ph advice for lowbush blueberries on the leach field

18 years ago

Hi everyone:

I am looking for advice about a scheme I've got to grow low-bush blueberries on my 16'x16' leach field. There are plenty of blueberries growing in my general area (Newbury, MA - within a couple of miles of Plum Island and the ocean), although none in my yard. My leach field is (naturally) in full sun and the surface is very dry: its soil drains so quickly that the grass planted on top of it is virtually always dormant and has not been able to establish in many patches. I would like to replace the grass with lowbush blueberries, which seem to grow in the drier, scrubby areas around here. While I certainly hope to eat some of the berries myself, the main goal is to create a groundcover for the site that will provide some benefit to local the wildlife.

Yesterday I received my ph results from the Extension service and the soil tested at 5.8 - too high for blueberries. The Extension recommended I work in elemental sulfur (20lbs per 1000 sq ft) and "allow considerable time before planting berries". I am beginning to wonder what the likelihood is that I will be able to alter the soil enough to make the berries happy, and if so how much effort will be required every year to keep them going.

What I'd like to know from you, O Collective Gardening Wisdom, is this:

If I incorporate the elemental sulphur into the soil, at what depth should I turn it into the soil? Will I have to repeat the process every spring, and how will that work once the plants are in?

Should I incorporate some other organics, ie. peat or sawdust into the soils as well? Mulch with pine needles? Is it possible to actually drop the ph by .8 and have it be a permanent change?

Could I amend the soil now and still plant the berries this spring, or would it be better to amend now (or in the fall) and plant the berries next spring?

The final analysis: if you were in my shoes, would you attempt this?

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Comments (5)

murkwell
18 years ago
The thing that concerns me is it sounds like its difficult to keep moist and blueberries don't like to dry out.

Elemental sulfur is slow and long acting. I think that is why you were advised to wait after using it. At the application rate suggested that would be 5 lbs and it should be good for a couple of years at least. You can supplement by adding a lesser amount to the surface periodically and lightly scratching it in.

Others have suggested using Iron Sulfate for quicker but shorter term acidification, so if you don't want to wait a long time you could use both up front.

Blueberry roots are relatively shallow, if you dug the sulfur in 8" that would probably be fine. The impression I have is that not all of the root mass needs low PH. High PH prevents absorbtion of certain nutrients by the roots, but just like a plant can survive if only watered on one side, I'm sure the blueberry plants can get those nutrients from some of the roots even if others are at a higher PH.
bberry_gw
18 years ago
Papercarver,
Sounds like you are going to plant wild lowbush blueberries on a soil that is very poor to begin with. Amend it and fortify it and then to plant wild blueberries you will need to get some blueberry sod which is a tangled mass of roots and dirt and some tops. Get as much of the dirt as you can. Lay these out all over and mulch in between with peat moss and/or wood chips. The rhisomes will spread into the mulch and fill in eventually. You will need to water this bed just like it was a grass sodded area until it is established and maybe some even then. In order to get any amount of fruit from wild low bush blueberries you will need to burn or mow them off every other year. Wild blueberries like the acid soil and an added benefit to the acid soil is that competing weeds will not take over. You may have to help weed out grasses until you have the PH down and the blueberries choke out the weeds. By the way wild blueberries with extremely high antioxidants and terrific taste are far too good for wildlife. Let them eat the bunch berries and wild apples!

From the wild blueberry capital of the world. Washington County, Maine.
Bberry
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kiwinut
18 years ago
A pH of 5.8 is not too low for blueberries. It may not be optimum, but most varieties will do fine. Optimum growth is usually seen around pH 5-5.5 for most varieties. The advantage of really low pH (4-5) is that it suppresses the growth of competing weeds, but the blueberries actually grow better with more moderate acidity.

My soils are around 6.1-6.3 and I have not done anything other than mix in peat moss in the planting hole. A couple of varieties will start to get a little chlorotic, but a little chelated iron takes care of that quickly. I just feed them Holly-Tone, which has 5% sulfur, and they are doing great after 4 years. I think you could mix in generous amounts of peat in your soil, and probably never have to worry about pH.
papercarver
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi everyone:

Thanks for all of your comments! This is what I've decided to do: I'm going to amend the soil this summer, let it lay fallow over the winter and put the berries in early next spring.

To do this I'm going to "roundup" the marginal amount of grass on the site and turn over the soil/sod, incorporating elemental sulfur and pine sawdust (and pine needles if I can find a source). I'm not planning to dig down past about 8" - I've been told by several folks that as long as I don't go into the sand or gravel of the field I should be ok. Once that's done, I'll mulch the whole shebang with pine chips for the winter.

I would like to plant blueberry sod, but the price for the size area I'm covering ($3/ft) is pretty steep for me (plus husband will have a heart attack). I've found a source in Fryeburg, Maine that sells lowbush blueberry plugs and so I'm thinking I'll go with that, or perhaps a combination of plugs and sod.

This is all kind of risky, given how dry the leach field gets in the high summer, but a) I think the mulch with help somewhat; and b) there are lots of blueberries growing on Pum Island on the sand dunes and they seem to survive the lack of water ok.

So, once again thanks for all of your interest. If any of you have leads on other sources for lowbush blueberry stock I'd appreciate the tips. I'll post a follow up next spring (hopefully with pictures) to show what I did.

Have a lovely growing season,

papercarver
ravenh2001
15 years ago
blueberry sod at 3.00 a square foot is a bargin. You brake it up into 1 " plugs and plant it 4" apart mulch to keep grass out and it will grow to a carpet in 4 years. It fruits best on a 2 year prune. p.s. I sell sod to people who want instant gratification at 3.00 per square. read people with money. The strips I dig and put down mulch fill back in quickly so I sell them again. weed control is important for blueberries so buy a hocky stick style wiper and roundup for that until they own the turf.