FruitNut, do you add sulfer or anyother acidifier to your potted blueberries? I did and lowered my tap water to ph 5 and drove the ph too low I think? Since then I have been acidifing to ph 6. Havent noticed any yellowing yet. I was getting readings in the 2s and 3s with my probe meter but if I got water from the bottom and checked it with a liquid ph meter it would show 4s to 5s. Makes me question the probe meters as well. My plants have been awesome from the start so Ive been pretty lucky on that front but I think you nailed it on the head, let your plants tell you when something is wrong and adjust accordingly.

blueboy:

At least I've gotten some rain lately, about 0.65 inch, more than the last 11 months combined. So the rain barrels are full and my blueberries are off the Ca spiked beverages. When the rainwater runs out I'll be on pH 4.5 adjusted well water.

My new Sweetcrisp and Emerald plants from Florida Hill Nursery look good. I had to add some Copperas, sulfur and iron sulfate, because they were starting out chlorotic. I also got off all nitrogen fertilizers other than 21-0-0, ammonium sulfate. That does the job at least for now.

If it helps at all Fruitnut, the farmer I know with 25 acres of blues tells me his sulf acid system adjusts the water down to a pH of 6.5. He says if you use water with a a pH lower than that you will end up getting too low which he has done in the past. He is also a strong believer in amonnium sulf.....21-0-0.

RM

Fruitnut, you told me to be aggresive pinching back new growth after I prunned my leggy blueberries. Is pinching back after 4 or 5 leaf sets too aggressive?

I just pruned the tarnation out of a couple of mine that I didn't pinch back enough. After about four tippings at about 6-7 leaves they were just too long and flimsy. We'll see what happens now. I don't think pinching back to 4-5 leaves is too hard.

At some point this fall I'll quit pinching and hope they set some fruit buds. They always have before. This springs growth on the Star are loaded with fruit buds. I'm going to need to prune out at least half the fruiting wood this winter. At this point it's set up for 25 lbs on a potted plant. Don't think it can make that much quality fruit.

Aggressive pruning won't hurt them at all. Think about a blueberry growing in the wild, they have to endure wind damage, grazing by wild animals, crowding by other plants, etc. I bought some plants this spring that were already leafed out and way too large for the amount of root they had. I cut almost the entire top half of them off before planting and they have already replaced that amount and look fantastic. I think it's better to have a plant that's a bit short and stout rather than just a few long twigs extending up in the air.

Fruitnut, I read through the thread on vinegar that you posted, thanks for sharing the link.

For the interest of others, I use vinegar on a daily basis now with my new potted plants and I can definitely see an improvement in them. If I use the vinegar treated water today adjusted to a PH of a about 5, tomorrow the soil will be about pH 5.5.....according to my $7 probe meter. If I water one time without the vinegar it will raise the pots to about 6. I have known right from the beginning that vinegar wasn't long term but it's so easy and safe to use that I don't mind. I buy a gallon of the vinegar at Wal-Mart for a few dollars and it lasts for several weeks on my 10 or so first year plants. My plants have never looked chlorotic but the vinegar is helping them.

On my larger potted plants which are in their 3rd year, I applied ammonium sulf, one ounce per plant three times this summer and they are in a mix of peat and fir bark mostly and I just water them normally and they all look great. The plants are in wine barrels so you would need to use less than one ounce for small containers.
It seems to me that once the plants get an established root system they can handle a higher pH much more effectively. The pH in my large pots is about 6, maybe a bit lower. I have tested my well water with cheap strips a couple times and it's about 7 so I understand this same approach may not work for those with water having a much higher pH.

RM