First, I'll state the obvious---you bought them, so you might as well plant them now. I think it would be a lot harder to keep them happy in whatever sized container they're in now for the rest of the summer than to keep them happy in the ground.

Also, there is a reason they were half-off----Wal-Mart needed to get rid of them and they knew that not many folks will buy and plant fruit plants in the summer because it is risky to do so.

Scott is our most experienced and successful blueberry grower on this forum, so hopefully he'll see this thread and respond. However, in case he is out of town and not on the computer much right now, I'll link a previous thread where he described how he planted his.

The key thing to understand is that blueberries need a soil pH that is in a very specific acidic range, and they need very well-drained soil. Generally, in order to get soil that drains as well as they need, you will have to amend it.

If you read Scott's thread on how he planted his and what he used to amend the soil and realize you cannot do that sort of amending right now, then you could pot them up into a somewhat larger container using a soil-less mix that drains very well. If you do this, you must pay close attention to watering them, and check them every morning and every night because plants in containers can dry out incredibly fast in summer.

Good luck with your blueberry plants,

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous Thread on Growing Blueberries

If you can water them every day, it might be best to pot them up in a big pot with part peat moss and part potting soil. Then you could put them in the ground in October. That is a lot of work, though.

When you put them in the ground, the most sure-fire method for me would be to buy a 3 cubic foot bag of Canadian Sphangum peat moss. Then dig out a circle 10 inches deep and 4 feet across. Mix the peat moss about 80/20 or 90/10 with a little native soil mixed into it well and fill the big hole until just an inch or so above ground level. Wet it totally (which is kind of fun) to saturation and sink the plant in the middle making sure to scratch the outside of root ball up and spread the roots a bit. The top of the root ball should be even or just a tad below the peat moss level. Then cover the entire 4 ft wide area with 2 inches of pecan shells (best) or pine mulch. Save back some mulch to late fall to bring it up another inch.

Make sure to water every week to saturation of the peat moss during growing season forever and keep your fingers crossed.

This is all very expensive, but if I just had a few plants I would go all out and do this to make sure they live 8 years or more.

It may be beginners luck, but my neighbor has some fair looking blueberries. They are planted on a rocky hillside in mostly native soil. He did say he added sulfur to the soil and they are mulched with pine shavings. I think he said they were Tiff Blueberries.

I tried many years ago to grow blueberries and did not get them to live one year.

I have only tried northern highbush, so I don't know how the other types do. Any time I have had plants look like that at that size they have died the next year unfortunately. I hope that is just how that variety looks.

The three keys to blueberries are soil (artificial), water (all the time), and pruning. It is no coincidence that the only remaining plants that I have that are in great health are the ones on the end of the rows that the deer have nibbled the ends of the shoots off of each year. They only set half the berries of the others because of the deer, so they have always done well.

My neighbor knows very little about growing blue berries, and I know nothing about growing them. I just went up on the hillside and mulched his plants because he has had cancer surgery and unable to go to the mill and get the shavings and spread them. He was afraid the hot weather was going to kill them after he has 4 years invested in them. I doubt that he even prunes them, but the deer may do it for him. He is the only person that I know that grows blueberries and he only has 10 or 12 plants, I just don't believe they do well here. It is hard for me to understand how he grows anything in that shallow, rocky soil.

TifBlue is a rabbit-eye blueberry. They are fairly easy to grow. I've grown them in two places over the years. The first place had better soil so they grew quite large. Where we live now, I didn't improve the soil much, just with some rotted leaves and soil sulfur. We have alkaline soil and water here, so we throw some soil sulfur on once in a while. We haven't fed them much during the last few years since it is so hot and dry. I'm afraid that might stress them too much. They don't grow fast but they do grow. We get plenty of blueberries for fresh and frozen. We've been on restricted watering for quite a while now. We can water only twice a week, from 12 AM to 9 AM. It doesn't seem to bother the bushes to only be watered twice a week. Most rabbit-eye blueberries need another variety near by, but I've read that TifBlue doesn't.

I think rabbit-eyes are a lot easier to grow. The plant in the picture has a few nice shoots so it may do OK. Once the berries are gone for this year it will normally put out some new shoots if it is in good shape. If they have very many berries when small they sometimes never recover.

The little native blueberry plants we found last summer in the north woods of Minnesota were on hills in sandy, rocky soil. Maybe it is just the big highbush plants that need the totally artificial environment here.