Blueberry dormancy

[fluffybunnyuk]

I planted my blueberries in january, and water them once a month. Theyre definitely not dead because they slurp up all the water. The soil is ph adjusted to 5.1 . I read widely on them before planting them.
I'm tearing my hair out in frustration. They have buds but no sign of growth. Is there any way to jump start it out of dormancy? or am i doomed to wait until next spring for growth.
All i want is a leaf. Just one. Something, anything will do.
I have citrus trees, and they grow like weeds, i have to keep pruning them back. But these blueberries...damn theyre annoying.

[veggiechicken]

Are they in pots or in the ground?
Just wondering when you say they slurp up all the water that once a month doesn't sound like much watering if they're in pots.

[fluffybunnyuk]

Theyre in large 20 inch tubs. The root systems very active under the dirt, Ive been tracking growth of one particular new root, and its very fast growing. Theyre all mostly a healthy white. I water them like my citrus, drenched letting water runout, and then soil litmus tested for ph . But i'm a little old-fashioned, i like growth ABOVE the surface...
Maybe sat in the greenhouse they missed this years wake up its spring signal?

[Runtpuppy]

I have 4 different varieties (to spread the fruiting season a bit) and all of them have leaves now. The earlies are even flowering.

I am wondering if watering once a month is just enough to keep them alive but not enough to get them out of dormancy. Could it be that they think it's a period of drought and it's safer to be dormant and survive till there's more water? Do blueberries 'think' like that?

I personally water them at least once a week if there's no rain and if the soil is dry, maybe more than once a week. They are in 30ltr pots.

[veggiechicken]

Try scratching one of the branches gently with your fingernail to see if its its green below the bark.
Several of my blueberries died back last year (outdoors, no cossetting) but they've grown new shoots this year and are leafed up.

[fluffybunnyuk]

Thanks veggiechicken,
Theyre green and alive,but just sat there with tiny closed buds. Maybe theyre still in shock. It took a pothos i moved and repotted,4months before it showed any signs of growth. So no fruit from them this year. I'll see how the summer pans out,'ll make the trip to the supermarket for blueberries instead. Its no biggie, i'll get 20lbs of fruit from other things so its not a big problem just frustrating. I can only assume it'll be late to everything this year. soprobably the best idea is to pinch anything other than growth off if it comes and wait for next year.

[veggiechicken]

Where do you live? If you can grow citrus like weeds it must be somewhere warm!!

[fluffybunnyuk]

central london.Theres this wierd heat zone haze effect thing.Its usually several degrees warmer at night than outside london. All the concrete and bricks warm up, and function like a big heat sink. anywhere from the centre out to acton seemingly is great for citrus....

[It never rains..it pours]

You may be on the right track with lack of chill hours. I use to keep blueberry, raspberry , etc in greenhouse in winter and think it was an error so leave them outside for winter and bring in early spring formsome for early fruit. My greenhouse blueberry died and it was either chill hours or the vine weevil it had with no birds to eat them

[fluffybunnyuk]

Blueberry varieties require upto a thousand hours of chilling. Chilling temperatures are above freezing, between 35°Fand45°F. We probably begin to accumulate chilling hours sometime in November. The plant will not grow until this chilling requirement is completed.

Oops. Well thats taught me. No blueberries for me then this year. At least i found an answer. I'll stick them in the car come autumn, and take them on holiday to somewhere cold like up north, and bring them back for the spring.

[Lady BlackThumb]

central london.Theres this wierd heat zone haze effect thing.Its usually several degrees warmer at night than outside london. All the concrete and bricks warm up, and function like a big heat sink. anywhere from the centre out to acton seemingly is great for citrus....

I like your username. It gives me warm fluffy feelings.

I do miss the weird greenhouse effect you get in London, but deffo not the polluted air / traffic!

[fluffybunnyuk]

Before i went plant mad, my property usually had co2 levels above 1000ppm.
Now my co2 meter reports as low as 350 sometimes. Usually when the big sanseveira's i have in the bedroom are busy soaking up all the co2 they can find.
It all started long ago with bad air quality and getting a monstera deliciosa....
But thats a long really boring story i should save for a rainy day...