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Fruit & Orchards

How much fertilizer for blueberries?

9 years ago

Hi,

I have bought 1 bag of Ammonium Sulfate, 1 bag of MKP (monopotassium phosphate), and 1 bag of micronutrients (iron, etc).
The fertilizers are all in grainy form like little crystals.
I would like to know how much fertilizer and water I should use to fertigate blueberries.
I have burned my blueberries before and I wouldn't like to burn them again.
Thanks.

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Comments (6)

BahamaDan Zone 12b Subtropics
9 years ago
Hello Julia!

Great of you to grow blueberries; I've started with them myself. I'm not familiar with MKP and not sure what the directions of your micronutrient bag advise, but as for the Ammonium Sulfate: There is a grower on here named Fruitnut who has been extremely successful with growing blueberries (in containers) and he uses a rate of 1 tablespoon per 2.5 gal of water once a week. He also added Osmocote slow-release. I'll link one of his blueberry posts for you to read through. Some great info there as well as fertilizer recommendations.

Happy Growing!

Dan

Here is a link that might be useful: One and 7 yr blueberry growth with pictures
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User
Original Author
9 years ago
@BahamaDan,
I guess my mistake was to apply 1 tablespoon per 2.5 gal of water almost EVERY DAY! I didn't know that it should be applied only once a week. Thanks for the information, now I can do it the right way! =)
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The fertilizer you have is organic, and would probably be best suited for the ground where it could break down properly. Container fertilization when using a soilless mix is a bit different ballgame. If you use a liquid or water soluble chemical fertilizer the nutrients will be available immediately to the plant. Since your plants are very small they don't need very much fertilizer at all anyway. You can add a little fertilizer to the mix at the start if you want, but it's really not necessary. If they were my plants I would probably mix a "little" Controlled Release Fertilizer (like MG Shake and Feed, which has all the nutrients,) to the mix at the beginning. Then, once the plants get establisked, I would give gentle weekly feedings of water soluble ammonium sulfate 21-0-0. Again, I suggest reading up on blueberry fertilization until you feel more comfortable with it. I can definitely relate to it being overwhelming at the beginning, but you will figure it out eventually. Your mix sounds good, now all you have to do is figure out the fertilizer part. It wouldn't hurt to just pot them up now, and add the fertilizer a little later. Where are you located? No fertilizer after August because the plants need to begin to go dormant rather than force new growth.
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If you have naturally acid soil in your area, then growing them in the ground would be easier than in pots. You may even need to collect rainwater for potted plants. Don't think rain alone will be adequate for potted bb. You will get bigger plants, more fruit, and possibly bigger berries in the ground. My berry size has been good in pots. But on all my fruit trees, fruit size is much smaller in pots than in-ground trees. I have had good fruit quality on all my potted fruit including bb. If birds take your bb, then protecting the fruit might be easier with potted. Depends on if you think potted would be easier to cover. I move mine into my greenhouse during bloom and fruiting to protect from frost and birds. The Fruitnut
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We can't know what the problem is and this is speculation. I'm no expert on potted culture but when I was in hort school we were taught that plants in an artificial medium (peat based potting mix) need to be held a full point lower than optimum pH for same plants in real soil. I don't know if this would hold true of blueberries, however, because they grow in very high organic content soils in their natural environment. It is the high level of organic matter in potting soils that mandates this adjustment. If you don't want to pay for an expensive pH meter or to have your well water tested you can buy the paper from Gemplers to get a ball park figure on your well water. I'm not at all sure your problem is pH because it could also be drainage- during the growing season you could have sprayed the plants with a foliar iron to see if you got any response. My experience is that blueberry plants don't stop growing when they have healthy leaves. Maybe the potting soil is drained on top but soggy below.
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Thank you for all your suggestions. Good to hear I do not have to worry about fertilizing this year. I'll remember to water, abeit tentatively, because last fall I killed our lovely 2 year old Bloodgood maple with too much love, er, watering. What makes fushia different from these shurbs, other than it's flowering? Since planting I gave it fertilizer monthly during the growing season because otherwise, the leaves would turn yellow. The fushia is in the ground and looks like a small shrub. It seems to love my homemade compost better, though -- it's looking quite green these days. Amy
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BahamaDan Zone 12b Subtropics
9 years ago
No problem Julia, happens to the best of us. I've killed my share of plants when I was starting out as well; the important thing is you're willing to learn how to better cultivate plants and it is that attitude and willing disposition that will lead you to success with your plants!

A good method when container gardening is also to flush your soil with straight (unfertigated) water every 3rd or 4th watering, so as to prevent salt buildup. Not sure if your blueberries are in containers; if not disregard :)
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User
Original Author
9 years ago
@BahamaDan Yes, they are in containers!
Last year I bought them and started fertigating every day with ammonium sulfate and water. They grew very fast and strong. They were all beautiful!!! But then suddenly, one day, they began to burn.... That's when they stopped growing at all... It was as if they had got into dormancy, except it was not winter.... I had to wait many months for them to recover... Now they finally started to grow back again. Don't wanna repeat the same mistake.

One thing I noticed is that the Jewel variety is less prone to burning than the Snowchasers. My Snowchaser blueberries got all burned from the fertilizer, while the Jewels remained mostly green and healthy, with only a few leaves burned.
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BahamaDan Zone 12b Subtropics
8 years ago
How are they doing now Julia? ;-]
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BahamaDan Zone 12b Subtropics
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Here's a picture of my Sunshine Blue, I really should fertilize it more though as I honestly can't remember the last time I gave it liquid feed lol. Hopefully I put some granular acidic feed on the soil surface a month or two ago...
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