Good luck and enjoy the fruit! Good job so far. You know the more plants you kill the better gardener you areš
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My natural pH is upper 4s to low 5s.
There are many kinds of organic mulch, so this info isnāt very clear.
I wouldnāt put much stock in the work of a single researcher in anything horticultural, and in this case, the research completely defies 30 years of anecdote for me. How many different soil types and climates would you have to test this theory in to establish it as fact? How many varieties of āorganic mulchā? Perhaps this is only an issue when there isnāt ample rain during the growing season, and it only matters in plots that require irrigation and only the needed amount of water is used, thereby a failing to flush out excess potassium. Perhaps the soils (soil?) where itās being tested donāt encourage deep rooting (minimal irrigation also encourages shallow rooting) and predominantly surface roots are in an extremely high potassium layer. There are many other variables that could confuse correlation with causation.
For over 30 years Iāve maintained my own blueberry patch with heavy applications of wood mulch and every season my plants reward me with gallons and gallons of blueberries from 8 plants. I have no control to establish a clear connection one way or another, but I do not desire larger crops- I pick as much as 2 gallons a picking during harvest season and fill my freezer with them. Iām eating some from my freezer even as I write this and I may not finish all of them Iāve frozen before harvest begins again.
Researchers naturally exaggerate the significance of their efforts just as the rest of us exaggerate the significance of our anecdotes. Even in the much more researched world of human health, for decades it was assumed that a glass of wine a day was a positive habit for heart health, now any alcohol ingestion is considered a statistical liability to ones health.
So we have to use a combination of research, anecdotes from experienced growers and our own catalogue of experiences in our own soil and climate to develop best methods.
Iām a dry farmer (no irrigation) and there are always going to be dry spells even in my humid climate. Mulch is my holy grail. However, I donāt use it for established apple trees prone to corking, where I believe the excess potassium correlation is causation. I dial it down for all my established trees because I believe that over a decade or more of annual apps of wheel barrows of mulch for most fruit tree species creates a soil that holds excess available water, diluting brix, but Iāve not noticed this being a problem for blueberries. They seem to reach about the same sweetness in wet and dry years.
Not that I expect anyone else to accept my anecdotes as the holy grail.
Iām not saying sawdust isnāt a great mulch, but where I live it is woodchips from arborists that is the free mulch source.
file:///C:/Users/aland/Downloads/ShihShuiHo1953.pdf
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Iām thinking most users here are going to have trouble getting to that link. 
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Douglas fir sawdust mulch worked well for my blueberries last year, I think this recommendation came from Oregon State. However, the researcher late Dr.Strik (?) also noted in her latest study that weed fabric and feather meal (vs. fish emulsion) worked the best to increase yields at lower cost for organic growers. I think woodchip mulch will also work, and sawdust is not absolutely necessary, but I have access to cheap fir sawdust here in Portland, OR.
Smart gardeners exploit their local resources. When I started gardening seriously over 50 years ago there was a horse feed store a few miles from me that piled up bales of alfalfa in back (the Malibu Feed Bin). They were happy to have me gather up loose yards of alfalfa shake from the bales. That stuff was magic and part of how I became locally known for my gardening skills.
Is this from me watering them with tap water once or twice this month? The we been fine with a Tbs of vinegar water per gallon but I recently watered in a hurry and now I notice the leaves look burned on this Southmoon. The other OāNeil and Sunshine look ok still.
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How hot did it get?
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It is possibly from drying out. Iāve had some leaves dying back, or just the tips or edges browning, if it has been hot out and the plant was too dry.
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Graft onto vaccinium arboreum seedlings and they will grow into a tree form with no suckering and grow great in high ph soil
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What are vaccinia arburetum? Have you some photos? Iāve never heard of doing this. Can you still reach to pick them easily?
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I see I misspelled it.
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Brady @zendog It got hot one day 105 then a few days later 102 then upper to lowers 90ās but I have them in between two small avocado trees and a shade cloth over them when it gets over 94.
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Really? Iāve never even heard of a Farkleberry haha.
āI see now itās also a Huckleberry and Sparkleberry.ā
That would be very great to be able to water them normal here in fact Iād make a spot in the ground for them.
It is a native species of blueberry native to the eastern United States just like the highbush blueberry and rabbit eye blueberry. They grow in a tree form and are being researched for commercial blueberry rootstocks because they donāt require soil amending with pine bark and organic matter and will grow in high ph soil. They will make the blueberry grow in a small tree form with a single trunk and allow mechanical harvesting. You can buy seeds online. They grow everywhere around where i live along with many different species of vaccinium.
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I donāt know how hardy they would be in the upper continental United States but if you somehow collected seeds from the farther est native areas of the species they probably would
I looked them up online. It sounds like they only grow in the South. Too bad. Well, the short kinds are easier for me to cage, so I just have to amend the soil and pull weeds.
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Looks like they grow all the way up into southern Illinois and Nebraska. If you could somehow source seeds from there you would be set.
You would be a prime candidate for grafting to those since your in California. They would be hardy and tolerant of high soil ph and clay soil. Once the industry adopts a clonal rootstock from that species I think youāll start seeing a blueberry industry in places that have never been able to grow them. The universities are working on that problem now. Btw you can seeds on Sheffieldās thatās sourced from I think Louisiana and Iām sure someone on eBay will probably have them
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