yaso, My primary reason for suggesting buying an organic potting soil from a producer you trust is the company has done a lot of the hard work, assuming they are honest, adjusting the potting mix so that the critical components are where they should be. This may be too much information, but those parameters are total porosity, air space, container capacity, available water, unavailable water, bulk density, pH and cation exchange capacity. Also, nutrition (fertilizer) in some form is typically added so that you can grow at least for an initial period without additional nutrition. All of those things are actually pretty easy to test, but most folks understandably don't want to be bothered. If you can not find good organic, potting soil at one of your local garden centers (I avoid HD or Loew's), try a hydroponics store. Irrespective of what you feel about what their primary customers grow, their selection of high quality potting soils and organic components is far superior to the standard garden centers in my area and I hear everywhere. I have been successfully growing blueberries in pots for several years. I grow Jersey, Rubel, Rancocas, Bluecrop, Elliott, Legacy, Misty, Patriot, Revielle, and, as of last Fall, Elizabeth. Yes, I like the old strains. I agree with shazaam that pH management for blueberries is atypical from most of things folks grow. I did a lot of research before I chose my media and I chose not to use the 5-1-1 media and instead went with a media recommended by Dave Wilson Nursery. http://www.davewilson.com/community-and-resources/videos/blueberries-planted-container http://www.davewilson.com/home-gardens/growing-fruits-and-nuts/growing-vine-and-bush-fruits/blueberries-containers I did it because the water & nutrition management of the 2 media are different and I prefer this media which I find more forgiving. That said, you should be able to get excellent results using the 5-1-1 with careful management. Two words of caution. First, be aware that all components vary in their physical properties EVEN from the same producer. Here is one scientific publication outlining meaningful differences from various Canadian peat mosses. http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/42/2/349.full.pdf The same is particularly true of pine & fir bark where tremendous physical differences have been noted in barks from the same producer harvested at different times of the year or locals tens of miles apart. The second caution is to test the pH of a test batch your media with all the goodies added prior to adding the soil sulfur. I got very lucky & the components I used following the DWN recipe landed me on a pH of 4.9 without any added soil sulfur. The same is true of the 5-1-1 or any other mix. Your blueberries will not do well at the wrong pH. I apologize for adding to your reading list, but here are some excellent blueberry resources: http://nysipm.cornell.edu/organic_guide/blueberry.pdf https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=14 http://www.umaine.edu/mafes/elec_pubs/bulletins/b852.pdf http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/1/51.full.pdf+html Good luck with your blueberries!

For organic fertilizer, you can use cow manure and compost. For pesticide: NEEM and horticultural oil. K.

You know this is really the most debated topic. Everyone will give a different opinion on what to do, what to use, etc but the ultimate goal is for you to trial and error for you climate. However there are a few things that are consistent no matter where you are. In particular Meyers are heavy feeders and very sensitive to light and environmental changes. Going in and out can be stressful. Also going from in the house to straight out in the sun is a recipe for disaster so please acclimate it by going to shade first for a week or two then slowly giving it more light. Reverse this process in the fall. My routine for fertilizing is this. During the growing season my trees get Foliage pro 1/2 strength once per week from about now to September. I have used vinegar also but this year Im trying without see if the effects are different. from October to March I give them the same only once per month. My trees go in a greenhouse so they are fairly actively growing in winter. my trees also have a slow release mixed in to supplement during the week. Now this is what works for me and a few others fertilize "weakly" and "weekly" so that may be something for you to start trying and adjust from there. mike Mike

Ken, I don't know whether honey contains botulism spores or botulinum toxin. Produce can harbor botulism spores too, that's why low-acid canning in a BWB can lead to botulism. Botulinum toxin is degraded by heat according to a time/temperature curve. So either way, I don't think the honey is a problem. Unlike oil which can provide a safe haven for spores, honey dissolves into the mixture, so botulism there has the same chance at survival as botulism that was hanging out on the peppers. Also, pears, like apples, contain enough acid to be canned alone, so while they may not be enough to acidify the peppers, they don't add to the amount of additional acid required. For a given volume of salsa, they would reduce the amount of additional acid because you have less low-acid produce. I wanted to clarify that above when I said "as long as the acid level is adjusted," what I meant was "as long as the recipe contains a safe amount of acid (whether from the produce or from added acid like lemon juice or vinegar)". It's not safe to adjust the acid level to suit your taste, unless you're replacing water with vinegar or something. Here is a quote on botulism from wikipedia (and the reference): ------------------ It is possibly the most acutely toxic substance known, with a median lethal dose of about 1 ng/kg[3], meaning that a few hundred grams could theoretically kill every human on earth (for perspective, the rat poison strychnine, often described as highly toxic, has an LD50 of 1,000,000 ng/kg, and it would take four hundred tons to kill every human). It is also remarkably easy to come by: Clostridium spores are found in soil practically all over the earth. [3] Ar non, Stephen. "Botulinum Toxin as a Biological Weapon." JAMA. vol 285. pp.1059-1070. 2001. ------------------ Makes the Ball recipe look more delicious than the OG one if you ask me. ;-) Melissa