Blueberry planter in Vista CA

That is the same one that I bought this week. Funny thing, tho . . . . no matter where I put it in the yard - I get the same reading. I figured it was a piece’o’junk and bought a soil testing kit. Some more junk. Damn things didn’t even change colors like they were supposed to. So . . . now I’m sending soil to the extension service in Blacksburg. Sigh.

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pH is often set by water supply. If all your locations use the same water source (rain or municipal) then don’t be surprised to find the same pH readings everywhere in your yard.

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Here are some fruits ripening on our Monrovia Sunshine Blue – they’re mostly 3/8th inch diameter but a few are 1/2 inch. :slight_smile:

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Don’t get too caught up with your pH, it will be different everywhere in the soil. Just check it periodically because it’s extremely important.

Is that Sunshine Blue different than others without the Monrovia name? Brady

No idea.

It will be identical everywhere under year-round irrigation (my situation), unless significant pH-setting amendments are in place. I have tried the latter but found it too laborious. Instead I have injectors that set the pH in our irrigation systems.

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It sounds simple with your irrigation system controlling the p H but it’s much more complicated than that.

For example;
Let’s say your injectors take a pH from 7.8 pH to a 6.8 pH, as soon as that 6.8 pH hits the soil, it changes. It will not stay the same throughout any container, soil or raised bed. If it does stay the same pH throughout any of the above mentioned mediums, than you need a better pH meter. Not trying to discurage you as you’re way ahead of most when trying to figure out the pH mystery.

@prestons_garden – It’s not a mystery to me. The soil in my raised blueberry bed is a custom mix I designed and installed (described above). The pH of my municipal water is fixed at 7.0. I dose the injector for my blueberry planter and other acid loving plants (huckleberry, rose, etc.) at pH 5.5. The blueberry planter is sustaining it while the others on that circuit – having a bit of native soil in their mix are holding at pH 6.0. Molarity of the solution is important. If you’d like to check out the operations I’m at most an hour drive south of you in Vista CA.

Me either, pH seems straight forward to control, and I have had blueberries for years and years. Currently I have 11 plants. If the medium you are using is acidic it’s easy. I have had a problem with too low a pH even. I don’t use meters I find the professional commercial plastic strips to be the most accurate. Proper readings are critical, essential in commercial settings and the strips always read correctly.
I agree pH will change if you’re using weak acids that organically break down. I only use sulfuric acid which converts carbonates to gypsum, and gypsum is very stable and keeps the calcium compounds from ever becoming basic again. Sulfur will do the same thing of course, just slower. I keep my pH lower than Richard at 5.0. It’s easy to mess up so must be monitored. I find peat and pine bark tend to hold the pH steady, so very little if any acid is needed. I use rainwater so don’t have to alter my water. My rainwater is very acidic here in the 5.2 to 5.5 range. If you’re using regular soil, I would agree controlling pH is difficult, not so much with peat and pine. They are very steady. Peat by itself is at 5.0. I think pine is around 5.5 so if you only use rainwater you don’t even have to control the pH. I use some garden soil in my raised beds so I monitor them regularly. Also sometimes compost which usually is basic. The ground below the beds is just slightly acidic and will steal ions too! So my raised beds require a little more management. Results are very good!
Richard is a professional, and knows what he is doing. One can learn a lot from him.
One of the most knowledgeable people on this site which includes professors, professional growers etc. I was not a professional in horticulture. i was paid to grow fungi, bacteria and viruses for MSU and Sparrow hospital. I was part of the team at Sparrow who was trying to grow the HIV virus when it first appeared at the start of the 80’s. We failed as another lab came up with a method. At first we could not grow the virus, it is a very primitive (and ancient) RNA virus, no DNA in that beast! I never grew that type before. i know how now, but I long ago retired. That was very dangerous work, but also I just loved growing cultures and isolating and keeping strains of TB and other pathogens for research.
At Sparrow hospital we had 80 different strains of TB for research. Now we have TB strains that will kill you no matter what we do. Super bugs! An interesting organism as most bacteria have protein coats, TB has a lipid coat.Some argue it is a fungus. It’s like the organism with flagella and chloroplasts. Is it animal or plant? It’s both!

Richard. Is the lot next door to you for sale? I’m moving to California. Seems you guys can grow ANYthing - and it thrives! I’m so jealous! I have had so many different varieties of Blueberries, here in 7B. Chandler. Toro. Reka. O’Neal. Blue this - Blue that. Coddled them. Let them ‘rip’. Tried all sorts of things . . . and they just seem to kind of struggle along. Sigh.
I know someone who is one of those people that says things, casually, like, "Oh, we have great blueberry bushes! We put them in awhile ago . . . never prune or do anything to them - they are huge, now, and we get TONS of berries. " Maybe I’m paying too much attention to them?

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I have two O’Neals and two Monrovia Sunshine Blues in the same raised bed. The latter are growing well but the O’Neals have lackluster growth – although strangely covered in flower buds at the moment. A colleague of mine a few miles south in Encinitas has them in pots and they perform beautifully. :slight_smile:

Yeah. OK . . . but what about that lot? :smile:
I think I’ll give the O’Neals one more summer - and then replace them with another variety, if they don’t come through! Thanks, Richard.

There’s one for sale down the street. :slight_smile:

Lately we’ve been harvesting about 20 a day :slightly_smiling_face:

The 1/4 acre home 3 doors down the street just sold for $475k.

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Today’s harvest

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Today’s 1.5 cup blueberry harvest from a single Sunshine Blue bush :heart:

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From Janet …

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Richard

Those Dosatron injectors are some nice stuff.

Does each injector feed a separate growing space with specific needs like PH and nutrients?

Yes. There’s three separate automated networks of fertigation pipes. One goes to the tuber bed and adjacent artichoke planter. The second goes to plants with serious acid requirements in both the front and rear of the house. The third goes to everything else: fruiting plants, herbs, and butterfly/hummingbird gardens – the latter being a matter of convenience because they are within the realm of the “fruit” network. I also have a 4th non-fertigated network which tops off the water in our 3 bird fountains twice a day. :slightly_smiling_face:

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