After all of the rain ended and things heated up, a couple of my blueberries aren’t looking so good. Here is the worst one. What do you think?
Last rained 05/22 about .4"
2" in the last week
Soil seems moist
In ground 4 years
Last fertilized 04/17 with Coop poop and sulfur . 1 cup each
They was a hornet building a nest close to the bush. Could try do damage?
Normally I water then about every 3-4 days when it doesn’t rain.
Don, I am no expert but that plant looks awfully small for a 4 yr old. If that is the case maybe something other than water is the problem. Pic a little farther away would help.
Any herbicides been applied in the area? That resembles some of the herbicide damage/drift I’ve seen.
This is similar to my Southern HB Blueberries that I lost over the last 3 years. They seem to be very fussy with PH levels and I know I didn’t help them by watering them with hard, high PH city water. I have not had this issue with any of my Rabbiteyes. What type of Blueberries are they and where are you located at Don?
Some of that damage is sun scald … no sun followed by too much sun. But they should have taken it better. They should have gotten lots of water in all the rain. You really should not need to water them at all unless its really dry, e.g. mid-August.
I agree with others that you should check the pH. Did you add a lot of peat or similar when planting? The soil type may also not be friendly for them.
No herbicides sprayed. The only thing sprayed recently would have been spinosad.
It’s a Jersey in Central Ohio.
I added peat and sulfur at planting and add 1 cup of sulfur a year. I throw pine needles around it for mulch but realize that probably doesn’t lower the ph.
Ph around here is pretty neutral naturally but I don’t know what the ph really is around the blueberry.
It has been a rough few years for it. It didn’t really do much until last year until I started using rain water to water it. The previous tap water didn’t work well.
Normally, the green growth will wilt if I don’t water at least every 4 days. Is that unusual or do you just let the wilting go?
Attached are zoomed out pics from the morning. Looking a little bit better without the sun hitting it. I removed most of the damaged leaves last night.
One of my Blueberry bushes that looked similar to yours turned out to be borers. When I pulled the plant out it was full of borers in and around the roots.
Could your damage be consistent with the statement shown below, “The internal feeding causes the stem to wilt and the leaves to dry up beginning at the tips.”?
Facts regarding Borers:
•Overwinter as larvae in the hollow blueberry canes where they feed during the summer.
•Larvae are slender, light pink caterpillars.
•The young larvae tunnel into the shoot near the eggs and feed inside the plant tissue.
Damage:
•A small pinhole can be seen where the larva entered the stem.
•The internal feeding causes the stem to wilt and the leaves to dry up beginning at the tips.
•Monitoring for the onset of this symptom can be used to identify the egg-laying period.
•Larvae continue developing into fall and pupate inside the stem.
Control:
•Standard fruitworm controls usually prevent tip borer infestation.
•Pruning infested shoots can help suppress populations.
•Two chemical sprays, one applied at petal fall and the other at first cover, control this pest.
•Contact your local Cooperative Extension Service for control recommendations.
Sources:
•Harrington, Eric and Good, George. 2000. Crop Profile: Blueberries in New York. Retrieved 06 July 2010.
•Isaacs, Rufus. 2009. Blueberry tip borer. Retrieved 06 July 2010.
•Pfeiffer, Douglas G. Terminal borers, tip borers, stem borers and Prionus borers in Blueberry. Retrived 06 July 2010.
blueberries can be tough, another possibility is salt burn from fertilizer, but probably not with all the rain.
Stems are wilting. Not sure that the drying of the leaves is necessarily starting at the tips. Some of it looks like the middle of the leaf. I’m going to look those up though. Maybe dig around in the soil some more but a little worried about harming the roots on an already weakened plant.
Would salt burn apply to organic coop poop? 1 cup 2-4-3 or sulfur? 1 cup. Both on 04/17.
dig it up, are the roots entrenched in the natural soil? or are they circling in the same hole?
Chicken poop can be very hot, they did compost it. But I would not use that product on your blueberries, and may be the issue. Blueberries cannot handle nitrate forms of nitrogen. Excessive amounts can cause plant injury or death. Higher than recommended rates can be damaging causing brown necrotic leaf margins or pale yellow chlorosis of leaves and low vigor, particularly where too little water is applied. Use Holly-Tone or cotton seed meal, if you wish to stay organic. Fertilizer for acid loving plants only.
Not seeing any indications of a borer. I’m hesitant to dig it up for fear of doing more damage.
I wanted to use hollytone or irontone which seems the same with added iron but I was out.
