Hopsalot,

Great name btw:) Switching to the Helena fertilizer is a move you won't regret. At $12.70 per #50 bag it is a great deal and a lot easier to apply than the Miracle grow. We picked up our yearly supply last week for the BB and citrus.

The application rate per monthly application is 1 oz for first year plants, 2 oz for 2 year olds and 3 ounces for 3+ year old plants. Your plants if they grew well last year would get the 2 ounce dose. 2 ounces is 1/4 cup btw. That is the basic guide but let your judgment rule the way.

Basically you look at the plant and can judge if it needs more nitrogen....it is a bit of a learning curve. The leaves should be vibrant green and seem big..you are shooting for 3"+ leaves. Small leaves are an indication you can up your dose. If you are mulching your plants with something other than pinebark you have to adjust the amount upwards some. Let the plants guide you. Watch for tiny red spots on the leaves which is an indication they want more nitrogen. Looks like a sprinkling of paprika on young leaves. Larger red spots mean something different and occurs later in the year.

You can still use the miracle grow acid formula also. I use it every two weeks at 1/4 listed strength as a foliar spray. Make sure you hit the underside of the leaves as that is where most of the stomata are located and it is best to do so first thing in the morning when it is cooler as beyond 80 degrees most of the receptors are closed.

Feb to Oct yep.

Keep the fertilizer away from the stem and apply evenly around the drip line.

What kind of plants did you put in?

Whether or not to remove some buds is a judgement call and is based on the vigor of the plants growth last year and the number of fruit buds it now has. Can you post some pictures?

Make sure you water the plants well Saturday afternoon and that should help protect them from the cold. If the forecast is above 28 they should be fine.

Bamboo, Thanks for the info! I picked up the fertilizer today.
I have 9 Sunshine Blue, 2 Jewel, 2 Emerald, 2 Gulfcoast, 1 Primadonna, 1 Misty, 1 Sharpblue and I just added 2 tiny Sweet Crisp that look like they are fresh out of the propagator.
I currently am not set up to post pics, but I will be working on that.
When you tip prune the canes after harvest should all of the canes be pruned or just the tallest ones to even out the shape of the bushes? Some of my plants are kind of lopsided now and tend to have longer canes on one side of the bush. Thanks Again!

Hopsalot,

Pruning will trigger the plant to flush so is a great time to try to even out the bush. Try to open the center up a bit and make the bush more V shaped. Mostly though by pruning it simply makes the bush bigger and doing so we get an extra flush of growth. You can't really do it wrong.

Bamboo Rabbit - thank you for that description of N deficiency! I have been struggling with my cultivated blueberries since I bought them in April (2 gal pots), they had slow-release fert in the pots but 2 days later we had a heavy rain (still in pots), and I had some leaf/twig/blossom dieback, we also had 3 freezes that week so I brought them into garage and planted them in May when the weather evened out a bit. But I noticed (after stripping off dead leaves and doing some pruning) that new leaves were turning red - put it down to stress (since it had been hot in March and April and they were already blooming). Then I noticed red speckles exactly like you described on my existing lowbush stand nearby - thought it was a virus, brought leaves into Ag station to ID, it's been 2 weeks and no reply.

Could be that all the rain washed the fert out of the pots? I planted in pH 4.2 soil, Low nitrate, High (150 ppm) ammonium, low P, K and Ca, Medium (25 ppm) Mg. Our soil (or at least the water) tends to be high in Fe. Also, when I planted, I mixed some well-aged manure (5.6 pH, High nitrate, Medium Ammonium, High P, Medium K into the holes and also used it to mulch around). So I really didn't think this was a nutrient problem. Maybe it isn't with these.

But we have never fertilized the lowbush stand and there it looks exactly like paprika, so that could be it. But I noticed the green berries have red tips too now.

Could you please take a look at my thread and tell me if you think the more all-over red leaves are N deficient? Those plants also have very pale yellow new growth, and the berries are a strange pinkish color - not sure if they're going to ripen normally. Some never closed on the ends, the blossoms fell off and they seemed to start developing berries but then stopped.

Thanks

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberry leaf problems

ajsmama,

I looked at the pictures and to me given where you live it looks like a reaction to the cold. They should pop out of it soon I would guess. I would fertilize though.

Thanks - I sent more pix to Ag station, they said it could be fungal (though this looks more systemic to me, not something *on* the leaves). Nursery said it looked like nutrient (N and Mg) deficiency but asked about weed killers - haven't used any, we don't use chemicals ('cides or ferts).

I am getting concerned though - we have a lot of wild blueberries 500-700ft away that have always been good producers, they are loaded this year as are the ones near the house, but a few are showing faint red speckles or some light-colored new growth like these, but have a lot of insect damage - half of a leaf gone, and lots of leaves nibbled on. I haven't seen Japanese beetles this year so I don't know what it is - no aphids that I can see. But most alarming is that other than this stand of lowbush that is always early, the only other berries that look like they're ripening all have some insect damage on them AND I did find 1 oak-leaf brown, not dry (it rained about 1" on Tues night) leaf on a couple of different plants, also a necrotic tip or 2. Some of the new cultivated plants have light green new growth with dark purple (again, not dry) tips!

We have never done much to manage the wild plants, freeze in May 2010, too much rain for pollination in 2011 so no harvests those years, moved here summer 2007 but 2008 and 2009 were good harvests.

I'm just worried that now we have a virus that is going through the entire farm, just as it looks like we'd have enough berries to sell. If not scorch, then ringspot? Some red on stems of new plants, though not ring-shaped.

DH wanted the big cultivated blueberries and I indulged him - beginning to regret it now as it appears they infected our wild bushes.

red, incompletely developed berries on new plants (I think this one is Patriot)

leaves

red stems

lowbush - worst spot, this is only 1-2sf, most of the stand isn't this bad