I think there is now a legal requirement that herbicides and pesticides must break down after they are applied. So, chemicals such as DDT are no longer allowed. The process is called mineralization. Usually it is measured at the site of application; if it is applied to a lawn, the persistence of the chemical is measured in the soil where it was applied. The process of breaking down the chemicals is typically via bacteria, so the presence of organic material that is decomposing affects the rate of decomposition of the chemical. Composting will, of course, speed the breakdown of these sorts of chemicals. My compost takes about two years to complete. So it becomes a judgement call. If you are comfortable knowing that lawn chemicals are designed to break down via bacteria, then you might be ok with other people's grass clippings if you compost it for a couple of years. Obviously, if you use lawn chemicals on your own lawn, you will know when they were last applied. You might want to dispose of the grass clippings right after a chemical application.

Hi Thornberry, I had a similar experience with my blueberries recently. Not exactly the same problems as yours but I too put them in the soil without amending or acidifying it and applied on it an acidic fertilizer. Surprisingly, all adapted well to this, except one, Misty, which really seemed to be doomed. As a last resort method, I dug holes around the current dripline of this plant and put in sulphur, then spread sulphur around the topsoil and drenched it in water. As the weather has been warming up, I notice new leaves being thrown by this sick plant. In the meantime, I've amended soil around all others with sulphur too and they have nice green leaves. Not as dark green as I've seen in the pictures, but these are in a spot where they get direct sun for 6-7 hours each day, and dappled shade in the afternoon. Net-net: I would not write off your blueberries yet. BTW, I recently visited my trusted nursery and asked the person (whom I consider knowledgeable) the same question: whether it's necessary to plant blueberries in acidic soil in the ground or just apply acidic fertilizer. This person had previously guided me to grow 2 varieties of blueberries in the container and I have had excellent growth for past 5 years or so. He confirmed that, even in the ground, it's not necessary to amend the soil, but it's sufficient to use acidic fertilizer. Just sharing my experience!!

First picture; at first I thought there might be a fungal foliage infection in a couple of places but looking closer it looks like just a few holes in the leaves, nothing to worry about. Second picture, the white on one leaf in the center I thought might be a leaf miner track, but after looking at the 3rd picture I'm wondering if all that whitish material in the center of the leaves is just spray residue. it wouldn't be unusual for commercial growers or the nurseries themselves to spray plants to be sold with an anti-fungal and some anti-fungals leave a white residue/ Did you spray them yourself or is what I'm seeing what you brought home? On that second picture/ if I saw more than just the one leaf with white squiggly lines I might be thinking harder about Leaf Miners. Carolyn

Well, what I do is put my pots on rocks. I got a big bag of small river rocks - they are 2 or 3 inches long max -- and I space them around the pot, maybe 3 or 4 rocks under each pot. As far as heat, all you need to do is get the pots off the ground. They don't need to be high. (Though that's better for your back. ; >) What taz6122 said is important: you've got to consider the roof first. I first started doing the rock thing b/c the building guy said that if pots sat right on the patio floor, the water that came out the bottom would heat up and create steam under them, which would damage the waterproof coating. I don't know, but I hope what I'm doing is helping. I really really don't want leaks!!!! Mostly I don't use saucers because they are expensive. But also, I don't know what the soil implications of saucers would be. Would like to know though. I think it might cause the salt concentration to get too high. Also, you could try wrapping light-colored fabric around the pot. I use butterfly clips. It doesn't look spiffy I guess, but it helps.