I'm not Al, but I don't think he'd mind if I answered this :-) The Osmocote will not hurt the blueberries at all - in fact, Osmocote (or its commercial equivalent) is used routinely in the nursery industry to fertilize all manner of containerized and field grown plants, blueberries included. And reusing the old container soil in raised beds is a great way to recycle it. I'd like to see it mixed with both garden soil and compost but the peat is not a bad additive to help satisfy the blueberries need for acidity.

Thankyou gardengirl. I made 3'x 8' x 1 foot deep. In the first bed I did add some compost and garden soil. On the second one I left out the garden soil because ther were so many japanese beetle grubs in it.I took out as many as I could find. This past spring I did put down milky spore, hope it helps. Why the garden soil? For the minors? Every year I have around 25 containers to empty. Some realy large ones 50 gal. Thankyou so very much for helping me with this, and all the times you have helped me in the past. filix.

"Why the garden soil?"

Garden (mineral) soils add stability to raised bed soils that you cannot generally afford to take advantage of in containers because of the small particulate size. If we used a raised bed soil comprised of almost all organic components (pine bark, peat, compost ...) we could expect some pretty substantial shrinkage rates (15-30% annually wouldn't be an unreasonable guess, depending on what the soil is made from) as the particles break down. If you start with 50% garden soil and add your spent container soils, shrinkage will be fractionalized and you will still have a soil much, much richer in organic component than found in most gardens, which are most commonly When I suggest you add Turface and coarse sand to raised bed soils when you are not including native topsoils, it's in recognition of the need to stabilize the soil against large shrinkages (a side-benefit in container soils, too). This is important with woody perennials like BBs because planting in a soil that shrinks quickly leaves surface roots exposed and can reduce anchorage substantially.

I won't go into it too deeply here, but in my many raised beds I use for growing on bonsai material, the shrinking soil exposed surface rootage to air/sun, which hastens lignification and thickening of the surface roots, which is exactly what I'm looking for in bonsai - old looking roots with a nice fat buttress - but not necessarily what the perennial gardener is looking for.

I think it is wise to shoot for a minimum of 50-75% mineral content in your raised beds for almost all all applications except annual cycling of flowering plants or veggies.

I wasn't ignoring your post, Filix - I just had some more surgery awhile back & recovery has been a little slower than expected. I'm just now getting to where I can sit up at the puter for more than a few minutes at a time & I figured my reply would take awhile.

I just got off the phone with Pam. She always gives good advice, so she's a good one to pay close attn to when she offers it. ;o)

Take good care - Good luck!

Al

I didn't think you were ignoring my post. Just thought you might have been away. Sorry you had to go under the knife. But I'm glad to hear you are on the mend. Your input on why to use garden soil makes sence. It's not too late to add some. But those darn japanese beetles. Iwas thinking of putting my container blueberries in my greenhouse draped with insect screen. With the greenhouse film removed of course. To keep the bugs off them. Do you think the screen would shade them too much? I'm not putting all this work into them to feed the J.B. Thanks as always. filix