Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: pepsi100 on September 21, 2021, 19:31
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I have just got hold of three blueberry plants
I want to goive them the best start in life for their first year
So they will be inside in pots over the winter
I have potted them in John Innes no3 ferilizer
I have heard that I can add coffee grounds to the soil to make it more acid
Now I dont know how true this is, but I have been adding it to my blueberries outside, okay they are only 2 years old, but seem to be doing okay
They get watered by the hose when the wife waters the grass and plants (I am trying to get her to use rainwater on the new blueberries in doors)
Well any advice for helping my new blueberry plants make it through their first year would be appreciated
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They need to be in ericaceous compost rather than John Innes no3, which will almost certainly contain lime.
As for watering, rainwater is ideal, although if you live in a soft water area you can get away with tap water, at least in the short term.
Useful link for checking whether your supply is soft or hard: https://www.aquacure.co.uk/knowledge-base/uk-hard-water-map/
Any added fertiliser, which shouldn't be needed until next year, should be a type specified for ericaceous plants.
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Thanks for your reply (and the link)
Apparantly I live in a very hard water area (I'm surprised I am still alive after reading about it)
And apologies about the John Innes, its number two I have used, so that looks fine
I have bought a 1Kg box of Sulphate of Iron fertilizer for use next year
I have got hold of a bag of coffee grounds (about 20kgs) from Costa coffee (they just throw them out and do so every day)
I was going to add them to the soil on my blueberries in the garden, I heard it helps to make the soil more acidic (if not I can just throiw it in my compost bin)
My new blueberrie plants will go outside about March/April time I reckon
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And apologies about the John Innes, its number two I have used, so that looks fine
Afraid they won't like JI number 2 either (chalk is one of the ingredients) - there is a John Innes ericaceous compost available which is probably the best option, although any ericaceous compost would do.
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Oh, dear, they arent getting off to a very good start are they ?
Well too late to do anything now, I will just hope they survive the winter and then they can go outside
I'll dig a hole and fill it with my compost and a good filling of ericaceous compost (bound to be some in the garden center at some point)
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Coincidentally, I picked the last of my blueberries this afternoon, and the leaves are already turning red, so they are starting to shut down for winter now.
Hopefully yours are too, and won't notice what's in the compost before you change it next spring. ;)
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The leaves on the one's outside have turned red and will probably fall over the next few days,
when the frost starts they will be under a fleece and then just hibernate until the spring
The ones indoors are still green, no signs of dropping, but its warmer in the conservatory by a good few degrees
Got two bags of that ericaceous compost ready for when they go in the garden, (homebase had a deal, buy two for a tenner)
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JayG
What are your thought on adding coffee grounds to the soil for Blueberries ?
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Organic materials produce weak acids as they decompose, but finish up more or less neutral - very few produce enough acid to make much difference to the soil pH, sphagnum peat moss being a notable exception.
(I use an annual dressing of sulphur chips to help keep the pH low in my blueberry patch.)
Seeing as you've already got them, you may as well use your spent coffee grounds as a mulch - when you get your blueberries into ericaceous compost they should be ok anyway.
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As you say, I have got the coffee grounds now, so I'll just put it as a top dressing, cant see it hurting
Ive got a bag of sulphur chips in the shed somewhere
Thanks for your reply ;)
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JayG how much of the sulphur chips do you use per plant? Mine are in large containers and I am not sure how much to apply and when.
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Grubbypaws
On the pack I got it says 30-35 grams per meter, how you work that out for a pot I have no idea
Mine are about a year old at a guesstimate
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JayG how much of the sulphur chips do you use per plant? Mine are in large containers and I am not sure how much to apply and when.
I check the soil pH with a (cheapo) chemical test kit, and if it's around 5 I just give a light sprinkling around each plant (maybe a rounded tablespoonful) and tickle it in with a hand fork. Best to do it in spring when the soil is starting to warm up as it takes a long time for soil microbes to activate it and there's not much activity in winter.
(If it's above 5 I usually repeat the dose in mid summer.)
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Where do you get these test kits?
I've never seen one
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verve-Soil-pH-Tester-Garden/dp/B07MZ5JCN8/ref=sr_1_79?crid=B7IMNM7A2API&dchild=1&keywords=soil+ph+testing+kit&qid=1632836725&sprefix=soil+pH%2Caps%2C281&sr=8-79
Although the above is B&Q's Verve brand I can't actually find it on their own website, so can't guarantee you will find it at your local branch.
Lots of others available (just don't buy a cheap soil pH meter - I'm not saying none of them work but which ones actually do is impossible to say with any certainty. :unsure:)
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Thanks, that link led straight to Amazon, bought and paid for now, be here October 01
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Well the nights are drawing in now
Solar lights not lasting the night
Gloomy days, cloudy nights
Even a bit chilly in the morning
Now down to blueberry plants
When should I start bringing the pots in?
When do I start covering them in a fleece?
So far now frost, not even that cold really, the leaves haven’t dropped on the plants in the pots yet, the ones in the ground are starting to look like twigs
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Mine stay out all winter and are not fleeced. Despite temperatures getting down to -11C here last winter and killing a fair few things in the garden the blueberries were fine and I have had a bumper crop.
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not knowing to much about growing fruit including Blueberries after pickings does the Blueberry bush need pruning or any other thing doing besides feeding it in prep for next year?
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RHS guidance
Pruning is rarely needed in the first two years, just remove any crossing or misplaced branches. After that, prune at any time during the dormant season (November to March), but ideally in late February or early March when fruit buds can easily be distinguished from leaf buds. Fat buds produce flowers and fruit, while smaller, flatter buds form shoots and leaves.
A mature bush should contain about one-third old, one-third middle-aged and one-third young stems.
Prune out:
1.Dead, diseased, dying, weak, rubbing or damaged stems, plus any that are touching the ground
2.Twiggy growth at the ends of the branches that fruited last year, cutting back to a low strong, upward-facing bud or branch
3.Remove up to a quarter of the oldest and thickest stems at the base of a mature plant or prune to a younger strong shoot lower down on the branch
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I thought by putting a fleece over them would give them an early start in the spring
Mine are 2 years old but still small, so not much point in pruning them
I have nothing to lose by putting a fleece over them (I dont think )
Plus I have the fleece anyway, may as well use it
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I uncovered my blueberry plants over the weekend, there are flowers, but just buds for leaves
I put a healthy hand full of this sulpher chips as a dressing then covered it with this ericaceous compost, gave it a light watering
The ones I had bought indoors look pretty much the same as the ones that were out doors over the winter (we had no snow, but plenty of frosts) plenty of flowers, no leaves, just buds
I guess its a waiting game now and see what happens (mind you it is early in the season, (not even April yet)