Here is a good read on the soil conditions that increase blueberry production.
Great article, thank you. I already own a chelated metal supplement so I will be sure to give my blueberries some once a year.
I wonder, though, if anyone knows what the best way to apply calcium might be without making the soil pH go up. Eggshells? Bone meal? I’m not sure.
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Gypsum. It is neutral tends to pull soils to neutral, so you don’t want to use a lot. Still it is not basic, and can only pull that way a little bit. My soil lacks manganese and I add it once every three years to my fruit trees, guess I’ll hit my blueberries too!
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There are a lot of great articles in that site.
They crossed Sweetcrisp and Indigocrisp and called the variety Keecrisp.
The descriptions for Arcadia and (Patrecia,the parents being Star and Springhigh),look interesting.These may never be made available to the public though.Brady
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Interesting article but a starting point.
Author mentions 3 PH ranges:
“Considered fundamental to blueberry production” :4.5 to 5.5
“A number of top performing blocks had soil pH ranges from 5.7 to 6.2”
He ends with top performing crops with : … 5.2 to 5.8 with regular calcium applications"
He mentions “…inadequate absorption by blueberry plants of calcium, iron, and manganese are limiting factors” and “Limestone has a very strong oxidizing effect; gypsum does not.” so gypsum seems to be the best choice for calcium. Also gypsum does not increase Ph the way limestone does. Are there better choices for calcium? Washington State University write:
• Gypsum can increase leaching of iron and manganese, leading to deficiencies of these nutrients;
• Gypsum applied to acid soils can induce magnesium deficiency in plants on site;
• Gypsum applied to sandy soils can depress phosphorus, copper and zinc transport;
• Gypsum can have negative effects on mycorrhizal inoculation of roots, which may account for
several reports of negative effects of gypsum on tree seedling establishment and survival
• Gypsum’s effects are short-lived (often a matter of months)
One clear idea is that ammonium fertilizer is better than nitrate.
Low oxygen is good so plenty of water but not too much. Soil type must be a factor with that.
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I could do that, I have both. I’m more interested in crossing with Chandler, large berries, fairly firm, cold hardy! Cold Hardy is what i want. I think Cara’s Choice tastes best, but any of the blueberries I have are good if fully ripe. the differences are not great. Pink Popcorn is the hardiest I have, maybe I’ll use that? I left some Chandler berries hang forever, and they tend not to fall off, whereas Liberty and others, the berries would drop. Anyway they were as good as any blueberry i tasted. I just picked them last week. Legacy got a late start due to very acidic soil hurting the plant. But it is now producing, has ripe berries on it right now. I added Raz this year and a friend gave me Ka-Bluey too.
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I have literal tons of iron and manganese available to me. Thank you for sharing this, I will be amending all of my blueberry soil with both as well as gypsum prior to planting in their permanent homes.
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I believe the gentleman that wrote the article sells the materials that he promotes.
From the article: “Top performing crops are those where soils are maintained in the reduced state with consistent watering, and soil pH is maintained in a range from 5.2 to 5.8 with regular calcium applications.”
When I asked the Blueberry PHD that works with the large commercial growers on thousands of acres in my state if the addition of Calcium would improve my yield and taste he said "not likely. Also the suggested PH does not work in my state. You can forget about growing any type of highbush at 5.8 PH
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What is the ideal pH for bluberries in NC ?
4 -5 for highbush in the publication below
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Thank you for that information. The Fe I have is precipitated at a low pH (around 3.5 I think) but the Mn forms around a 7-9 pH. Both should generally be inert but I’ll pick our engineers brain on that one, he did his masters thesis on different forms of Fe so should have a good idea on how they should or should not affect the soil pH. My future beds currently have about 4 inches of evergreen woodchips and I have a few contractor bags of sphagnum moss I grabbed from a treatment system embankment to place directly around the bushes. I think that should be a good start as our soil is generally mildly acidic to start as far as I know.
Sounds like an interesting experiment!
From what I have seen, some of the research on Blueberry production done in the PNW is slightly different from the research I have seen done in NC, GA or even MI and NJ so perhaps blueberries in the PNW do not require such a low PH and Calcium really does help. The article did not mention research sources or statistics so perhaps they have the PNW in mind. Washington state grows more blueberries than any other state and Oregon is big too. Washington state is number one in the production of both Apples and Blueberries. Interesting that they excel in two crops that require such different conditions .
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Just about every thing I plant… gets a custom mix of organic fertilizer…
Home Made Compost… (which gets all of our egg shells)
Bone Meal (small amount)
Blood Meal (greens, and sweet corn get a higher dose of this). good source of N.
Epson Salt
Green Sand
Gypsum
In my blueberry plantings I included a lot of peat moss, composted peat, and some fine rotted wood compost from fallen trees in my woods.
My soil PH here averages around 5.5… I expect (but have not tested) that adding all that organic matter lowered it some.
My blueberries seem to be doing OK… but not what I would call fast growers. They are growing, new shoots every year, increasing fruit production… but not what I would call very vigorous. I may be just too impatient… I want them 7 ft tall and loaded to the gills, tomorrow (or well in June would do).
After the initial planting I have been fertilizing them before bud and after fruiting with a special BlueBerry fertilizer I got from OGW… and then this year started using Holly Tone ?
Bonemeal includes the minerals calcium , phosphorus, iron, magnesium and zinc , as well as traces of other elements.
Gypsum includes Calcium and Sulfate - and is known to soften hard compacted soils without affecting PH. Here is a statement I found online about that… * Gypsum is calcium sulfate (CaSO4). While the calcium will displace hydrogen ions, these ions will remain in solution and will not adjust soil pH.
Bonemeal has a rather high PH (12-14) so use it sparingly or you may raise your PH too much… If you have very acidic soil… and need to bring it up to 4.5 - Bone meal would be good for that. Gypsum will add CA but has little affect on PH.
Epson Salt… Magnesium and Sulphur…
Green Sand… supplies marine potash, silica, iron oxide, magnesia, lime, phosphoric acid and 22 trace minerals.
Homemade compost + a custom mix of these seems to work well on just about every thing I plant.
I will be starting new blueberry plantings in the next year or two ?
See anything that I need to adjust when starting over again with Bluberries. I hope to get around 30 bushes going at my new location.
Thanks
TNHunter
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Here is the link to what I have access to, including material safety data sheets (MSDS). There are a bunch of trace minerals in both, and the manganese (not the same as magnesium) has a large amount of silicone in it, likely a by product due to the breakdown of the limestone we use in our treatment systems.
My biggest concern is overdoing it with too much to the point of causing issues with the plants but I will be doing some research on what commercially available products recommend.