Shrivelled Blueberries

[cardiffsteve]

Hi all

I have 3 blueberry bushes in pots with ericaceous compost. I've fed them with ericaceous food but watered them with tap water not rain water.

1 bush had shrivelled tiny blueberries and withered looking branches. The leaves fell off very quickly.
The other 2 bushes produced loads of fruit, 4kilos .

Any idea what caused my shrivelled blueberries?

Thought it might be botrytis but the other 2 bushes are in the same vicinity and they are okay.

[Aberdeenplotter]

that one isn't pot bound is it Steve?

[cardiffsteve]

The shrivelled one and one other bush were repotted at the same time last year, so i dont think its pot bound.

i'll have a look over the weekend just to check though.

Thanks AP

[Kirk]

I would suspect the tap water.
I watered mine once with tap water during one of the drought times and it hated it.
It was to my thinking either tap water or dead and the outcome was pretty close to dead.

The one in question may simply be more susceptable to tap water then the others.
Also a good crop may imply the plants under stress (tap water) and it is trying to pass on as fruit it's genetics before they give up. So do not assume that tap water is OK just by a good crop.

Plants are weird things at times.

[snakeshack]

I would suspect a combination of things, blueberries like it wet but well drained but not waterlogged and don't like lime in hard water..So if you hold off on watering because you are short of rainwater the plant is already stressed , then watering with tap water exacerbates the problem, continued watering with tap water causes a build up of lime and raises the ph of the compost which begins to break down eventually the plant dies.If you need to water with tap water , do it early before drying out stresses the plant then at the first opportunity change the compost or at least flush copiously with rainwater asap


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[whiskyman]

Simply lack of water. Shriveled berries followed by leaf drop indicates drought.

I've had to water with tap water before and never caused me problems. Truthfully I hardly water any of my blueberries, they in the largest pots I could find and mulched heavily with wood chips or pine needles or both. I do check often to see if they watering.

I do have one in smaller pot that i forgot to water and that what happened to mine with the leaf drop. The berries were already picked.