Acidify soil for blueberry?
funlul
9 years ago
While I was away, my "Bountiful Blue" blueberry in full bloom suffered a
period of total drought due to neglect. Fortunately it survived, but
the new leaves are kind of reddish.
OK, I should not blame the
reddish color on the drought, the plant was always like it after moving
in. If my cheapo test is to be trusted, the soil pH is above 7. I have
wanted to acidify / improve the soil. Bought one lb of ferrous sulfate
powder 2 years ago but never figured out what amount to use. There are
no instructions on the bag, internet sources are more like commercial
application. Any one has experience working with ferrous sulfate?
I also consider mulching the pot with some pine needles. Will it help at all? Many thanks!!
2 years ago...
Now... *tears*
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funlul
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Blueberry Containers & Soil
Comments (23)Replying here to bjs496 regarding water acidification... Yes, I use a method adapted from Bamboo Rabbit's formula. I mix 2 liters of 33% sulphuric acid to about 4.5 gallons of rain water which I keep in a 5 gallon jerry can. About 1/4 a cup makes about 5 gallons of my local water a pH of 6; a 1/2 cup is about 4.5. I use a pH strip to calibrate and a Kelway soil tester to monitor my soil. It's pretty easy once one gets used to it, and no more dangerous than working with laundry bleach, at least once the diluted solution is made. It works wonders - keeps my pH right at 5.0 (or wherever I want it - I'll lower it slightly if anticpating rain, etc). Sulphuric acid is better for the roots than any other kind of acid, including vinegar. Care must be taken when mixing the first, concentrated solution, but it's no more dangerous than adding acid to a car battery. The acid itself cost me about $9/liter, $18 dollars to fill up my jerry can. I use about $30 a year acidifying water for my 18 blueberries (14 northern highbush, three compact southern highbush and one half-high). In my first year, my blueberries have reached 3 1/2-5' tall each, extremely healthy and vigorous. I also use rain water, but I always run out of water in-between rains due to all the blueberries I've been adding to my plantings (I plan to buy a bigger rain barrel next spring). If you can solve the water problem, growing blueberries is a cinch - if one is relying on tap water and soil sulphur, it's a pain in the arse. My blues get the 1/4 cup treatment every time I water and the 1/2 cup treatment any time we've had heavy rains and the pH has crept up. On the last batch of solution I made, I also added a cup of iron sulphate - helps keep my iron level very high, while adding it in small increments....See MoreMixing soils and ammedments to achieve target pH
Comments (5)Howdy Neighbor! The short answer is no for a mixture for a specific pH. The longer answer is that the more organic matter the more lower and more stable the pH is. Organic amendments will help prevent the pH of the soil from fluctuating, just as it helps keep soil moisture and temperatures stable. If you want to grow blueberries, don't get lime anywhere near where you want to plant blueberries. Don't even get the bag of lime near the blueberries. Blueberries need soil that with lots of organic matter and a low pH. They have very shallow root systems, so you don't have to amend the soil very deeply to give them the organic matter they need. You don't need to add any additional top soil, just lots of organic matter to your existing soil. Where you are going to plant the blueberries, remove a few inches of existing sod and soil if you can. If not, you can add a few inches of peat moss and pine mulch and/or compost to the top of the existing soil, and plant the blueberries on a slightly raised berm. Blueberries need consistent moisture, but not wet soggy soil, so a slightly raised planting area can work well with heavy soils. If you have any experience growing azaleas, other Rhododendrons, or mountain laurel, then blueberries are in the same plant family, Ericace. Blueberries have much the same soil and fertilizer requirements, except more so. One of the cheap soil pH meters that costs less than $10 will help you get the soil pH right, which is essential to growing blueberries. As chemicals in the soil react, its pH will change over time. For example, watering with hard tap water that contains calcium will raise the pH. Acidifying soil amendments and sulfur will take some time to lower the soil's pH. If you are planning to plant only a few blueberry bushes, a gallon jug of cider vinegar is a cheap, easy, and fast way to lower the soil pH. First, mix a cup of vinegar with a gallon of water. Then as you water the blueberry plants, add a cup of the dilute vinegar mixture, wash the vinegar into the soil well, and then wait a few days to retest the soil's pH before adding any more. A pH of 4.5 to 5.5 is okay, and 5 if better. Once you get it right, test again every few months until you have a feel for how stable the pH is. The soil here is East Tennessee is slightly acid that will need to be lowered a bit usually, but will be fairly stable once you add plenty of organic matter. If your blueberries are already planted and you are adding amendments, be careful when trying to incorporate the amendments, because the roots are very shallow. The easiest way is to put the organic amendments on top as a mulch and let nature incorporate it, and it is fairly effective as well. For adding organic matter to your soil, you can pile up any of the following and allow them to rot to prepare an area for planting blueberries: grass clippings, tree leaves, hay, straw, peat moss, wood chips. Small amounts of manure are great, but don't use too much. I've got three blueberries growing in containers I planted this spring. You must plant more than one variety for pollination. I planted Chippewa because it is a compact medium size bush that is a good size for containers that produces in mid-season. I planted a Brigitta because it is a very late season producer. I planted a Chandler, because it is supposed to have larger berries that any other kind. They all three have survived our hot summer in 18 gallon containers without any problems this year. They were about 2 inches tall when I planted them in late March. The Chandler and Chippewa have grown several branches about 18 inches long this summer. My Brigitta has grown almost twice as fast to nearly 3 feet, even though they've all had the same soil, water, sun, fertilizer, etc. The link below from the UT Extension Office has some general info on growing blueberries here in East Tenn, including some recommended varieties. Good Luck, Greg - West Knoxville Here is a link that might be useful: UT Extension Office - Blueberries in Home Gardens...See MoreMaking acid soil for blueberries
Comments (68)I grow blueberries both in the ground in raised beds (5 plants in the ground for five years) and in sturdy black plastic plant containers (5 plants in 4 to 7 gallon containers)--that I picked up cheap from a local nursery. Two years ago, I harvested over four gallons of blueberries. Last summer the container plants were a bit of a bust as a late 90 plus heat wave after I'd cut the watering back resulted in the container plants having a very poor crop, but I still harvested nearly four gallons of berries from the plants in the raised beds. They are picked and put into gallon freezer bags and popped into the chest freezer. I don't even wash them, as I use no pesticides on them. I removed my clay soil in 2'x2'x15" deep sections and built the beds up to about six inches above ground level with a mix of 3 parts sphagnum peat moss, 1 part leaf compost my town produces, and 1 part of the clay topsoil. I reused the rest of the clay in another part of my garden. The container mix is simpler: 2 parts sphagnum peat, 1 part leaf compost. The beds have not needed additional soil or peat in five years. I mulch the beds with pine needles (not for the acidity as they don't actually contribute any, but for the fact they contain no weed seeds to speak of). I use bark mulch as a mulch in the containers--it stops squirrels from digging in them and weeds from growing. I use drip irrigation with city water at a pH of about 6.5 or so, and fertilize with Ammonium sulfate every spring, which also keeps the acidity level up. Fafard makes a sphagnum peat moss based acidic soil mix, so that's an option if you can get past the sphagnum peat moss issue. If you're only growing enough blueberries for you and your family, you are not really going to need a lot of the stuff. It's worth noting that for every person who thinks sphagnum peat moss is not a renewable resource, there's likely another who thinks the opposite is true. Here's what I know: In the US, our ubiquitous Canadian sphagnum peat moss comes from a country that has a lot of it and only harvests a small amount of it, and reseeds the harvested areas with ... sphagnum peat moss, which in the university greenhouse collection I help maintain grows quite quickly--I frequently have to cut it back to keep it from overwhelming our carnivorous plants that grow with it. In North American bogs, the moss grows several or more inches a year. The harvested bogs won't be replenished soon, but they aren't exactly turned into parking lots either. Then too, the harvesting process is not very carbon intensive in the scheme of things. You can read more about this perspective on the topic here: http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/other_comments/1780209/the_truth_about_peat_moss.html and here: https://garden.org/urbangardening/?page=august_peat...See MoreNeed help with Acidifying soil for blueberries
Comments (1)Can this please be deleted? I posted in the wrong spot....See Morefunlul
9 years ago
ericwi
9 years agofunlul
9 years ago
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