I have my sunshine variety in a container, so far it's doing well and I haven't checked on ph or anything just followed the advice found on gardenweb and other places.

try this link
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/promotion/bluecontainer.html

There has been lots of discussion about blueberries & strategies for growing them in containers. Try searching this forum using the words blueberries pH, or follow the link if it works.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: about blueberries

I have searched this topic extensively both on GW and the net. If you use a mix heavy in peat and make sure to use good composted material and then mulch with pine bark mulch. This will give you a good low pH that the berries need. I have made a mix consisting of peat moss (50% minimum) some potting mix (miracle grow), perlite and soil conditioner (which is 90% composted pine fines).

go to the fruit forum and search my name, I have few threads there on this topic and have gotten great advice from others there.

Hi again. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Just to tell you guys about project:

I currently reside in Kenya and I have taken up the challenge of growing blueberries here my home garden. I ordered two varieties Sunshine blue and Misty.
The first week I planted the plants in a potting mix, added some coco-peat and some mulch. My plants didn't seem to be doing too well.

I have now re-potted the plants in an rich organic acid-loving potting mix with some coco-peat. The PH of the soil ranges between 4.5 to 4.8.

One plant (sunshine blue) has nice dark green leaves with some. The other plant (also sunshine blue) seems to have some burnt bud tips but I think this had to do with the earlier potting soil.

I have 4 other plants (2 sunshine blue and 2 misty), They are producing a lot of leaves and the new leaves are now a darker green as opposed to the lighter green older leaves. So my guess is the plants are liking the potting soil. The problem is that I see no flower buds on these plants. I don't know what the problem could be? I have looked for diseases but nothing. Last week the leaves were curling up but after transplanting the leaves are looking healthier. However the leaf texture is different from the other 2 sunshine blue plants I received. The leaves are not a deep dark green and they aren't as sturdy as the other plants.

It is very difficult to get elemental sulfur here in small quantities. Is there anything else I can use to keep the ph low or lower the ph if needed.

Any help or suggestions would really be appreciated.

It is very difficult to get elemental sulfur here in small quantities. Is there anything else I can use to keep the ph low or lower the ph if needed.

Add distilled vinegar (5-6% acetic acid) to your irrigation water. How much to add kind of depends, but start with around 1/2 cup per gallon and see how that goes. In no case will this dilution cause any harm to your plant.

If you have access to a pH test kit you can use it to determine how much vinegar is required to lower the water pH to desired levels. As long as your water supply parameters are fairly constant you should only have to do this once, otherwise checking periodically is helpful.

The idea is that the pH of the growing media doesn't matter in terms of nutrient availability, it is the pH of the watery solution that matters. If you are continually adding water that is properly acidic it is similar to using water of too high a pH that is lowered by the stuff in the potting mix (such as sulfur).

I just purchased two blueberry plants and was wondering if I should plant them in a SWC? Since a good deal of the water is captive in the container and the nutrients do not evaporate, it would appear that the Ph of the soil/water could be more consistantly maintained.

Am I right or wrong on this? I plan on placing both plants (different varieties) in one 30 gal SWC. Can I add Miracid and be confident that my blueberries will be properly nourished?

Miracid doesn't have calcium or magnesium so unless your water supply has enough you will need to supply those.

Also, miracid, as best I can tell, doesn't acidify water. Rather the process of converting the urea in it to nitrate can acidify. I say 'as best I can tell' as I have measured the pH of my water before and after adding miracid and even at 3 times the normal dilution rate there was no difference in pH. I was using pH lithmus papers to test this and they aren't accurate enough to say if there was a .1 or .4 point shift.

Vinegar (normal white distilled from the grocery) is a more reliable way to lower the pH of water.

As for growing BB in SWC I haven't tried this. As a rule I don't use SWC for perennial plants because of my freezing cold winters. Water in the reservoir would freeze and the mix itself would turn to a block of ice ;) This isn't an insurmountable problem, just a problem I don't care to deal with.

If I evacuated the water prior to winter and by storing the whole thing inside an unheated shed, do you think that might work? It would then be little different than any other container. My varieties are listed at -20 for one and -40 for the other. I would cover them in the shed to try to insulate the containers a bit.

I have a Ph meter(?) but I really do not know how good those things are. Other than litmus paper, how would I test for accurate Ph?

If I evacuated the water prior to winter and by storing the whole thing inside an unheated shed, do you think that might work?

Should. I know Filix on this forum overwintered his container blueberries this year. Filix, you got your ears on good buddy? ;) Other than litmus paper, how would I test for accurate Ph?

There are only 2 ways I test for pH. Lithmus paper and those kits used where you match the solution color against a card. If find the later difficult to read accurately.

As a rule I only measure things out of curiosity, I don't take routine measurements of anything as it relates to plants.

Filix could probably tell you what, if anything, is done for controlling pH with container blueberries. When I had blueberries in containers I just used vinegar in the water and really don't know how necessary that was.

Hi, could anyone tell me what size container is required for sunshineblue blueberry plants? I bought two last year. One is in a 11" dia. by 9"deep and the other is in a 13" dia. by 12"deep. This spring they are covered with a lot of flowers. Should I just leave all of them on the plants or thin them out? Also, I live in Arkansas and the winters get cold here. Do I need to wrap the containers with something to protect the roots from a hard freeze? Many thanks for any recomindations..

I would leave the blossoms on the plant. Some will probably abort anyway. You probably only need to move the containers to the north side of a building out of wind to over-winter in containers.

How large a container needs to be, or CAN be, and how much soil a planting needs/will tolerate before drainage & saturation is an issue depends on the 3-way relationship between plant mass, container size, and soil type. We often concern ourselves with "over-potting" (using a container that is too large), but "over-potting" is a term that arises from a lack of basic knowledge about the 3-way relationship noted, which should logically determine appropriate container size(s).

It's often parroted that you should only move up one size in containers when "potting-up". The reasoning is the soil will remain wet too long and cause root rot issues, but it is the size/mass of the material and soil type/composition that determines both the upper & lower limits of appropriate container size - not consecutive volume progression.

Plants grown in slow soils need to be grown in containers with smaller soil volumes so that the plant can use water quickly, allowing air to return to the soil. This (smaller soil volumes) and the root constriction that accompanies it will cause plants to extend and gain o/a mass much more slowly - a bane if rapid growth is the goal - a boon if growth restriction and a compact plant are what you have you sights set on.

Conversely, rampant growth can be had by growing in very large containers and in very fast soils where frequent watering and fertilizing is required - so it's not that plants rebel at being potted into very large containers or volumes of soil per se, but rather, they rebel at being potted into very large containers with a large volume of soil that is too slow and water-retentive.

We know that there is an inverse relationship between soil particle size and the height of the PWT in containers. As particle size increases, the height of the PWT decreases, until at about a particle size of just under 1/8 inch, soils will no longer hold perched water. If there is no perched water, the soil is ALWAYS well aerated, even when the soil is at container capacity (saturated).

So, if you aim for a soil composed primarily of particles >1/16", there is no upper limit to container size. The lower size limit will be determined by the soil volume's ability to furnish water enough to sustain the plant between irrigations."

You can grow a very small plant in a very large container if the soil holds little or no perched water (saturated soil).

Al

Hi there. I think I over fertilized one of my sunshine blues. The leaves got burnt and as a result I pulled the leave out. Now there are very few leaves. Is there anything I can do to stimulate new leaf growth.

Cheers.

I have ten blueberry plants in containers. Two are in half wiskey barrels, one is in a large cedar wood container that I made, and the rest are in 15 gallon injection molded plastic containers with handels, that I bought from griffin greenhouse supply. I think the half wiskey barrels are perfect. But they are heavy to move around. I have a tree dolly for this. Most are made of white oak which resists rot. I over wintered them in my unheated garage.

As far as ph goes, I followed Tapla's and Justa's advice. Which is don't be overly concerned with the ph of the soil. It's the ph of the water you give them thats more important. Just as long as you start with a reasonably acidic mix like Al's 5.1.1. I water with rain from my rain barrels when I can. When I have to use my town water I use vinegar with it. I fertilize with miracid 1/4 strength, as blueberries don't like alot of fertilzer. I also add epsom salt and gysum for calcium and magnesium. Al's great advice on fast draining soils can't be overstated. I'm pretty new at this. So I'm still learning. They look good so far:) Hope this helps. filix.

Tnat - flush the soil repeatedly - 5 times or more. Remove as much 'extra' water from the soil as you can (ask if you need help). Wait.

Strong work, Filix. ;o)

Al

i dont understand "flushing" the soil. what does this mean? i just bought 5 new dwarf tophat blueberries for container growing and i'm looking for advice. do they need to be keept moist or not? i plan on using potting mix and peat moss for planting. is this correct?

Flushing means run lots of water through the mix to remove excess fertilizer.

Yes, blueberries should be kept moist, they don't have all that efficient of roots and won't appreciate drying out at all.

Potting mix usually is lots of peat moss. I think your blueberries will be happier in the 5-1-1 mix Filix is talking about upthread. The bark in the mix is nicely acidic for the blueberries and it stays well aerated (usable) for longer than peat does. In other words if you make a pine bark based mix your plants will have happy feet for a longer period of time than they will in a peat based one.

Flush the soil means pour lots of water through it to remove the excess fertilizer.

Blueberries are like potatoes. They love water, but won't tolerate wet feet.

You might want to reconsider your soil.

There is much written on this forum about blueberries. I would suggest you search the forum by simply entering the key words blueberries and soil in the search box & then come back with additional ?s you might have.

Al

Thank you all for the info. It has been very helpfull. I will continue to read up on the blueberries as I am learning a lot. Again, Many thanks..