More information would be really helpful. Where are you located, what varieties do you have, how long ago did they bloom, how old are the plants? Pictures would be great, too.

I'm near Houston and I have climex and premiere and they bloomed begining of march. I don't really know how old they are, they were pretty tall and of bearing size when I got em last year. Climex is tall and thin hardly any leaves but premiere is stout and somewhat leafier with pale green berries and lime green leaves.

kumquatlady:

I have both Climax and Premier here, and they are fully leafed out with lots of small berries. Technically, yours should be well ahead of mine, both in leaf and fruit development. The leaves on my rabbiteye varieties are a powder blue/green, quite different in color and shape from the northern highbush types. In my view, the rabbiteyes make for a more handsome bush.

Agree with fruitgirl that more information is always better than less, but it does sound as if your blueberries are in a poor soil situation, probably too alkaline. Soil for blueberries should be deeply worked with lots of added peat moss, sulphur for long-term acidification, and iron sulphate for short-term acidification and iron availability. This is particularly true in areas where soils are naturally alkaline (high Ph), which I think yours are in the Houston area.

Once your blueberries are up and running in a healthy way, you can apply a few handfuls of an acidic fertilizer like ammonium sulphate -- never use nitrate-based fertilizers on blueberries.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Jellyman,

Thank you for help. I have many pine trees around my yard so I thought soil should be pretty acid. Am I wrong? and where do I get iron sulphate? Would mulching with ground pine niddles and oak leaves heal my plants?

kumquatlady:

The presence of pine trees does not indicate acidic soil. Pine needles and oak leaves make decent mulch for blueberries, although there is some disagreement about their ability to acidify the soil, even over the long term. I certainly think they are much better than no mulch at all, but they will not correct the deficiency in your soil, if one exists. Your plants seem to be telling your that there is a deficiency.

I guess what you are saying, without really saying it, is that you did not prepare your soil with peat moss and acidifiers when the plants were put in. That is where the mistake was made.

Now, unless you are prepared to dig up the plants during the dormant season, work on the soil, and put them back in, you are left with no alternative but to try to acidify from the surface. Elemental sulphur and iron sulphate can do this job if you place a few handfuls around the plants and scratch it into the soil with a garden tool. I do this to my plants every spring, even though the soil is very good and deeply prepared. It keeps the blueberries healthy. Soil amendments of this type should be available at any large nursery, and some bigbox and hardware stores. You have to look for them or call around first.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thank you soooo much jellyman, I will look for sulphur and iron sulphate.

You may loose your plants in the meantime without corrective action. Don offers great advise but I would immediately spray plants with a chelated iron spray to get them thru this unhealthy state. Three or more foliar sprays this season will do wonders for overcoming soil ph imbalance. Acidifiers that you apply to the soil will take from weeks to months to have a noticable effect. Foliar sprays have a very rapid effect.

Flower buds and vegatative buds have different chill requirements, that can vary with variety. You probably did not get enough chill hours for the leaves to emerge on time, but just enough for the flower buds. They should come out, just later than normal. The lime green color is typical for Rabbiteye varieties.

~kiwinut

Kiwinut,

Do you have rabbiteye blueberries? I hope you are right. I really don't want to apply whole bunch stuff if It can helped without it, I mean natural way of gardening is what I prefer and chemicals I've used in my garden in the past never worked for me. Are you saying lime green color is nothing to worry about?

Yes, I have some Rabbiteyes, and they normally have a lime green or like Don mentioned, more of a powdery blue/green color to the leaves (I think the technical term is "glaucous"). If they are developing iron chlorosis, the veins on the leaves will be green, while the surrounding area will turn yellow.

Get a soil test done to check your pH. If its above 6.0, then I would definitely suggest you follow Don's advice. If its below or near 6.0, then you should be fine. Rabbiteyes can handle higher pH than most other types, but will still do best around pH 5-6. See photo in link below to see an example of iron chlorosis.

~kiwinut

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:99781}}

There's nothing "unnatural" about many of the acidifying products that can be used on blueberries. Many are organic (OMRI) approved. pH isn't something that can be ignored in blueberry production. They love iron, and the only way for them to get adequate amounts is to have low pH in the soil.

If you'd post some pictures, it would really, really help us figure out what's going on.

Thank you everyone for your help.
Kiwinut, I really appreciate for the picture and it look just like mine so I should go get some charlated iron spray and sulfur. Does garden center carry these? Is charlated iron spray is name of the product?

Kumquatlady:

I think BMoser's suggestion of a chelated iron product for quicker results might be a very good one, but you have to be able to copy down the name of the product and spell it correctly. Otherwise the garden center might not know what you are talking about. Chelated iron is not a brand name, but the name of the chemical, which may be sold under various brand names. While you are there, look for iron sulphate and garden sulphur.

We would all prefer to garden with no chemicals at all, natural or otherwise, but acidifiers and iron are usually neccessary for growing good blueberries.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Once again I thank you Don, kiwinut, bmoser and fruitgirl for passing along your garden wisdoms. What are the signs of plants getting better after I apply iron spray and iron sulfer? and should I apply both at the same time?

I followed the advise of Organic Gardening for planting blueberries. I bought three plants this year from Raintree and they are leafed out now. OG advised that they might do well if planted in soil taken from beneath oak trees. So I went to an oak forest on my place and filled up three, 3 gallon buckets with that soil and filled each hole with one bucket of this soil. Also mulched heavily with oak leaves. Don't know if this was the right way to go but I guess I'll see what happens later on.