Thornberry there is nothing in your address to indicate where you are gardening, and without that reference advice is difficult. Al

Al, the original post says "I live in the Inland Empire area" which includes Riverside and San Bernardino. Sometimes those living in communities to the west of it say they live in the IE area because it is so far east from Los Angeles.

So with that regional info, you need to know that Japanese beetles aren't there as yet.

The grubs are from something else. Hard to say what.

As for just who they are, and if they're damaging the roots -- roots die for various reasons -- I suggest you call you county's Extension Service Office.

Use this clickable map to find the office info -- http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

Hope you've saved some of the critters because the office people will want to see them.

Here is a link that might be useful: locate your Extension SErvice Office

unfortunately when she watered them she did it in the middle of the day and sprayed the leaves directly.

Probably helped rather than hurt.

It was recommended to me to plant blue berries in straight azalea/camellia mix. That has worked very well. Mine have been growing and producing for several years. I give them morning sun/afternoon shade as they are not particularly heat lovers.

I wonder if you bought very small plants in the first place and then subjected them to the climate of the inland empire. Did you start with very small plants? It might have been better to start with larger plants.

Sometimes very small plants are not worth the money unless you can TLC them into some growth. You garden in a tough climate for blueberries, even the heat-tolerant kind.

Thornberry;

Your blueberries were doomed from the start. There's no way you can make your soil acid enough for them to thrive; you need to dig a big hole, discard the dirt you dug out of it, and replace with 1/3 miniature bark, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost. mix a cup of soil sulphur, a cup of ironite, and 1/2 cup of ammonium sulphate with each hole. Plant the blueberries (any size in the spring) and get them on a drip system with a timer. For the grubs, apply milky spore. If you do this, they can laugh at the heat and be the productive weeds they're meant to be. Lowering soil pH is very difficult, and if the blueberries don't have the acid they can't process nitrogen, and die a slow, painful death.

It was said "For the grubs, apply milky spore."

When I lived in CA, an entomologist told me that milky spore doesn't work for the sort of grubs in SoCal.

Get the critters correctly identified by the Extension Service, then ask what if anything to do about them.

Hi Thornberry,

I had a similar experience with my blueberries recently. Not exactly the same problems as yours but I too put them in the soil without amending or acidifying it and applied on it an acidic fertilizer.

Surprisingly, all adapted well to this, except one, Misty, which really seemed to be doomed. As a last resort method, I dug holes around the current dripline of this plant and put in sulphur, then spread sulphur around the topsoil and drenched it in water.

As the weather has been warming up, I notice new leaves being thrown by this sick plant. In the meantime, I've amended soil around all others with sulphur too and they have nice green leaves. Not as dark green as I've seen in the pictures, but these are in a spot where they get direct sun for 6-7 hours each day, and dappled shade in the afternoon.

Net-net: I would not write off your blueberries yet.

BTW, I recently visited my trusted nursery and asked the person (whom I consider knowledgeable) the same question: whether it's necessary to plant blueberries in acidic soil in the ground or just apply acidic fertilizer. This person had previously guided me to grow 2 varieties of blueberries in the container and I have had excellent growth for past 5 years or so. He confirmed that, even in the ground, it's not necessary to amend the soil, but it's sufficient to use acidic fertilizer.

Just sharing my experience!!

Jean001a, California does not have county extension offices. They did back in the 80s, but closed them down a long time ago. Sort of strange for the state that produces more agricultural products than any other state.

Thank you everyone for all the help and input so far, I'll be making a trip to the local nursery to get some more supplies.

I grew some Blueberries in our native alkaline clay soil, well-amended and mulched. One of them died a slow death; the other survived long enough to be rescued into a pot. I bought two more this year and and planted them today in a large pot following (more or less) the recipe on Dave Wilson's site (I used a good potting soil but I don't know if it is a forest-based mix). I'll pot them up into larger pots in the fall.

The rescued plant is putting out some nice healthy foliage and is loaded with berries. I add some used coffee grounds to the surface now and then. It seems very happy in its new home.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberries in Containers

Here's a page that provides in-depth information about the care and feeding of organically-grown blueberries.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberries

@Jenn thank you have been very helpful, and I really appreciate it.