is it still the same media.. in the same pot.. 4 years later???

there is a fruit forum ... if you dont find an answer here ...

ken

yes, same pot, same media. I add fish fertilizer now and then, and in the early winter I put a layer of evergreen needles on top of the soil. But as mentioned, one is doing fine and the other not, even though both have been in same pots for 4 years.

Is there something different about fruit shrubs that I need to refresh the media more often vs my other plants? My non-fruiting shrubs and flowers do fine in the same pots each year.

Thanks.

pine needles do nothing for pH ... whens the last time you checked pH?

two pots may as well have one on the moon.. one here ... we cant really compare each just by looks ...

fruit production ... takes a lot more energy.. than other plain old plants ...

one thing im not clear on.. have you ever gotten berries???

ken

Too much nitrogen from the ammonium sulfate would have encouraged vegetative growth at the expense of flowers and fruit. Now about the bottom photograph. Blueberry mummy is a serious fungus disease that reduces yield and produces stunted, shrunken berries that are only loosely attached to the plant. Unless the bottom photograph was taken after the berries sat in the sun for some time, it does look very much like blueberry mummy. This is primarily a disease of commercial blueberry fields, so it is difficult to see how it arrived in a container planting, but it could have been imported with the plant itself.

You do need to replace the planting media with something like the 5-1-1 mix discussed in the container forum. Blueberries do need a very acid medium so a higher proportion of peat may be needed. Ph test strips are inexpensive and relatively easy to use.

thanks. So it sounds like you're saying that while blueberries need acidic soil, there's also such thing as 'too much' acid, which seems to have been the case with this one plant?

If I recall, the bottom photo was taken after a heavy rain, so I wondered if maybe the strong rain itself caused the flowers to fall off? But don't the flowers naturally fall off anyway, as the berries begin to form?...or is it the flowers themselves that should then morph into berries, and while they are still attached to the plant?

I did buy pH test strips once from Amazon and I think I even tried using them once but wasn't sure they were working. They looked very 'chintzy'....they cost like $2.35 and were made in China and were just these little colored strips of paper in like a cigarette match package. I believe I took a bit of dirt from each plant and put in a cup with water and then tested (...whatever the directions told me to do), and I think both came out neutral. If I recall, that's what made me decide to get the ammonium sulfate. I never retested the soil after that because I ended up tossing the pH strips, certain that they never were really accurate to begin with.

Is it possible however that these simple cheap little strips from China could in fact be accurate, or is there a more reliable strip that you know of? I'm not interested in getting a $100 fancy soil reader...just more 'junk' I don't have room for in my small apartment, and my gardening philosophy is generally that if a plant doesn't work in my natural situation, to find something that DOES work. I don't like to fuss too much over ammending soil pH. With all my other potted plants, I mainly just pot-up as needed and/or trim the roots, maybe loosen up the soil every year or two and add more perlite, and then just water regularly, occasionally with fish fertilizer.

Thanks!

Not too much acid, but too much nitrogen from the ammonium part (NH4+) of the ammonium sulfate. Nitrogen is the N part of NPK in fertilizers. P and K encourage flowers and root growth, N encourages leafy growth, so too much N means leaves at the expense of flowers and fruit. I wonder if another form of sulfur would work . . I don't know since my soil is already acid, so no sulfur of any form needed here, so I know nothing about what forms might work.

Thanks for explanation. I also have bloodmeal which I heard can be helpful but... I find it all rather confusing and as I said, I really am not very interested in doing all kinds of things to change the soil pH. I might have to just accept that maybe blueberries aren't realistic for me, and maybe give the plants to my brother who has a big yard that already includes some blueberry shrubs and lots of other berries, veggies, etc.

Bloodmeal supplies nitrogen--not what you need. Also, I have always heard that aluminum sulfate, while it does acidify soil, is quite bad for blueberries and that what they require for soil acidification is soil sulfur.

Consider using a mix in your pot with peat for the organic matter and then a goodly amount of gritty ingredients for excellent drainage. The acidity of the peat would take care of that issue I think. Check in on the container gardening forum for help with a good mix that will drain well.