the conservatory to protect them from frost once they start flowering next year.

    Edit: I will say, I don’t have that much experience though. I only have one pink lemonade blueberry bush. So, see what others say.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    They're tough plants.
    Mine are in pots outside 365 days a year.
    I think if you bring them indoors you'll confuse them and they may start budding too early.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited September 2020
    I agree with @Pete.8   we've got three bushes ... quite large now  as we've had them three or four years ... they sit outside on our eastfacing terrace here in eastfacing East Anglia with the north-easterlies blowing in straight from the Siberian Urals ... they're perfectly happy.   :D

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
    edited September 2020
    Pete.8 said:
    They're tough plants.
    Mine are in pots outside 365 days a year.
    I think if you bring them indoors you'll confuse them and they may start budding too early.
    So that would suggest breaking out the bubble wrap perhaps for the small ones, or the very small ones if they arrive.

    Or do nothing.

    I am at 600ft in North Notts.

    “Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited September 2020
    I'd simply put them in a sheltered corner oiut of the worst of the weather and leave until spring.   :)

    If the small ones are very small indeed perhaps rig up a well ventilated cold frame sort of thing for them.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Chrissy the gardenerChrissy the gardener Posts: 1,072
    I agree with Pete 8 they are deciduous plants so need the colder weather to rest in the winter. Mine are in large pots and stand outside all year, they also have the bonus of having lovely foliage colour before the leaves drop.
    I have to keep mine in a small fruit cage in the summer so We can enjoy the fruit rather than being food for the birds.
  • Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
    Dovefromabove said:
    I'd simply put them in a sheltered corner oiut of the worst of the weather and leave until spring.   :)

    If the small ones are very small indeed perhaps rig up a well ventilated cold frame sort of thing for them.
    That's a thought - I do have a cold frame which will be a bit less submerged now that I have tackled the blackberry and have a beady eye on the sideways ambitions of the bamboo.
    “Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    Blueberries like dappled shade so excessive sun and or drought will kill them off before frost. You could wrap the pots in bubble wrap if the weather turns severe to prevent the roots from being frozen. If you force them into flower too early the bushes will be weakened and normal fruiting will be affected.
  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 380
    I'm lucky to live opposite a PYO blueberry farm in Dorset, the bushes are out in the open, sunny, in all weathers and now many years old. Picked a couple of kilos from just 2 bushes.
    East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.
  • Chrissy the gardenerChrissy the gardener Posts: 1,072
    Mine are out in full sun , I have four bushes and they crop really well just keep fed and watered .

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