Yellow leaves on blueberry

[jrice]

Hi. I have noticed over the last few day the leaves on my blueberry bush have wilted and are yellow/brown but not dry. I have had it for 18 months and it produced lots of blueberries last year. It's planted in large pot in ericaceous soil. Last year I only watered it with rain water but my husband says he has watered it a lot with tap water this year. Could this be the reason? It has produced a lot of flower but as yet no sign of fruit. The stems look healthy so I presume the plant is still alive. Is there anything I can do to save the plant. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[scarey55]

Hello and welcome to the Vine

I'm not too well up on blueberries but I do know that they don't like to be given tap water. Try putting some spent coffee grounds on the soil if you have any, they seem to like that.

[jrice]

As luck would have it I have some coffee grounds. Not sure if I should repot with fresh ericaceous soil? Also do I leave (pardon the pun) the leaves or take them off?

[scarey55]

If it were me, I'd give it a mulch of coffee grounds and water with rainwater. I would remove the most affected leaves but leave as many good ones on as possible. I am not sure about re-potting, hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon.

[DuncanM]

I ordered a 'pinkberry lemonade' blueberry bush a while back and although it came to me in great shape, I neglected to water it for a while and a lot of the leaves went yellow/orange then brown and shrivelled up. I repotted into a 1/2 whisky barrel which already had 1 potted in it with lots of ericaceous compost. It has dropped the dead leaves and the others are doing well.

[boatsman]

I only use rainwater or water from the air conditioners on my blueberry bush. I have also used water from the kitchen water filtration system with no apparent ill effect. I have never had problems with yellowing leaves on blueberries but I have had it on citrus trees. I solved that problem by dissolving a few teaspoons of chelated iron in about 5 or 6 litres of water and washing over the leaves and the tree with the solution. In a few weeks the tree was back to normal.

[BUFFS]

i would use rainwater and give it an ericacious feed,we use the tapwater up here,no problem ,and here the heatwave has finished,sitting here in a jumper,everything back to normal,but the plants will like it and make watering less critical....