Has anyone tried using ammonium sulfate as fertilizer for their raspberries? If so, how did it turn out for you?
I planted some raspberries this year and I already have a big bag of ammonium sulfate that I use for my blueberry bushes. From what I have read, raspberries don’t need soil that is as acidic as blueberries, but if I use my 7pHish tap water I figured it might cancel out the acidifying affect of the ammonium sulfate.
How do you use the ammonium sulfate for your blueberries @GAFF? And I’m curious as to whether it can be used for raspberries/other fruits as well.
I’m pretty much doing a combination of @fruitnut and bamboo rabbit’s approach to blueberries --ammonium sulfate and battery acid.
I bought the battery acid from Advanced Auto Parts and the ammonium sulfate here. I drop the pH of my water to around 5.5ish and add 1tbsp of ammonium sulfate to 5 gallons of water.
Here is one of them in April 2013:
Here it is two years later:
I can’t really control them at this point. I keep digging a wider base for them, but they keep making me have to go wider and wider.
Since I’ve had success with the blueberries, I’ve been doing it for the raspberries, minus the battery acid since raspberries seem to appreciate a higher pH. So far so good, I will post some pictures soon.
Here is one of my raspberry bushes:
I’ve never grown raspberries, so I have no idea if it is growing acceptably, but it doesn’t seem to be dying, so I got that going for me.
Your raspberry looks ok, and AS is OK, but I would use a complete fertilizer too, same with blueberries. I use Holly-Tone on both. I don’t use AS on raspberries as they seem to grow huge. Your plant looks healthy. Here is one of my raspberries, the cultivar Polka
My production is excellent, and well if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Raspberries are not nitrogen hogs. It will not hurt them, but you can get good results with other products. I always put compost on them in the spring. Mine are not in pots though either.
I use ammonium sulfate on my raspberries every year around May just when the new shoots really start growing. It helps them green up and grow nice thick canes for the following year. I just broadcast it around the base of the plants and water it in. My soil ph is about 7 but my ground water ph is off the charts. I tried growing blueberries by preparing a row about 24" high and 7’ wide with a mixture of Peat, composted steer manure, and soil conditioner then worked in some elemental sulpher a couple months before planting. The plants started out nice but by the second year of ground water irrigation they just quit growing and yellowed out. I tried supplementing some fertilome soil acidifier, some chelated iron and some Dr. Jimz save a tree but by the 3rd year they had all pretty much faded out and weren’t putting on much new growth. I replaced them with honey berries which are now thriving in that spot.
Can you provide a link to the battery acid, ammonium sulfate concoction? I wouldn’t mind giving it a go.
Hydroponic stores sell Phosphoric Acid in the form of “pH Down” in a much friendlier concentration than the 37% battery acid for those of you who are intimidated with the skeleton hand warning label on the sulphuric acid bottle.
Sorry for the late reply, the concoction is as follows:
5 gallons of water
1tbsp of ammonium sulfate
30 drops of battery acid to bring pH down to 5.5 (# of drops varies depending on your tap water’s pH)
Mix all that together and apply it to your bushes once or twice a week. At this point, I mostly do it when my plants need water, so if it has been raining I tend to not fertilize at all.
This is the ammonium sulfate I buy: Ammonium Sulfate
This is the dropper I use to hold my battery acid: Dropper
Depending on how many bushes you have, it can be quite a hassle and time consuming process mixing and lugging 5 gallons of fertilizer solution. I use two buckets, one normal bucket and a bucket with a water nozzle adapter that attaches to my hose so I’m not having to turn the water on and off. This speeds up the process a lot.
Here are the ones I use, although they are not available for order anymore:
Normal 5 Gallon bucket
5 Gallon Bucket w/Hose adapter
I bought 1 quart of battery acid at Advanced Auto Parts. It’s pretty dangerous stuff, so wear goggles and handle it with care. I’ve gotten it on me plenty of times and it won’t burn you if you run your hands under water quickly.
Worked fine for me. I kind of used urea and ammonium sulfate interchangeably. In small doses.
Don’t do anything for pH in my soil which is about 7.0. Growing ‘Caroline’
