Acidity is not a preference, it is the whole thing
Blueberries need soil between pH 4.5 and 5.5. Not six, not neutral. Below about 5.5 their roots can take up iron; above it they cannot, however much iron is present. A blueberry in the wrong soil yellows between the leaf veins, stops growing and dies slowly over two or three seasons, and no amount of watering, feeding or sympathy changes that.
So test before you plant, with a cheap probe or a county extension test. If you are above 5.5, the honest options are a raised bed or a large container filled with an acidic mix, rather than trying to acidify open ground, which works for a season and then reverts.
Three habits keep it right once it is right. Mulch with pine bark, two to four inches, renewed yearly, which acidifies gently as it breaks down. Never use lime, and be careful with mushroom compost and most municipal composts, which are often limed. And check your irrigation water, because well water in parts of Lake County is alkaline enough to undo the soil underneath a plant over a few years.
Southern highbush, and why that matters
A northern highbush blueberry needs eight hundred or more chill hours and will never fruit properly here. Southern highbush varieties are bred for low chill: Emerald wants about 250 hours and Jewel about 200, which Central Florida reliably provides. This is the single most common reason a blueberry bought online from out of state never crops.
Plant two
Southern highbush blueberries are self-fertile, so one bush will fruit. But cross-pollination between two varieties gives bigger berries, more of them, and an earlier harvest, and the difference is large enough that we would rather sell somebody two plants than have them disappointed by one. Emerald and Jewel are the pairing we recommend, because they flower together and ripen in sequence, which stretches the picking season.
Feed with an acid-loving fertiliser, the sort sold for azaleas and camellias, and feed lightly. Blueberries have fine shallow roots that burn easily, and too much fertiliser is the second most common way people lose one.
