Blueberries

Fairy Plotmother · « **Reply #15 on:** January 31, 2015, 12:53 »

Quote from: Grubbypaws on January 31, 2015, 10:23

Quote from: GrowinGrowinGone on January 15, 2015, 17:34
‘Earliblue’was the winner in our members' taste test. Unfortunately the yield was low and it had the shortest cropping period.

I have settled on Earliblue, Spartan and Ozark Blue to have blueberries for as long as possible. Spartan and OB are recent additions and are great but nothing matches the flavour burst in your mouth of earliblue. My bush is thriving with enormous yields and a long cropping period. GGG, how are you growing yours? Mine is in a large container on a sunny patio. Are you protecting from the birds? If mine wasn’t under netting I too would think that the yield was low as my blackbirds love them!

Fairy plot mother you must include Earliblue

I'll add it to my consideration list. Thanks!😃

3759allen · « **Reply #16 on:** January 31, 2015, 16:19 »

have a look at trehane website and if needed send them an e mail, they seem very helpful. from reading about their back ground they seem very knowledgeable about blueberries.

after trawling through the internet if found the main points are.

1) needs acid soil or ericious compost, mulched with pine needles or coffee.

2) if you don't have naturally acidic soil it's best to grow in containers. bigger the better (ideally 50cm wide, 30cm deep min). containers need lots of watering in summer.

3) watering should be done with rain water, not tap water.

4) better to spend a little more on bigger healthier plants to get a quicker and heavier crop.

5) need netting and located in a sunny spot

6) ideally needs 2 or more different varieties to pollinate well

i've just ordered some for this year, it will be my first time so can't say if the above points are correct. but these seem to come up a lot on the internet

Kristen · « **Reply #17 on:** January 31, 2015, 16:26 »

Quote from: 3759allen on January 31, 2015, 16:19

mulched with pine needles

Pine needs are fine as a mulch, but are often assumed to acidify the soil, which is not the case - so best not to go to the trouble of collecting Pine Needles as a mulch with that expectation

Grubbypaws · « **Reply #18 on:** January 31, 2015, 16:30 »

Where did you get that information from Kristen? I religiously mulch with pine needles in the belief that it keeps the ericacious soil in the containers acidic. I agree that it is unlikely to acidify a neutral or alkaline soil. Is that what you mean?

Kristen · « **Reply #19 on:** January 31, 2015, 16:36 »

Once the pine needles are old enough to fall from the tree they have lost their acidity. Its a myth that they will acidify soil, or even help maintain acidity (assuming the soil is not naturally acidic in the first place)

One result picked at random from Google:

http://www.gardenmyths.com/pine-needles-acidify-soil/

Kristen · « **Reply #20 on:** January 31, 2015, 16:44 »

I was hoping to find an article by Dr Linda Chalker-Scott - sorry, failed! She has written some good, in depth, article debunking all sorts of horticultural myths.

FWIW I turned up these:

Do Coffee Grounds Acidify Soil:
http://www.gardenmyths.com/coffee-grounds-acidifies-soil/

Mulch Problems — Real and Perceived - Acidification:
http://www.gufc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Mulch%20review%20article%20(2).pdf
(Bottom right corner of page 243)

Grubbypaws · « **Reply #21 on:** January 31, 2015, 17:16 »

Interesting stuff indeed. If you do come across her article I would love to read it.

3759allen · « **Reply #22 on:** January 31, 2015, 18:13 »

i was going to added chipped conifer (fesh green), from the trimmings of my conifer hedge. they only go to the tip any way so would save me a trip. i was also going to use the grounds from my coffee, this goes in the compost at the moment so i'll just put them in a different pot and put in a different place.

i'm thinking that even though these are only slightly acidic, there is only small amounts of acidity that gets washed out of the soil. so hopefully it will help maintain the acidity.

i'm growing my blueberries professionally made ericaceous compost in containers so am not trying to make garden soil acidic just maintain the acidity levels.

Christine · « **Reply #23 on:** February 01, 2015, 12:54 »

Quote from: 3759allen on January 31, 2015, 16:19

have a look at trehane website and if needed send them an e mail, they seem very helpful. from reading about their back ground they seem very knowledgeable about blueberries.

after trawling through the internet if found the main points are.

1) needs acid soil or ericious compost, mulched with pine needles or coffee.

2) if you don't have naturally acidic soil it's best to grow in containers. bigger the better (ideally 50cm wide, 30cm deep min). containers need lots of watering in summer.

3) watering should be done with rain water, not tap water.

4) better to spend a little more on bigger healthier plants to get a quicker and heavier crop.

5) need netting and located in a sunny spot

6) ideally needs 2 or more different varieties to pollinate well

My experience agrees with that but added extras come as:
Feed with an Ericaceous Plant Food regularly in the summer and mulch with more Ericaceous compost in the spring. Gets me a nice crop every year. Mine are certainly hungry bushes.

3759allen · « **Reply #24 on:** February 01, 2015, 14:33 »

Quote from: Christine on February 01, 2015, 12:54

Quote from: 3759allen on January 31, 2015, 16:19
have a look at trehane website and if needed send them an e mail, they seem very helpful. from reading about their back ground they seem very knowledgeable about blueberries.

after trawling through the internet if found the main points are.

1) needs acid soil or ericious compost, mulched with pine needles or coffee.

2) if you don't have naturally acidic soil it's best to grow in containers. bigger the better (ideally 50cm wide, 30cm deep min). containers need lots of watering in summer.

3) watering should be done with rain water, not tap water.

4) better to spend a little more on bigger healthier plants to get a quicker and heavier crop.

5) need netting and located in a sunny spot

6) ideally needs 2 or more different varieties to pollinate well

My experience agrees with that but added extras come as:
Feed with an Ericaceous Plant Food regularly in the summer and mulch with more Ericaceous compost in the spring. Gets me a nice crop every year. Mine are certainly hungry bushes.

do you have to buy Ericaceous Plant Food professionally made or can you make it yourself? something similar to comprey tea, maybe with fresh pine or conifer brewed in with it? i do try and make as much as i can myself to save money and keep it natural (some call it being tight, lol)

JayG · « **Reply #25 on:** February 01, 2015, 17:10 »

I've completely failed to find even a ballpark figure for the pH of comfrey tea, but given that it contains a fair amount of calcium it perhaps should be used with caution if you're not sure about the pH of your blueberry soil/compost, although I do find blueberries will put up quite well with a pH higher than recommended.

Nearly all organic materials produce weak organic acids as they decompose, some more so than others - sphagnum moss peat will certainly help to keep pH low, although note that's because it's only partially decomposed - when fully broken down it will be more or less neutral as will most other similar products.

Grubbypaws · « **Reply #26 on:** February 21, 2015, 16:45 »

OK so I have given the blueberries a top dressing of ericaceous compost and I now need to mulch the containers to keep weeds suppressed and moisture in. Previously I would have used pine needles but now I know that this doesn’t do what I thought that it did.

I have some Strulch that I have been given as a gift and it does both jobs excellently. I have some left over and it would look great in my containers; am I OK to use it or will it affect the pH?

Fairy Plotmother · « **Reply #27 on:** February 21, 2015, 17:41 »

I have weighed up all the advice you have given me, THANKS, and all the research I have done and decided on Top Hat. The reasons being:
a dwarf plant which can be grown in a pot thus giving ideal growing medium,
a heavy cropper
a longish fruiting season

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