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Fruit & Orchards

New blueberry bushes

plant-one-on-me

16 years ago

I guess I may have jumped the gun a bit and planted my blueberries too soon. I bought 2 in boxes from Lowes that already had green on them. I planted in a potting soil. After doing a search and reading on GW I think this may not be the best soil to plant in.

Should I take them out and repot in something else or can I add a very weak vinegar/water mixture?

Is there an easy and inexpensive way to test the pH?

I am very new to gardening with fruit and vegetables and never learned about testing for pH. I have lots of perinneals but usually just stick them in the ground and what lives, well lives.

One other kind of wierd question...I have a guinea pig and usually bed with shredded newspaper or pine animal bedding, could this be used mixed in the soil. I think urine has a lower pH and then there is the added benefit of guinea pig poo.

Ok, one more question...we can get a large number of pine boughs that were cut last year, can I use these somehow to acidify the soil?

Sorry for all the questions, but I want to get this right! Kim

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Comments (6)

plant-one-on-me
Original Author
16 years ago
I have an idea with the pine boughs...the area I plan on planting the blueberries is in a corner, there is a drain that runs through the back yards in the neighborhood that goes under this area along the back of my fence, the area needs fill badly...I was thinking of putting in a few concrete blocks against the neighbors fences in the corner and backfilling this area. What if I first filled the area with the pine boughs (cut into roughly 1' lengths) then filled with compost? The area would be higher towards the corner making a mound. Hope this makes sense. Kim
sherryls
16 years ago
I have about 260 plus blueberry plants. Basically just put some pine needles around your plants for multch. It will acidify your soil. You can also get some miricle grow for acid loving plants at almost any hardware/chain store. Feed them with some of this on occasion over the summer. Your plants will do fine and the pine needles will acidify the soil for you along the way. They should do fine with regular water and miracle grow feeding.
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plant-one-on-me
Original Author
16 years ago
I am so glad to hear about the pine needles helping to acidify the soil. I am going to bury lots of cut off branches and then I am going to rake under the trees those came from and use that as mulch.
fruitgirl
16 years ago
I wouldn't bury the cut up pieces of branches and then plant into that. As the branches decay, the whole area will settle, and the end result could be that your blueberries are in a wet, sunken hole. While blueberries need a lot of water, they are also quite intolerant to having wet roots. If you try to fill the are with more soil, you'll end up with your blueberries planted too deeply.
greenhaven
16 years ago
Plant-one-on-me, I have a big old pine in my backyard, under which has accumulated a deep layer of dropped needles. My thought was to actually take a shop-vac out there and suck 'em up to use as mulch and amendments!

Now I just have to rent a shop-vac and not tell what I am doing with it! ;o)
amprice
15 years ago
Having just put in 2 new bushes this fall this pine needle mulch idea will be used first thing in the spring. Thanks!

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