It depends upon what they are and what you did to them? Are they high bush, low bush, or rabbiteye blueberries? Rabbiteyes are normally more tolerant of southern heat and dought. I'm not sure from your post what part of Georgia you are in or know how hot it's been so far this summer. I can't tell for sure how big those are without a frame of reference for size. Unless those plants and pots are lots bigger than they look, you should pull all the fruit off this year and give the bushes more time to grow. Young fruit trees and bushes will sometimes bloom and bear fruit before the plants are strong enough to support them. It is sort of like kids having babies. They can do it sometimes before they are really ready to do it correctly. These plants look very small and are having to put all the plant's energy into making this small first crop of berries. If you pull the fruit off this year, the plants will be able to put all their energy into building the plant's roots and limbs, otherwise it can stunt the plant for several years. Based upon the relative size of the pots to one another, I'll guess that these are 1/2, 1, and 3 gal containers. The ones in the smaller pots are going through hell in Georgia's sun with those black pots. If they are in direct sunlight, the dirt in those pots is probably hot enough to bake a potato. I've just started trying to grow a home orchard in containers. I've grown fruit trees off and on for nearly 40 years, but I've just started trying to grow them in containers rather than the ground. I'm currently renting a house and wanted fruit trees, bushes, brambles, and vines that I could move when I buy a home and move in a few years. I've got my stuff in 25 gal plastic tote containers (18"*20"*16" generic rubbermaid). I bought light tan ones that I hoped wouldn't get as hot, but the dirt still gets fairly hot around the outside, but my containers are big enough to still give the roots room to grow closer to the center. I used to live in Macon 30 years ago and tried to grow blueberries there with mixed results. I had soil that was 1 foot of sand above brick hard red clay, with high temps and humidity. Some of the highbush had problems, but rabbiteyes did well for me then. The highbush did fine the first spring until summer heat went to 100 and then some looked sort of like this, as if someone hit them with a weedkilling flame thrower. Since my soil was all wrong for blueberries, so I started 9 months ahead of time preparing the soil for them. I dug a pit 5' by 20' and 3' deep and removed all the soil. It was middle of summer, and the ground was so hard I couldn't dig more than few inches with a spade or rototiller. I used a post hole digger for our tractor and dug about 100 holes that were each 3 feet deep. After shoveling out the loose dirt, I filled the pit with straw, horse manure, leaves, and grass clippings with sulfur mixed in to lower the ph. I had a pile about 6 feet above the pit. I let it compost and settle down until it was cooled the next spring. I still had to add several gallons of vinegar to get the ph down to 5 before planting. Not many people were trying to grow blueberries that far south at that time, so all the local nurseries told me it would not work. One nursery where I ordered lots of other trees from agreed to make some special orders for me to get them. I got 15 blueberries of several varieties. More of them survived the first summer than I expected, so the second winter, I made the pit another 10 feet longer and moved the ones that survived around a bit to give them all more room. The 2nd summer I had a really good crop for several weeks. The brownest ones of yours look like they are already gone. You might be able to save the ones with some remaining green leaves, if you pull the fruit, can give them some partial shade from the late afternoon west sun, and can repot the smaller ones into at least 1 gal containers, but preferable 3 gal or larger. Good Luck, Greg

Brandon, thanks for the info on planting. This is new to me, and I just couldn't imagine anything young taking root in the dense soil I had to hack through to dig the hole so amending it seemed to make sense at the time. I can see how it would create an artificial tub now. I guess time will tell if the tree fully takes. I'll try to gauge the soil dampness better. With the sun around here, the surface dries out very quickly. It may well be that I'm not watering enough, though I'm not sure how to judge what's happening down at the bottom of the roots. jqpublic, I'm zone 9 by zip code but San Jose can be in the 8s too. In any case, the apple trees in the neighborhood seem to do very well. (and Ken - don't worry, I'm tickled pink that it set fruit so quickly. I just don't want to kill it!) Thanks for the help, everyone.

Hi Mike You stated the vacuum idea very accurately. I am just suggesting one plant, one month, one vacuuming. Then in spring time lets transplant the tree to gritty mix or 5-1-1 so we go very well from this point on with a tree that otherwise had NO chance. Braun Mike is correct in that you do not want a system that needs the vacuum idea. When I planted my trees I to had way to heavy of mix. My trees suffered and I came up with this vacuum system to pull the trees though the winter to spring when I re planted them. If I had used 5-1-1 or gritty mix my tree would have done very well with no vacuum. My trees grew so well because of the light box and heat It was not the vacuum that worked. The vacuum pulled my trees through what was probably a terminal jam. Mike The only 2 things wrong with my light buckets and hot box is 1) The electric does not pass IBI inspection codes. 2) The garden forum consist almost entirely of people that are flush with money. I work in communities that have residents who work 2 jobs and still rely on soup kitchens to keep from starving. One 5 gallon bucket in a lawn with kale can produce enough greens for one person all year that he/she could NEVER EVER afford at a grocery store $$$$$$$$$$$$. Mike it appears to me that you have NEVER EVER had a REAL problem in your life that amounted to more than an insecure feeling in high school because Joe Sluck's girl friend was prettier than yours. I do greatly respect your tremendous knowledge of growing of plants and citrus trees You trees are admirable. I fear I am Preaching to the wrong group of people in this forum. If there is a few People that I have help with my outside of the bucket thinking then it was worth it to me. There are other forces that are diminishing the citrus forum and it to will come back as we figure out how to correct them. STEVE HAS SPOKEN

Viper75, Thank you for the help! To answer some of the questions. Water comes from the main tap. (I do not have a softener). I live in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA from my understanding the water here is extremely hard. I was using Gypsum and I believe I am using it wrong. The one I have looks like pellets. I was given so many different advices (plus internet) on how to use gypsum. Advice I heard. 1. Just toss it around tree (2 handfuls) 2. Mix it into the soil (dig) 3. Do #1 and then water it 4. Do #2 and then water it. 5. Gypsum is bad for fruit trees - don't let it near the rest (I am trying to grow pomegranate, cara cara orange, apricot, nectarine, plum, mango, and a fig tree) So far, I have done # 1 and # 2 and when after a few days, I noticed the gypsum just clumped up together (not sure if that's what should happen. I have tried a running a few checks. The soil where the avocado tree is highly acidic and its also clay-like. Sprinkler watering was a nightmare. This week I am in the process of converting everything to drip system for better monitoring. The drip ends are 0.5 gph (any recommendations on how long to water that for?) Another advice I was given was to put 2 handfuls of fertilizer and 1 handful of ironite to help the tree (not sure if this worked or now) I have also already removed the soil (a few weeks ago) and replaced it with new potting soil to fix the drainage issue. Please advise.