White pumice as mulch material in blueberry production

With regard to its availability and price, pumice is a very practical and easy to use material where I live.
I am about to use it within substrate mix but at the same time I am asking myself why not use it as mulch material instead of pine needle or pine bark. Could there be any adverse effect? What do you think?

Hi Halim,

I am very far from being an expert, but your question made me curious, so I took a quick look.

Based on the link below, I would be concerned that pumice would not provide the acidic environment and moisture retention that blueberries would need to thrive (if not in fact to survive). So personally, I would try something else.

Hope this is helpful.

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Thank you for the link.

But I will feed the nutrients through irrigation water. I am trying to grow BBs in pots with a soilless mixture. For this reason I do not think the nutrients will be diluted due to water holding capacity of pumice. IMHO.

Interesting, and totally out of my area of expertise. (My experience with blueberries is primarily with wild ones.)

Like I said, my concern would be that blueberries need a very acidic growing environment, and pumice doesn’t give you that, and they like to have their roots stay moist, and pumice doesn’t give you that, either. (I would suspect that this would be a particularly significant issue when growing in containers in a warmer location, and I see that you’re in zone 8b, which could be challenging for Northern blueberries in any case.)

But I could certainly be wrong! Here’s another link that you may find helpful, though.

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