Planting blueberry

[gengis]

Hi I need to plant 2 blueberry bushes 9lt pots in the ground i was going to dig a hole 2ft x 2ft and 30 cm deep and fill it with eracious compost

Will the hole be large enough? Thanks

[ameno]

It depends on your surrounding soil. Over time, rain and soil organisms will cause your soil to mix with the ericaceous compost. If your surrounding soil is alkaline or a neutral clay then that hole won't be anywhere near big enough, and you'll find that the compost is pretty quickly neutralised.
If your soil is neutral and has a fairly low clay content then that might be big enough for one plant, although it probably wants to be a bit deeper.

Be aware of how much this is all going to cost, though. Even a single hole of the size you were planning would require 108 litres of compost to fill.
If you end up using a lot, it may be cheaper to make your own. I do, and the plants seem to have no problems with it. I use 1 part garden soil, 2 parts normal multi-purpose compost, and 1 part sharp sand, to which I add some slow release fertiliser for ericaceous plants, and most importantly, powdered sulphur (You can buy it from online chemists fairly cheap. You need about 100-150g per 100 litres of soil mix).

[gengis]

Thanks might build a sunken bed.

[Plot70]

I built a 6 foot by 3 foot brick bed over an old concrete slab.
It has worked well over the years.

[It never rains..it pours]

Sulphur best as suggested above, but iron sulphate reduces ph too

[ameno]

Sulphur best as suggested above, but iron sulphate reduces ph too

Iron sulphate produces quicker results, as it's water-soluble, but because of that its effects also fade quicker, and it will need reapplying every year. It's also much easier to accidentally overdose and make the soil too acidic. And you need some 5 or 6 times as much, by weight, to give them same change in pH.
Iron sulphate is better reserved for "emergency" use, for when plants are suffering obvious iron deficiency or else when the pH of an existing pot of ericaceous soil has gone back up towards neutral (I usually sprinkle a couple heaped teaspoons around the top of my citrus plants each spring, as they prefer a slightly acidic soil, although not as acidic as blueberries like).

[GingerWench]

In my experience it'll be fine. I've grown blueberries this way for years and had huge crops off them. I'd mulch heavily each year and feed Ericaceous food.

[anth_85]

Found this site from googling for the answer to this, I’ve just transferred 3 blueberry plants from 9cm pots that came from gardening direct into 30cm pots full of ericaceous compost. My water butt only went in yesterday and is currently empty, so I’m either needing to use tap water or not water them until it rains, which doesn’t look like it will very much in the next few days.

[Snoop Puss]

Hello and welcome, anth_85.

Have you had any rain yet or is any forecast? I don't have blueberry plants (soil far too alkaline even to remedy satisfactorily). I'm guessing any water is better than no water though. I wonder if boiling water but not using the bottom inch or so (where precipitated minerals will settle) once it's cooled might be an option in the meantime.

Good luck. Hope you get a good crop.

Just found this, which mentions using distilled or boiled water at the bottom in emergencies.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-jobs/w...nd-other-types

Edited to add link.

[ameno]

Found this site from googling for the answer to this, I’ve just transferred 3 blueberry plants from 9cm pots that came from gardening direct into 30cm pots full of ericaceous compost. My water butt only went in yesterday and is currently empty, so I’m either needing to use tap water or not water them until it rains, which doesn’t look like it will very much in the next few days.

I assume you're in a hard water area, and that's why you can't use your tap water?
If you happen to have a dehumidifier, the waste water from that will be pure and can be used for ericaceous plants.
Failing that, I would just use tap water for now (better than no water), and add a few drops of vinegar per litre of water.