Only in dry climates where irritation with municipal water is common. User bobby9 is in Pennsylvania, which is a relatively high rainfall climate.
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I am just a fellow with a backyard. Most of my specific compound fertilizers are from Greenway Biotech. This includes my ammonium sulfate. I guess I have been able to keep the granuels dry so they still flow.
A peek at the back side of the bag of the Lowe’s Sta-Green brand general purpose fertilizer shows the amoniacal nitrogen as ammonium sulfate. https://www.lowes.com/pd/
Given the content of N as ammonia and the content of sulfur as ammonia sulfate this one appears to be pretty close to pure ammonium sulfate. I have not looked for it in my local Lowe’s but since it is on their website I would hope that they could at least order it.
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Actually in my area of the state we have calcareous bedrock- limestone, hence my 7.2 soil pH. Our water supply is also alkaline, but we don’t use it for irrigation except a limited amount during drought periods.
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Right, regardless of how hard the municipal water is, there is going to be vastly more rainfall than irrigation, so even if the irrigation water is pretty alkaline, it’s unlikely to ever matter unless extensive irrigation is being used for some weird reason.
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Thanks for pointing that out. I don’t have time to go look, but as stated many fertilizers are around that contain what you need. It just shows you should look at everything.
They add something to help, again why I suggest a product like this instead of just pure ammonium sulfate.
I would agree with that in times I had to use city water, I saw no problems arise as the beds mostly get rainwater. Although I have read many times of users who only use city water, do develop problems. You have to limit the amount.
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Huh. I never thought of that possibility.
That may be one explanation why I have so much trouble trying to grow them in containers with controlled ph.
If I have to adjust ph downward and limit micros and also lower the ph of the water I use to irrigate them, maybe I’ll pass.
Define what you mean by success. 
I don’t get any fruit, because the birds like the berries as soon as they turn white. But I’ve grown blueberry bushes for years, and every year i get a lot of blossoms, and little green fruits, and the plants look healthy. I tried testing for pH when i started, but the pH meter i bought didn’t work, and i decided to just go for it.
But soil in my area is generally in the acid side. And i have added a huge amount of organic material over the years. Every fall, when i clean up the leaves, i dump a lot of shedded oak leaves on the blueberry bushes.
Anyway, I’m sure that blueberries really do prefer acid soil, but they evolved on their own, without people amending their soil, and there are plenty of places they are happy to grow without soil amendments.
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No need to pass. If you need a quick pH adjustment to start, add a little aluminum sulfate to your mix Then side dress with a quarter cup of elemental sulfur each fall so it breaks down over winter. The yearly sulfur will negate any problems from water supply. I still recommend pure peat soil to start because potting mixes usually adjust pH out of blueberry desired range.
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Ok. I’ll try that.
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Come on, Ginda, at least net the things. Of course you will still have to kill your chipmunks to get a harvest but at least Chipmunks wait until fruit is nearly ripe, although they tear off a lot of green fruit in the process. That’s how you can be sure they are there.
My blueberry plants are protected by a permanent chicken wire cage with a hinged door and enough stakes pushed against the top during winter to stop snow from collapsing it. Chipmunks can actually squeeze through 1" chickenwire but birds don’t so you can leave rat-traps exposed inside the cage without killing birds.
I have at least 10 gallons of frozen blueberries from my small stand right now. I just finished eating some with my morning oats. This year there were no chipmunks on my property- that never happened before.
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How long a version of the story do you want? I’ve tried fencing, netting, and rat traps. None of those got me a harvest, for various reasons. I am thinking i might try netting and rat traps again next year, with a different brand of rat trap.
But i have a garage full of expensive netting with a lot of holes chewed into it.
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I also have a hardware cloth cage, including the ground and top. That kept pests off my dwarf cherry tree this year, and i might take out that tree and replace it with a pair of blueberry bushes in the future.
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Earlier in the spring I planted two mature northern high bush varieties one each in a raised bed and half wine barrel using: peat moss, douglasfir bark mulch, amended with some organic acid mix fertilizer, and finally mulched with fir sawdust. These bushes survived the transplant well and produced a decent yield for the season. Next spring I plan to remove all my other in-ground blueberries and plant them in containers.
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We are lucky here as blueberries thrive well. We have a problem keeping moisture in though.Wish we would have worked in peat,perlite or vermiculite when we tilled. Before planting. We broadcast Super Rainbow Pro twice a year and get very nice results. The only downside is it supercharges the weeds as well…lol
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With the help of another person I erected a chicken wire cage for my plot of blueberries in 5 or 6 hours- buried a few inches under the ground. I have observed grey squirrels climbing all over it without entering but I do have to trap out chipmunks most years because I’m too lazy to string some finer black monofilament netting against it- the combination seems to deter chipmunks.
For the last 25 years I’ve enjoyed a generous crop of blueberries (with some cage repair) with the same cage- 25 harvests. Of course, they may not make chicken wire like they used to- that is, galvanized to last and last, but I’ve never made a better investment of time for crop. Never have to spray them and all I do is mulch them every other year with arborist chips and tear out certain weeds like poison ivy. .
The labor is mostly about harvesting the damn fruit. It’s fun up to a point, but in recent years my one full time helper does most of it for a pretty high wage. The blueberries don’t end up coming cheap. .
Swamp Rabbits. Murderers of Blueberry orchards here.
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I lost all 6 seedlings I planted this year to rabbits. They also damaged all of my more mature bushes as well
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I was very stunned. I went out to the blueberry patch and noticed the sole Japanese Biwa my wife bought me for my birthday was ravaged. I mean so badly they literally ate into the heartwood on the trunk where they chewed the limbs away. I’ve never seen a fruit tree chewed out like that. Dang Swamp Cottontails.
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I don’t eat rabbits myself, but you might consider getting your plants back by having the critter!
Hunting or trapping.
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