Blueberries - help a newbie

[davelaneward]

Hi, i have a second floor flat with a flat roof where i can easily grow stuff so this year i am trying to do just that.
I live in dorset, and the roof is south facing.

As-well a propagating a host of fruits and herbs, I ordered a dixie and goldtraube blueberry plants a few days ago and they arrived today. Theyre about 1ft high. They have been topped/pruned, have 3-5 main branches, all starting to sprout shoots, and live in 1ltr pots.

They seem to definitely need re-potting so I went looking for ericaceous compost earlier but all i could find was "Westland gro sure", which comes "enriched with iron", and with "4 months feed".

If this is the only stuffavailable, will it be ok?

Should i pop the plants straight outside, or wait until i have re-potted them first?

Is any kind of wood chippings ok to use as mulch?

Thanks

[rustylady]

Westland Gro sure is not ericaceous compost. Whereabouts are you Dave?

[davelaneward]

Bournemouth.
I mean, all i could find is westland grosure ericaceous compost.
Gro-Sure Ericaceous Compost 25L at wilko.com

I have always been told that these chemically-loaded composts and liable to cause nute burn, or other problems down the line.

[Kirk]

You need an ericaceous compost, if it is not then you will not have a problem down the line as you will not have a blueberry (DEAD), and I think something to make a heavier mix then just the compost is a good idea. So you may need 2 bags of ericaceous and 1 of something else.

The bushes will need containers way bigger then 1 litre you have received them in, I use ones that take a complete bag of compost so about 70 litres and above.

Blueberry's are not small plants, they will get to be a good sized bush.

If in a container then add a mulch layer to lessen loss of water, they do not like getting dry, they do not like getting anywhere near dry. Keep them damp at all times. Big pot helps this aspect. Small drainage holes also help.

Do not use tap water, that is far too alkaline and even adding 1 litre of tap water if dry will cause the blueberry to throw a wobbly. Use rain water. Also get a ericaceous feed.

I think sawdust eventually composts down to be acidic, so if you can get a bagfull from a joiners/carpentry place it will be a useful addition or even as a mulch. Sure I have read that pine needles also compost to be acidic. Could do the easy thing and get a piece of weed suppressant and cut that to shape.

By the way unless you mount a 24 hours guard on it the birds will eat every blueberry - a 30 gram blackbird will face you off in a fight for them, even if you weigh a bit more then 30 grams it doesn't matter.

[chris]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...uide_6408.html

[AllInContainers]

I don't have facilities to catch rainwater to water all my ericaceous plants (7 blueberry bushes, 12 heathers, 3 checkerberry, and 3 leucothoe zeblid), so I use tap water and add a good splash of vinegar to increase the acidity.

Get them potted on as soon as you can, but don't expect fruit from them this year. Give them optimum conditions this year though, and you may get fruit next year Note: Dixi is an Early, and Gold Traub is late, so don't expect much in the way of cross pollination - unless you cheat a bit.

I have a range of blueberry bushes and will plant the late season ones in the better locations, and have the earlies in the more challenging conditions, or where they only get full sun later in the season and am expecting this to balance things out a little. Don't worry though, last year my Bluecrop gave me my first fruit last year without cross pollination - it was the only one I had then. The fruit was very nice but there wasn't a huge amount and it didn't all ripen at the same time ... that's why I decided to get so many more

[davelaneward]

I don't have facilities to catch rainwater to water all my ericaceous plants (7 blueberry bushes, 12 heathers, 3 checkerberry, and 3 leucothoe zeblid), so I use tap water and add a good splash of vinegar to increase the acidity.

Get them potted on as soon as you can, but don't expect fruit from them this year. Give them optimum conditions this year though, and you may get fruit next year Note: Dixi is an Early, and Gold Traub is late, so don't expect much in the way of cross pollination - unless you cheat a bit.

I have a range of blueberry bushes and will plant the late season ones in the better locations, and have the earlies in the more challenging conditions, or where they only get full sun later in the season and am expecting this to balance things out a little. Don't worry though, last year my Bluecrop gave me my first fruit last year without cross pollination - it was the only one I had then. The fruit was very nice but there wasn't a huge amount and it didn't all ripen at the same time ... that's why I decided to get so many more

Great, thanks. Yeah i don't have the facilities to catch rainwater either. Good tip with the vinegar, thanks. Much cheaper than PH down!
I made an order from wilko (they didn't have the compost in stock), and got a bunch of other stuff i needed too. I gotta say, they have a great delivery system. You can have everything delivered to their shop and not pay a penny in postage fees which is awesome for things like compost and large pots. Picking it all up tomorrow, then ill get them potted.

I knew about the cross polination thing but the info i was given is that dixie is late and gold traube mid!

The decent thing about my location is its a big flat roof above shops, on a corner. So nothing blocks the sun from rise to set. The only worry is that it might get too hot.

Ps, is adding green pine needles to the compost a good idea?
And would shredded pine cones make a good mulch to cover the pots with?

[AllInContainers]

Sorry Dave, you were right about GT being mid and Dixi being late - my bad. It's my Spartan that's early .... not sure when my Pink Lemonade bushes will kick into action yet. Will prob have to wait till next year for those anyway I wouldn't worry too much about the pine needles, I think (?) that's more for prepping soil that might need a tweak - the ericaceous compost will be fine as is so long as you get the watering and feeding right. So long as you keep them watered the heat shouldn't cause an issue I don't think ... just don't let 'em dry out

[davelaneward]

Sorry Dave, you were right about GT being mid and Dixi being late - my bad. It's my Spartan that's early .... not sure when my Pink Lemonade bushes will kick into action yet. Will prob have to wait till next year for those anyway I wouldn't worry too much about the pine needles, I think (?) that's more for prepping soil that might need a tweak - the ericaceous compost will be fine as is so long as you get the watering and feeding right. So long as you keep them watered the heat shouldn't cause an issue I don't think ... just don't let 'em dry out

Thanks.
Theyve been growing well enough, but some stems and most of the leaves are red or green + red.
Ive been told this is normal, is that right?

[AllInContainers]

Yep! Most of mine have a reddish tinge, and those that don't already, will have later

[DiggerSean]

The autumn colours of my blueberries are fantastic, but as already stated they have a reddish tinge when the leaves first emerge. They go greener as the leaves mature, but the autumn red colour is something else. A wonderful plant to grow.