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  • From: Caren Kirk <quirky@videotron.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Blueberries and ph
  • Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:01:21 -0400

Hi Anne,

Sorry, I missed out on some of the earlier e-mails so maybe someone suggested this already. I would imagine that Coconut Coir is fairly available in Australia (or maybe I am being presumptious). It is a renewable resource that often replaces peat. Although it is not as acidic (slightly acidic to neutral ph), it is certainly an easy way to work plenty of organic matter into your soil. Sawdust might be another alternative. As for the Lucerne, I couldn't find any reference to it making a significantly acidic compost but I defer to others on this point.

I did read that calcium sulphate was an even better source of sulphur to acidify soil; have not tried it though.

I planted my blueberry patch last year but have a fairly acidic soil already and mixed a lot of peat with it. I am going to experiment with amending just with compost and mulching heavily and seeing how this goes. As you say, I can always try adding something else if they start looking unhappy.

Good Luck,

Caren Kirk
St. Jerome, QC

On 4/11/2011 7:36 PM, Anne Seymour wrote:
Hi everyone

Thanks so much for all the replies about blueberries and soil ph. I want to
thank everyone individually but that is probably just annoying to send lots
of emails so here is a general thanks to you all.

Here are my plans/ theories so far gleaned from your advice...

I have heard peat moss is great for blueberries and heard of some people with
very alkaline soils growing them in bales of peat but I was wanting to avoid
using it because of it's non-sustainable nature. Shame as it would be a
perfect solution.

I just bought a bale of lucern hay and put my 14 year old son to work. I got
him to empty my compost bins (with my ph9 compost) and pile it all up
together in a pile and then refill the bins in a ratio of one bucket of
compost followed by one bucket of dried leaves and one bucket of hay, so a
2:1 ratio of dry/brown/carbon : alkaline compost. Hopefully after 6 weeks or
so (I'm guessing here) this will cook and turn my compost from ph9 to around
neutral. It should be beautiful and highly nutritious compost by then
hopefully.

So now I have to be patient and wait 6 weeks till we can plant our 18
blueberry bushes. We are in Sydney, Australia so I will be using Southern
Highbush varieties such as misty, legacy and also magnolia blueberries and
perhaps a Darrow.

After the compost is cooked then I will dig the compost into my garden beds
(one is ph6 and one ph7). Any suggestions here as to how much compost to how
much soil? I am assuming about two inches of compost dug into a foot deep
hole of soil across a three feet wide. Is that enough compost or should I
put in more? Don't know if more will be too rich and burn the roots?

I was then planning to do a wide mulch (well beyond the width of the bushes)
of about 6 inches of lucern hay in the hopes that the hay will leach some
acid into the soil as well as some nutrients. I am also hoping that the
mulch will protect the plants from competition with weeds as well as keep the
roots cool. As you said Alan, perhaps the high organic compost/soil mix and
mulch will counteract the too high soil ph by providing more available iron
and also I have heard that perhaps some blueberries fail not from too high ph
but from their roots getting too hot as they are such shallow rooters.
Perhaps the mulch and compost both help to provide low weed competition, more
moisture and more iron and other nutrients making the ph less critical.

If they don't do well I have the dry iron sulfate theory of Don Yellman sent
by Lucky as a back up plan. I wonder how often Don applies the iron sulfate?
I have read that vinegar diluted in water can be applied regularly (say once
a month) to keep the soil acid though I have also read that it only works for
a few hours to make iron available. Anyone have any success using vinegar?
Being into doing all things organically/naturally I will probably not even
try vinegar but juice some lemons and put the lemon juice into a watering can
diluted with water once a month to see if that works. Always one to make
things harder for myself!!! I guess if the lemon juice doesn't work I could
then try vinegar and if that doesn't work try the iron sulfate after that.

I have been trying to find some more mature blueberry plants and someone may
have some 3 feet high plants about 4-5 years old growing in pots. I will
also be planting some tiny new blueberry plants but was wondering if I could
also plant some of these more mature plants and not have to take off the
flowers for the first 2 years and be able to let them fruit straight away as
their root systems will already be bigger. Would this work or should I still
remove their flowers for 2 years so might as well just buy the cheaper tiny
plants?

Any thoughts on my plans would be great.

Thanks

Anne




On 01/04/2011, at 6:48 PM, Anne Seymour wrote:

Hi

My teenage son has developed a love of growing things we can eat such as
watermelon, sweet potatoes, bilberries, etc. We are now about to buy about
15 blueberry trees (probably misty, legacy and magnolia) and wanted to ask
people's thoughts about ph. I know they love an acid soil around4.5-5.5 but
I did hear that some people on this list had the opinion that they could grow
in higher ph soils if they had lots of compost in the soil. I will be
planting them in two beds one of which is ph6 and one ph7. There are a few
azaleas and camellias happily growing in those beds now. I have heard
contradictory things about blueberry requirements. Some times I read they
like sandy, nutrient poor soil and at other places I have read they love lots
of organic material/compost.

I have a couple of compost bins which have only ever had fruit and vegetable
scraps thrown in and the bins' ph is 9 so way too high for the blueberries.

The soil in the beds has been undisturbed for at least 30 years since we
moved in.

I am wondering if I should put in my compost in spite of the high ph in the
hopes that it will provide lots of organic matter and nutrients and that the
soil will 'buffer' if back to a lower ph relatively quickly.

On the other hand perhaps I should keep the compost out as it will just
increase the ph and make my blueberries either die or produce no fruit.
Possibly I could add lots of dried leaves to lower the compost ph and just
use it later as a mulch.

On the 'third hand' I had read the comment I mentioned earlier that they can
grow, and fruit well, in higher ph soils if there is lots of compost.
Presumably this means the iron and other nutrients are high enough because of
the compost to counteract the high ph.

I like to do everything 'organically' without additives or chemicals. I have
read that I could just put sulphur, or sulphate of iron or flowers of iron or
iron chelate (no idea what is the differences between these) into the soil
but I was desperately hoping I could avoid any of these and just use my soil
and compost.

I would really appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Anne


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