Transplanting established blueberries bushes

Hello everyone,

Several years ago I started a fruit patch that included a couple of rows of blueberries bushes.  In retrospect, I planted them in a terrible place.  The ground is low, difficult to mow, and worst of all, trees (locusts and other trees) adjacent to the blueberries have grown like rockets and spread faster than I can trim, thus heavily shading the blueberries.

I am thinking about moving my blueberries to a better location and I am wondering if I can just dig up the bushes or if that kind of root damage will kill the bushes outright.  I alternately could start from scratch, with little bushes, but I would much prefer to save & revive my existing ones.  My soil is slightly acidic dense clay (ph~6.5) and I live in zone 6b.

I realize that this may not be possible, but if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

If you do try to move them, it is a good idea to trim the bush back some before lifting it in order to help offset root loss. Since blueberries have rather shallow root systems, consider a thorough ground soaking before digging and dig far enough out and under to preserve as much root mass as possible. Also consider moving them when they are dormant to reduce stress. Perhaps a strategy to mitigate berry bush losses should you move them, is to go ahead and propgate the trimmings from the parent bushes. Hope it works!

When I have transplanted stuff, they have done oh so much better while the plant was dormant. During summer, here, they are likely to be severely stunted for a season or two, or even die.