oh...I also saw that it recommended pine, fir or hemlock for mulch, but I don't have any forests around here where I could collect some. ;-) Does anyone know of a place online that might sell this? Right now I have coconut mulch on top of the soil....

I have found that letting a bb plant dry out sets it back for some time. My guess is you won't see that plant take off again until next spring. Make sure when you water that you give it big drinks........fill the whole pot up with water. The reason I say this is because when I moved my plants from pots to the ground the bottom third of the pots had dead roots and the soil was all dry. You want to see some water coming out of the holes in the bottom of the pot when you water.

When it gets super hot, you might try moving the plants to a spot where they aren't in full sun all day. They don't need full sun all day despite what most will tell you and when it's really hot they have trouble keeping up when in pots. My good friend has plants thriving in pots and they only get sun from about 9 am til 2 pm each day.

RM

About the mulch, you might look around for a pine tree and collect the needles under it, this is what I did. Blend the pine needles with some peat moss which will help lower the pH. The pH of pine needles isn't quite low enough as I understand it and the peat will help correct this. You might also be able to find pine bark at Lowes, WalMart or Home Depot.

RM

I don't have pine trees, but I rake up the fallen needles from my yew hedge and arborvitae for mulch.

Thanks all. I do always water the plant fully so that water pours out from the bottom of the planters. I then have the pot up on pot feet so that it gets a bit of air circulation underneath.

As for sun, my balcony only gets direct north/west sun from say 2:00-7:00p each day.

I think I did see pine bark mulch somewhere online...so that would work? I was thinking it had to be pine NEEDLES....

Also if you check the container forum there are others in the NYC area that have found the pine bark mulch to make a good container mix for blueberries.

I've had several plants go stagnant but if you take care of them they will take off next spring as RM said.

great on the stagnant thing...so I'll wait and see what happens next year.

I did find online bags of pine bark mulch, sold as '2 cubic feet', but I've no idea how big of a bag that means...whether that woiuld be enough/too much for two pots that are about 12' wide each.

tx

That's like a big bag of dry dog food.The shipping is probably going to cost way more than the mulch.
Is there a Lowes,Home Depot or Walmart nearby.They most likely carry it. Brady

hmmm..that might be too much then. Living in an NYC apartment it's not like I can store the extra somewhere. I don't think they are sold in amounts less than that. Oh well....

Find an area nursery, they can probably help you. Tell them you need a small amount of pine mulch, better yet call around before taking the time to drive. If you can't find the pine then use peat.....it's good stuff and available almost anywhere.

In early spring cut back any dead limb tips and your plant that dried out and I'm guessing it will spring back.

RM

Don't worry about the pine needles, they don't do much with the pH anyway. You are in pots, so just mulch with spagnum peat. We use whatever is available for mulch, wood shavings, wood chips but we need large volumes. Peat is too expensive, pine needles aren't available in this area by the semi-load like they are down South.

Whatever mix you settle on don't forget to add approx. 2 tablespoons of 5% white vinegar per gallon of water. I'm sure your tap water will test to a pH of about 8.