pictures of leaves from 3.5 pH blueberry

13 years ago

Lately my friends and I have had some misadventures with excessively low pH. A friend dropped his media to the 2-3 range and killed some plants. One of mine dropped to 3.5 and this is what the current season leaves look like.

I think the black spots on the leaves are characteristic of low pH damage. The leaves fall off early when they get worse than this. So leaves on the new shoots are falling off the plant months before they should.

On the plants that died I didn't get any pictures. But the plants wilted despite frequent watering. I think this was probably because the roots were being killed or quit growing. Then the older leaves turned colors like above, defoliation grew worse, and finally stems began to die.

Thought someone might be interested and now that I've figured out how to post pictures I need practice.

Thanks for reading!

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Comments (6)

northernmn
13 years ago
It's interesting that the leaf color pattern for low pH is reversed from the high pH leaf colors.

Low pH = medium green along the leaf veins and yellowish @ the outside of the leaves..

High pH = yellowish along the leaf veins and medium green @ the ouutside of the leaves.
franktank232
13 years ago
Interesting. I should really check mine. I grow in pure peat moss, water with rainwater and fertilize with low pH food. Might need to adjust. Probably will start watering with my well water, which is pretty hard.
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It looks like you've found your answer Fruitnut. Since there has been some confusion about what pH is, I wanted to add a few comments about it. I don't remember that much about it myself, but have had discussions with my daughter, and she's pretty brainy on the topic. It's interesting to me how it works, and this is how I understand it. pH measures the amount of positively charged H ions/cations. The small "p" stands for the latin term pondus (weight) and the "H" stands for the term Hydrogen (That's why the "p" is always lower case, and the "H" is upper case.) The reason the pH scale is logarithmic is that a solution with a neutral pH of 7 will have 10 to the minus 7 moles of Hydrogen ions per liter. A solution with pH of 6 will have 10 to the minus 6 moles of Hydrogen ions per liter (10 to the minus 6 being 10 times more than 10 to the minus 7). So as the pH reduces there is a greater and greater concentration of hydrogen ions till you finally get to a theoretical pH of 0, which would be 10 to the zero power, or one. In other words the solution would be more or less 100% hydrogen ions. Interestingly, there is also a pOH scale which also measures alkaline/acidity and is the inverse of the pH scale. OH is a negatively charged ion/anion. A pOH of 8 would be the equivalent of a pH of 6. But what's interesting to me is how it comes together. Everyone knows water is H2O. In theoretical terms pure water has a pH of 7 and a pOH of 7. That means there are exactly as many free roaming H+ ions as there are OH- ions (10 to the minus 7 of each), which when come together form H2O. Sometimes pH probes can be in error because they only measure cations. Hydrogen is not the only cation. Sodium also has a plus one charge and Calcium has a plus 2 charge. The cheaper probes we are talking about will pick up Sodium and Calcium cations in their measurement. You can try it yourself to see if it affects your probe. Take a glass of water from the sink and measure the pH. Then add some table salt to the water and check again. Chances are the probe will indicate a reduction in pH, even though it hasn't really occurred. The probe is picking up the Sodium ions. I've tried it, and while the error isn't huge, there is some error.
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fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
Original Author
13 years ago
I might have explained the progression of defoliation a little better. The oldest leaves on current growth develop the black spots and various colors. Then the leaves fall off, oldest first. On some leaves part of the leaf dies before it falls off. I'll post this other picture even though the focus is bad. It shows the patterns of leaf damage maybe more than the first photo.

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fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
Original Author
13 years ago
I've got a couple more pictures of leaves at the base of current season shoots that show symptoms and progression of the syndrome.

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Notice in both photos the lower leaves are showing symptoms and the upper leaves are healthy.
ericwi
13 years ago
Thanks for posting this and for including the photos. The lowest pH value I have ever measured in our yard was 3.8, in one of the blueberry beds. The measurement was taken in early spring, before the shrub had leafed out. I was able to immediately water the shrub with tap water, pH = 7.6, and get the soil pH above 4 in two weeks or so. When the shrub finally leafed out, it looked healthy, and it flowered and bore fruit as expected. I have settled on measuring soil pH twice per year, in the early spring, and again in mid-September. Given our native soil here in Madison, I think that one has to be able to measure soil pH at home, without reliance on a lab, because it's necessary to take multiple measurements, and get immediate results.
Dark_fyre_hed_yahoo_com
13 years ago
Over watering Your Blueberries is a bad Idea Because they will develop root rot . A nifty trick to help is coffee grounds as well as left over cooled black coffee, tea leaves, and egg shells in my garden. It changes the pH level slightly for acid loving plants such as azaleas, blueberries, rhododendrons, etc. It also add inertia to the soil that helps break up heavy soil; and additionally, it attracts earthworms-who help to aerate your soil, which in turn helps with water and nutrients getting to the roots of your plants

The optimum pH level to grow blueberries in is 4.5. If your soil is higher than that, you'll want to add granular sulfur to lower the pH level. Follow the directions on the product packaging to calculate the amount needed for your growing space, and work the sulfur into the soil at least 6" deep.

pictures of leaves from 3.5 pH blueberry

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northernmn

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pictures of leaves from 3.5 pH blueberry

Comments (6)

northernmn

franktank232

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fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TXOriginal Author

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TXOriginal Author

ericwi

Dark_fyre_hed_yahoo_com

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fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
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