Over wintering blueberry bushes

[Can the Man]

I have 3 blueberry bushes, different varieties, 1 has lost all its leaves, 1 has lost about half its leaves and the 3rd has barely shed a leaf.
I have them all potted in large pots and they are currently outside, I am wondering if I should move them into the poly tunnel for the winter or are they a hardy enough bush. ?

[veggiechicken]

Mine are planted out, and have been for several years.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Mine are out in the ground and have been for several years also. We can get really hard frosts but it doesn't seem to touch them

[Can the Man]

Thanks VC and AP, did you plant out in erracious compost.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

Mine are in pots and stay out all winter, they've survived -15C, very hardy.

[muck lover]

I have some blueberries in large pots of ericaceous compost and they are fine outside. Including the beast from the east year. I bring them into the polytunnel when they are having their fruit as the local birds eat all the fruit otherwise. I’m more worried about them being too hot in the polytunnel than too cold outside in winter!

[ameno]

They naturally come from a climate that gets very cold in the winter, so they were very hardy.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks VC and AP, did you plant out in erracious compost.

No but camellias grow well here so I think the soil may be suitable for blueberries.

[greenishfing]

Mine live outside in large pots of ericaceous compost and the leaves have turned to a lovely red colour recently. I intend potting them on into bigger pots shortly.

[Can the Man]

Thanks everybody looks like they will be staying out in pots.

[lolie]

I just bought two blueberry plants and it specifically says on the care instructions that they need frosts in order to be productive (one variety says it needs 1000 hours of chill), so definitely leave them outside.

[fluffybunnyuk]

Thanks for that lolie. Just off to relocate mine to somewhere cold.Mines still putting out leaves because i forgot to water it...
Pesky things are harder to look after than it first appears.

[nickdub]

"Pesky things are harder to look after than it first appears."

that observation applies to many things I've found over the years - same could be said about my wife for example.

[carolefu]

With the 1 blueberry I have in a pot, I am going to repot in new eracacious compost with a little eracacious fertilizer at the end of the month, as now is the best time to buy blueberries/or repot them. Don't use tap water to water blueberries. Try & save some rainwater if you can - this is when a water-butt comes in handy

[lolie]

Thanks for that lolie. Just off to relocate mine to somewhere cold.Mines still putting out leaves because i forgot to water it...
Pesky things are harder to look after than it first appears.

In all the articles I read on growing blueberries - and how easy they are to grow - none mentioned chill hours requirements. At most, it was mentioned in passing that they need a couple of frosts, when the reality is that they require hundreds of hours of <7C temperatures for some varieties and over a thousand hours for others.

One of the varieties I bought requires a thousand and we get around six hundred and fifty. I'm not sure why the garden centre even sells that variety. For the next few years I can stick it in the fridge for a while during winter but that won't be an option once it's fully grown.