I’ve had much better success(that was me who changed the spelling in the title Chris,one of my habits)when growing Blueberry plants in containers.
Like some here,most of the mix is Conifer bark mulch and some Peat moss.I also use Sulfuric acid(battery type) in an EZ-Flo fertigator,because the tap water is 7.2 pH.It works okay,but gets a little weak at the end of the line,about 50 feet away.Joe Hewitt’s model or something similar is the way to go,but costs a bit more and fertigators are also useful for fertilizing.
If there was room,I’d try raised beds,but pots are what work well now.
I’ve been switching from plastic to bags to see what that does. Brady
This is another Bountiful Blue that was dug up,because the growth was starting to interfere with a Nectarine tree.That is a 25 gallon bag and could barely fit.
Instead of containers, you could try burying a bale of peat moss in the ground (top level with the ground) and cutting an X in the plastic on top to plant the blueberry in. There is a person at the local ag school (CSU) who has tested this method and it seems to work in our alkaline soils. Pure peat does require fertilizer as it has little to none of its own. And since you do not puncture drain holes in the peat bale, you need to control water to the plants.
I’ve had great success with Al’s 5 pine bark, 1 peat moss, 1 perlite mix. Just don’t add any lime. I should probably check the ph to see if I need to water with some vinegar though.
What fertilizer you using in that bale? Ive been trying to use espoma hollytone in my blueberries with limited success. Maye I should go for something non organic for better results?
That’s not mine, but it shows you can grow in pure peat moss.
I supplement Holly-Tone with ammonium sulfate. Use once a week till plants picks up. If I need to help plant. Otherwise I use it once a month. It also acidifies soil. You must water first, you can kill the plant with this stuff. Use 1 teaspoon per 2.5 gallons. Fruitnut once mentioned for in ground he uses 1 tbsp in 5 gallons. So I’m using less. I burned a plant once! Only use AS if your soil is not naturally acidic. If soil is naturally acidic, urea is better.
Since I use organics, I only give the plant AS once a month, April (if not dormant) through August.
I’m trying to get away from doing this, but I still have some, so I’m using it. Other plants like it too. I was going to try seaweed once a month, and you could increase amount of Holly-Tone. Next year I’ll try the seaweed. I will be out after this year. If I’m not happy I will go back to it. It’s nice to keep things acidic, works well even if soil is very basic.
Basically they recommend Miraclegrow which seems reasonable (no need IMO to use the acid based fert in peat moss). In the original paper they gave instructions for organic, which basically used fish emulsion as fertilizer, but I don’t recall the dilution or frequency (although it was quite a bit more than with MG).
I’ll see if I can’t find the original paper and post a link.
Drew
If you were in Cheboygan you were about 20 miles from my place. I will have to do some soil tests from around here . Plan on trying those kits where you mix the soil solution and then compare the color to the chart. I read on them and they are supposed to get you within a close range of the acidity of the soil . Wild ones do grow in areas around here but not everywhere and the soil is sand in those places . I am going to try planting them in peat (in pots ) and then do the same thing with peat when they get planted in the ground . I have all kinds of access to pine straw and pine bark for mulch . From what I read (after the suggestions on here ) the rotted down oak sawdust probably is not be the way to go but have plenty of other places to use it so it won’t go to waste.
Yeah I go up a few times a year. That may stop soon as the In laws are getting old. My wife wants to sell the property when it’s time. Yes I get my pine straw up there too! I came home empty handed, the snow, the cold, forget it. The good news is my son in Kalkaska has plenty of pine straw. So I will still have a source. I really like it in containers as mulch. I think it works excellent in containers. lasts a long time too.
It allows more water access for plants. It holds 120% of it’s weight in water. When not saturated it creates access to air. So keeps soil aerated, and moist, also allow for good drainage. I don’t use perlite at all. It only increases drainage. DE does that and more. This is not the same DE used for pest control, that is a powder, I use perlite size, like gravel. In the pot pictured by me, the white specks are pebbles of DE. It can freeze and thaw and will not break down or become mushy. Perlite becomes mushy in 5 years. DE last indefinitely. Excellent in raised beds, so I recycle my potting soil in raised beds.
Many studies on DE used as soil amendments, all report better growth. It is used on baseball fields and works better than turface. Turface does the same thing, not a bad product for certain applications.
Rather than spending the life of the plant fighting an uphill battle with the soil pH I opted to use peat moss as the primary medium.
I use peat moss + 15-15-15 fertilizer + micronized sulfer + tap water in raised planters or half wine barrels.
Results have been excellent over the past four years. I went from four small air layered bare root plants to highly productive bushes. After cropping last summer I pruned heavily and transplanted them from wine barrels to some 22" planters made from scrap lumber.
Of the four varieties, here is a picture of the smallest one “Sunshine Blue” with very showy pink flowers. They retain some of the leaves and flower lightly all winter here. Now flowering heavily, they are beginning to push out summer foliage.
Wow that’s a pretty plant. The flowers are cool too. Interesting how different the plant behaves compared to my environment. Blueberries are diverse plants. Close relatives are interesting too,
I might have to dig my bb’s up and try them in pots above ground instead of buried. I think in the ground, when it rains heavily, the water fills the pots they are in and brings sediment in with it, messing my ph up in the process.
Not just the plant, but the commercial value came to mind. I was thinking of the Cranberry. Between blueberries and cranberries (same genus), that both are major commercial crops.
Cranberries even though tart have managed to become a major fruit.
Cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, it’s a given. Also blueberries are so diverse (North & South highbush , lowbush, half highs, and rabbiteyes) and cranberries no, not really diverse at all. It’s one cultivar! And then we have lingonberries. All three too, are super fruits. All native plants too.
Cranberries are medicinal too, it is documented they decrease chance of bladder infections. Some people are prone to them and consumption of cranberries is shown to lower incidence of infection. Few berries have such clear benefits.
Here the west side of the state grows blueberries. Here the canes turn bright red in the winter. Seeing a blueberry orchard for the first time, it was beautiful with all the canes glowing red in the fall. So beauty yet another benefit of these wonderful plants.
It could, probably not. Thanks for the info. I’m going to exclude it from blueberry plantings from now on anyway. I grow so many things it’'s still very useful to me. Luckily it is used sparely in my mixes, so not that much in the mixes. I use 1/3 part in a 3-1-1 (pine, peat or pro-mix, compost). No compost in blueberry mix or a non animal compost to avoid salts which blueberries are sensitive to… Compost brings bacteria and nutrition. Compost has been shown to stop root rot.All brands tested had some degree of protection compared to not using it.The fine texture may slow drainage though. Here in containers, outside, that is not even remotely a problem. We get little rain. Plus I noticed little to no difference in drainage with or without.
Napa Auto Parts also uses DE in it’s absorbent product. Always check bag though as they do have more than one product. This DE and Optisorb are about are only options. One company makes a bigger size but sells wholesale only. The product is used for commercial gardens, ballparks etc. Disney uses it in their gardens.
