Blueberres

[cheops]

Hi All,
Iv'e just bought some blueberry plants [still in their pots as I haven't put them in their permanent position yet in the garden]. Iv'e bought 5 of one type [Golden Traube]and one different type [Top Hat]. I believe having two different varieties increases the amount of fruit yeild? Could someone please confirm this or tell me I'm talking rubbish. My main questions are the the following. I know they need to be grown in Ericaceous compost and not ordinary soil so I have dug a trench for them about 1 ft deep and one foot wide which I will fill with the Ericaceous compost. Will this be ok? What I mean is will the roots of the blueberry bushes eventually move outside the depth and width of this trench and therefore no longer be growing in the medium they prefer or need. Secondly what feed or fertisiler will they need and how often and when, presuming they are ok in this trench? Your advice/help is as always appreciated. I have never grown blueberries before.

[FB.]

It is said that blueberries benefit from a pollinator.

However, my three bushes rarely flower together.
I also don't see many insects visit them, so even when there is a slight overlap in flowering, pollination surely can't be much.
But despite that the bushes still fruit well, so I assume that they are part-self-fertile or almost fully self-fertile.

Regarding the roots; if roots don't like a particular soil, they simply won't grow into it; they'll circle round in their rootball or in the trench in your case. This is why many container-grown plants are slow to establish; their rootball compost is far more fertile than the garden soil in which they are planted.

If your soil happens to be fertile and rather acidic then the roots will happily move out of the trench.

Remember to use rainwater whenever possible because tap water often has alkaline calcium dissolved in it.

[cheops]

Thanks FB for that. I've just arrived home from the garden centre with the Ericaceous compost so now youv'e made me happy that I can fill the trench and plant out the young bushes. The only unanswered question is about feeding. The fact the roots will grow only in the compost I have added nutrients are bound to be limited. What is the best type of feed to add - growmore etc?? and when should I add the feed and how often.

[FB.]

Blueberries are quite tough plants and aren't fussy about which fertilisers, as long as the soil remains slightly acid and damp.
I mulch mine with compost, manure, grass cuttings - anything that happens to be around. Grass cuttings are an excellent natural compost which, sadly, most people just throw in the bin!
Blueberries would probably enjoy fish, blood and bone fertiliser occasionally - or the synthetic 7:7:7 growmore if you're not so green-minded.

With my blueberries, I have tried various ways to keep them happy and productive and I am now back to what works best for me, which is a pit about 18inches deep, with the bottom and halfway up the sides lined with plastic sacks. There are a few ventilation holes in the sacks through which excess water can gradually drain, plus it can freely drain from the upper half of the pit, which is not lined.

Blueberries are bog plants, so I felt that anything which makes it a bit boggy (i.e impaired drainage from teh sacks) would work - and it seems to.

The poor drainage keeps the soil heavy and therefore more likely to retain a low pH. Heavy soil tends to naturally move the pH nearer 6 <acid>, while dry soil tends to push the pH nearer 7.5 <alkaline>.

[FB.]

Lots of people ask about fertilisers.

I use lots of free compost/manure from a nearby recycling centre (Landbeach/Waterbeach; Just turn up with a shovel and some sacks and make off with all you can! for free!), plus the following fertilisers.


I also compost my kitchen waste and garden prunings.
I mulch with grass cuttings whenever I mow the grass.

I also use the following fertilisers (pictures below):

The green tub is synthetic pellets.
It probably has very little trace nutrients, but has a higher content of the major nutrients.
7% N - Nitrogen (for growing new shoots).
7% P - Phosphorus (for growing new roots).
7% K - Potassium (for flowers, fruits and disease resistance).

The red tub is made from dried, powdered, dead animals, and is my favourite all-rounder.
It has a balance of nutrients suitable for established plants and it should be packed with trace nutrients:
4% N - Nitrogen
7% P - Phosphorus
4% K - Potassium

The orange tub is also made from dried, powdered, dead animals, I often sprinkle a handful in planting holes.
It is particularly suited to boost younger plants which aren't yet fruiting:
5.5% N - Nitrogen
7.5% P - Phosphorus
0% K - Potassium

For a real turbocharge to green leafy growth, lawn fertilisers (not those with weedkiller as part of the blend!) have a high nitrogen content; often 10-15%.


-

[cheops]

Wow, great info. Thanks for your time and knowledge.

[FB.]

Oh, I forgot to mention......

Wood ash is a great source of nutrients too - especially potassium and trace nutrients.
However, ash is alkaline and will raise the pH which blueberries will not like.

Ash and lime can be used to riase pH (not for blueberries, of course!) while sulphur can be used to lower the pH (some plants don't like sulphur, regardless of any pH change - so be careful).

It is not easy to move pH by much in either direction, unless you're working intensively on adjusting a small area.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I grow my blue berries in large pots and have found an occassional dose of ericaceous fertiliser helps keep the PH low.

Colin

[sequoia]

Put mine in large pots this year, added ericaceous compost and a generous mulch of fir tree clippings.

[Two_Sheds]

Wood ash is a great source of nutrients too

You forgot to mention the ultimate free fertiliser

(I always thought FB was BF ~ Bob Flowerdew ~ until I noticed that you don't go 'with the flow', fertiliser-wise)

[Bigmallly]

And free spent coffee from your local Cotsa or Sbartucks.

[northepaul]

I use seaweed on my blueberries and they love it!

[Loudbarker1]

Hi All,
Iv'e just bought some blueberry plants [still in their pots as I haven't put them in their permanent position yet in the garden]. Iv'e bought 5 of one type [Golden Traube]and one different type [Top Hat]. I believe having two different varieties increases the amount of fruit yeild? Could someone please confirm this or tell me I'm talking rubbish. My main questions are the the following. I know they need to be grown in Ericaceous compost and not ordinary soil so I have dug a trench for them about 1 ft deep and one foot wide which I will fill with the Ericaceous compost. Will this be ok? What I mean is will the roots of the blueberry bushes eventually move outside the depth and width of this trench and therefore no longer be growing in the medium they prefer or need. Secondly what feed or fertisiler will they need and how often and when, presuming they are ok in this trench? Your advice/help is as always appreciated. I have never grown blueberries before.

Someone one here once suggested (was it TwoSheds?) excavating a large hole and putting an old bath in it, filling the bath with ericaceous compost and planting the blueberries in that. It sounds like a fantastic idea and I am going to try it when we move to our new house (that will be on thick chalk)

[jdlondon]

I just bought a blueberry Bluecrop from B&Q, alongwith a blackberry - they had a two for £5 offer.

ANyway, looking at the instructions, they say the same thing for both ie bonemeal in the planting hole. But my bonemeal fertiliser packet says not for ericas. Torn, I haven't planted them on but just sprinkled bonemeal on the blackberry but left out the blueberry.

So my question is - is it because of what FB said above? ie suitable for young plant 'not yet fruiting' and so the blueberry should be ok with the bonemeal too since it's a young un?

[FB.]

I suspect that bonemeal is slightly alkaline.

Bone has a large amount of calcium with the phosphate. The plants want the phosphorus for root growth, but the calcium which comes with the phosphorus acts like lime and might raise the pH a little.
It's the same effect with wood ash; excess metallic ions tend to create metal hydroxides in the soil, which raises the pH.

A good ericaceous compost should have balanced nutrients, so just use that on its own. My blueberries, being in a boggy pit, tends to have more acidic soil due to the water retention in that heavy soil (as mentioned earlier: wet/heavy soil tends to become acidic, while dry soil tends to become alkaline). This heavy soil in the vicinity of my blueberries should serve to mostly neutralise the effect of alkaline fertilisers.