Hello guys! A few of my blueberries are showing leaves that are quite alarming and I am stump as to what it can be that is causing it. I looked it up and are not sure if it’s magnesium deficiency or some type of virus. If anyone have any ideas as to what it is and how to treat it please let me know thank you! I did test the soil ph and it is reading around 5.8 using a sample of soil mixing with distilled water! 3 part pine bark, 2 part peat, and a couple handful of perlite soil mixed with hollytone as fertilizer.
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Hollytone will not break doun properly in that container mix. you need an acid fertilizer and you need to lower the PH a tad for best results.
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My blueberry was struggling so I did this, added a ph lowering fertilizer, then I applied dr earths fertilizer.
Hollytone works very well in containers. But for a quick change you need chemical. I’m a microbiologist, containers don’t need added bacteria. It only needs some time. Feed them and they will come. In the mean time feed with a fertilizer with ammonium sulfate.
This plant only gets hollytone
As you can see it has hundreds of flowers. Photo is about a week old.
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I have about a hundred in-ground blueberry bushes of numerous varieties in three different locations, some over ten years old, but none have ever had even a fraction that many blooms on any of them as the one in that photo. Wow! Does that mean I need to fertilize them more? The leaves are nice and green. I’ve used sulfur, ammonium sulfate, Hollytone, Schultz’s Azalea fertilizer, Miracid, Job’s, possibly other products, depending what I had on hand (often from fall clearances). They produce berries, but nothing like that bush. They are planted in peat/soil mix and mulched with arborist mulch and some also with oak leaves, much of it long decayed into rich compost.
This photo alone is enough for me to follow your soil mix guidelines for blueberries. It pretty much says it all.
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That does look like a magnesium deficiency,which is suppose to be common in acidic soils.Maybe try adding a little Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate).A few ounces.
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Thanks for the reply everyone! Yes I went ahead and made a mixture of Epsom salt n spray most of the leaves. I have almost 80 blueberries in containers. For some reason these two are showing these deficiency even though I use the same fertilizer on all of them. I will continue to apply ammonium sulfate fertilizer and other acidic liquid fertilizer and see what happen.
Wow 80 that’s a lot, lots of fruit right
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Not yet! Most of them are averaging about 2-3 years with a few 3-4 years old plants. Still trying to figure everything out and hopefully they be as fruitful as Drew blueberries!
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Purchase a few pounds of sulphur and use a bit of it on the soil. It takes about 3 months to fully convert to acid. I use azalea fertilizer on my blueberries with excellent results. Walmart sells it. Agree with the likely need for magnesium so the epsom salt spray was a good step, however, have to point out that magnesium deficiency in the plant does not necessarily mean deficiency in the soil. Magnesium is often bound up in soil with too high PH. Lowering the PH usually resolves the problem. If it doesn’t, consider checking for root damage from rodents or pests.
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I’m not sure why yours are not productive? Not all of mine are that productive. Cara’s Choice, Ka-Bluey, and Pink Popcorn have 1/4 the flowers.
The plant pictured is Raz. The flowers are fragrant too. Legacy and Toro produce as many flowers. My others are small.
Here’s Toro from last year.
It sounds like you’re doing everything right. Time to experiment to see if you can increase productivity. One of the most critical factors is keeping them moist. Not wet or dry. True with raspberries too. Look at everything again. Maybe too much fertilizer?
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@Natdcfruit … I agree with the magnesium deficiency consensus but would encourage you to confirm with a soil analysis. In my limited experience, blueberries are kinda like Goldilocks… they thrive when everything is “just right”. I have found blood meal to be a wonderful source of organic nitrogen that doesn’t raise the pH. I live in western Montana and our soils are quite alkaline. Wood chip mulch, blood meal and elemental sulfur are my seasonal friends😀
My soil test also shows low Boron and Manganese. Since I started amending my soils with very small amounts of Boron(20 Mule Team Borax) I have noticed improvement in blossom set and overall general health improvement. Carrot tops are high in Manganese. All carrot tops now go in the compost and not to the chickens.
As soon as I figure out how to post a photo I will. 2022 looks to be a year of blueberry abundance.
I went out this evening and put 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of 20 Mule Team borax on each bush in my home blueberry bed. I suspect not enough sunlight is probably the main culprit on that bed, but figure it can’t hurt to add a little boron. My bushes out at our land are in full sun, but are younger bushes, so probably just need more time yet. I have moved a number of bushes from home to our land, but it is a lot of work to dig them and move them.
I applied the holly tone a month ago to an inground blueberry, should I reapply.
Hi,
I am the kind of bad, lazy and poor planning gardener who does not prepare the soil for the blueberry plants a whole year in advance. I dig a whole in the spring or summer and plant in the fall. The sulfur I put in the soil has not terribly much lowered the pH by the spring when the unsuspecting little buggers wake up. The leaves are chloritic for the first year. (I don’t know if that is a real word but what the heck.) They look very much like those in your photo. I spray the first year plant with chelated iron every 3 weeks or so. That seems to clear things up. By the next year the soil pH is low enough so that the chelated iron is not needed.
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The difference between sufficiency and toxicity for boron is very small. 1/4 teaspoon per blueberry bush is likely to be a very heavy dose. One level tablespoon of boron is sufficient for 1000 square feet of soil. 2 cups is enough for an acre. Boron is water soluble so has to be applied each year. It is a required micronutrient for many trees, bushes, and garden vegetables.
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