No, they can live for a period in nursery pots although the sooner planted in the ground the happier they will be. I'd check to see how rootbound they may be already - if the roots fill the pot, you may want to pot them up a size or two. Ideally, they would benefit from being heeled into mulch or woodchips or sawdust or similar. That would keep the pots cool and help to maintain moisture. Some protection from the hottest part of the afternoon sun is suggested if the heeling in can't be accomplished. Keeping them adequately watered will be the biggest challenge - just evenly moist; not too wet and never very dry.

Thanks for the help. Would we have an even better chance by amending the soil this late (sulfuring, peat OM) and just planting them now? Other resources say it takes 6 months for the soil to get to the proper pH. My uneducated guess says they might stand a better chance in "new" soil than re-potted and heeled in. What do you think?

We bought our first house ever at the beginning of May with awesome garden space and got ahead of ourselves. I'm sure there will be other mistakes, but we've always dreamed of growing blueberries and couldn't wait until we knew enough. Silly us.

I use about a 70/30, Pine bark mulch/Moss Peat mixture when planting Blueberries.
The tap water is about 7.2 pH,so I use a product called pH Minus by Spa-Kem that I picked up in the Spa supplies at Fred Meyer.It is 10% Sulfuric Acid.I put in about a teaspoon to a gallon of water and it brings the water in the pH 5 range.
Also when removing the plants from their containers,tear at the roots with your fingers to loosen the root ball to free them up a bit.
It might be a good idea to test your soil and water's pH. Brady

That's an interesting idea...acidifying the water. I'll have to check the pH of our soil and tap water (water treatment plants can use different methods depending on the water source). Thanks.

GreenTart, I think you are way over-complicating this. Nobody spends six months waiting for the soil pH to change. Also, I don't understand the obsession with purely organic soil amendments. They are temporary; they decompose. I had a place in SW Portland where I grew blueberries very successfully for 16 years (they are still there, but I'm not). I had the usual clay loam: very productive, but not well aerated. Blueberries love a sandy soil, so I tilled the soil, piled about 2 inches of coarse sand on top plus some decomposed Doug fir bark, tilled it in, and planted. Presto, instant sandy loam soil. Then I mulched with wood chips to control weeds. For only two plants, you could buy a few bags of sand at Home Depot. But make sure it's coarse. The sand amends the soil permanently.

I don't think you need to worry about the ph of the city water. The bushes only need to be watered once a week or so during the summer, and then the soil leaches like crazy during the winter. I never did anything special about the city water. And our soils around here are acidic and heavily leached anyway. At my new place in SW WA, I grow all sorts of acid-loving native plants, and irrigate them all with city water.

My bushes grow well without fertilizer, but if you are determined to fertilize, I would use ammonium sulphate, which acidifies the soil, and provides nitrogen in ammonium form, which is appropriate for blueberries. I also sprinkle a little balanced NPK fertilizer on in early spring, just in case the bushes need P or K.

I always had good intentions about pruning the bushes, but I could never figure out what the pruning instructions actually meant. So I have been growing blueberries my entire life without pruning. They do just fine.

Do not use Roundup in the root zone of blueberries and other shallow-rooting plants like rhodies and azaleas. Weed by hand. The sandy loam soil makes it easy to pull weeds.

lilydude is hitting pretty close to the truth. Despite what you may read to the contrary, blueberries grow quite happily in our slightly to moderately acidic soil without a lot of amendments. You don't need a pH of 4.5 or 5.0 and achieving that low a pH is darn to accomplish longterm anyway. Testament to this is all the very established, longterm blueberry plantings throughout the area that never receive any additional attention to lower pH. It is what it is - typically somewhere in the 6-6.5 range. All you need is a reasonable amount of organic matter to help hold soil moisture mixed into the entire planting area and you should be good to go. I would recommend an ARC (azalea, rhododendron and camellia) fertilizer if you feel the need. Properly formulated to supplement the nutrient needs of any acid loving plant and there are organic formulations readily available if that is your desire.

IME, adequate watering is more of a limiting factor for good blueberry production than is soil pH. Consistently moist soil throughout our summer is critical.

Yes, the more we read, the more we feel bogged down with indecision. We realize that if we want to accomplish anything, we need to figure out the critical bits only and not worry about the fine details. Many authors are adamant about certain aspects being crucial or failure will be imminent, but being overwhelmed to the point of inaction is clear failure.

Thanks for the help, and we will get these babies in the ground post haste, and get the drip lines run. You guys are great!

So it's your decision GreenTart,as it should be.
By the way,pruning is a simple concept and procedure,which should be done for Blueberries for shape and more importantly,production.I once was mystified and dreaded it,but after doing it a few times,I look forward to the Winter/early Spring event.
After about five years,the plants oldest canes start losing some of their ability to make as many berries as before.So,I pick two or three of the ones with the greyest,woody and bark peeling and cut them off at ground level with loppers.Then cut any twiggy branches and ones that are not growing somewhat upwards or that are damaged or crossing/rubbing each other.Like most goals of pruning,the center of the plant should be open,so that light and air circulation can be present there. Brady