Blue boy,
I see what you are saying. I did order some MicroLife, both the azalea mix and the vegetable mix. It does seem like a really good complete fertilizer. My raised beds didn't do too well last year and I bet it is because it was new from the nursery and lacked the various kinds of mycorrhizal fungi, especially since the nutrient levels were good (soil test).

I only wish it was carried in more locations. I'm in Fort Worth and it's not around here. How much do you pay for a 7 lb container? There's only one or two places that carry it online.

Each plant uses different fungi, you have to make sure you have the right species. What I like about MycoGrow, all species are listed. What I do is mix MycoGrow and Biota-Max in water, dunk my plants before I plant them, then drench them with the water. The 6 dollar package has enough fungi for hundreds of plants. So established plants get fresh doses every year.
Bacteria help breakdown organic matter, stimulate hormone release, prevent pathogens from establishing. Often bacteria are not complete in the soil. Between the two products these fungi and bacteria are added.
Trichoderma harzianum
Trichoderma viride
Trichoderma koningii
Trichoderma polysporum
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus laterosporus
Bacillus licheniformus
Bacillus megaterium
Bacillus pumilus
Glomus intraradices,
Glomus mosseae,
Glomus aggregatum,
Glomus monosporum,
Glomus clarum,
Glomus deserticola,
Gigaspora margarita,
Gigaspora brasilianum
Gigaspora etunicatum
Rhizopogon villosullus,
Rhizopogon luteolus,
Rhizopogon amylopogon,
Rhizopogon fulvigleba,
Pisolithus tinctorius,
Scleroderma cepa
Scleroderma citrinum
Trichoderma harzianum,
Trichoderma konigii
Bacillus subtillus,
Bacillus licheniformis,
Bacillus azotoformans,
Bacillus megaterium,
Bacillus coagulans,
Bacillus pumlis,
Bacillus thuringiensis,
Bacillus stearothermiphilis,
Paenibacillus polymyxa,
Paenibacillus durum,
Paenibacillus florescence,
Paenibacillus gordonae,
Azotobacter polymyxa,
Azotobacter chroococcum,
Sacchromyces cervisiae,
Streptomyces griseues,
Streptomyces lydicus,
Pseudomonas aureofaceans,
Deinococcus erythromyxa
Paenibacillus polymyxa

Some are listed twice as they are in both products, but some are only in one or the other product, this really covers the range of microorganisms.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 20:36

Blueboy,
Do you know if the MicroLife contains Mg and Ca? My search turned up nothing and I have yet to hear back from the company.

Chelsea, I had the same problem with my vegetable bed the first year with nursery soil. My soil had a lot of wood chips in it which tied up all the N2 when it started to compost it all down. I didn't fertilize enough to compensate for it and every thing suffered. The second and third season was great.

I buy the 40lb bags of Micro Life at a local nursery for $45. I believe the 7lb cans are $20 something from what can remember.

Good question about the Ca and Mg. Not sure about that but I can tell you my plants have never shown any deficiencies at all. Some are 5 years old and most are going into there 3rd spring with me.

Right now my plants are just about in full bloom. I think I may start another thread and post some pics so you can see what Micro Life will do for these plants. I'm absolutely sold on this stuff!

I buried ton's of wood at the bottom of my beds the first year and had ton's and ton's of fantastic growth, so not sure the wood chips really tied the nitrogen up? I had so much growth I go out of my way to put wood in new beds.
But I used lot's of compost, and also slow release nitrogen in my bed. It seems to have worked well. Lot's of peat added too. Some potting soil, and lot's of garden soil. The garden soil was Miracle Grow and it has time release in it. I could not refuse the cheap price at Sam's club. A big bag for 5 bucks each.
The practice of putting wood at the bottom is called hugelkultur. I'm sold, works super well!

Here's my first year bed

{{gwi:23061}}

Here is a link that might be useful: hugelkultur

Ok, cool. I bought some from berings.com. $17.99 for 7 lbs. they don't sell the 40 lb online. But they are having a sale on MicroLife right now for $12.99!

Blueboy,

Thanks for showing your plants in the other thread. Awesome! Your plants look as about as healthy as one can get! What is in your potting mix? I have three coming this year, and want to hear what others are using. i agree, adding microbes works, I'm going to add from 4 different microbe sources to mine. Just to make sure! So exactly what is in your pots? I know you mentioned the fertilizer, which is not available around here, but other organics are great too. Curious as to the basic mix.

Anybody know any online sources of microlife?

Also blueboy, what cultivars do you like? Just curious when i move I need to start over, again curious as to what others like.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Feb 25, 14 at 10:22

To add to Drew's question to Blueboy :)

How often do you water? I notice that you are in Houston and also have your blueberries in containers, so you get the same HOT summer sun as I do and I have no idea how often/how long to water for.

I have a drip system I may install soon. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Drew,
I got mine at Berings.com. They are having a sale right now, so it's $12.99 for 7 lbs

Drew, my basic mix is 50%pine bark, 30-40% sphagnum peatmoss and 10-20% perilte. Ive also switched the perlite for coarse pavers sand. Couldnt see any difference in growth. Really you could probably exclude the perlite and just up the pine bark a little. Bamboo has some friends that grow in pots with 100% pine bark but they have to use a little sulfer to keep the ph in the 4 range. As far as varieties I weeded them down twice to my current plants. I now have Snowchaser, Springhigh, Jewel, Emerald, Sweetcrisp and Sunshine Blue. If I could only have 3 plants it would be Sweetcrisp, Emerald and Snowchaser. All the varieties listed were the best of all my varieties I trialed. Snowchaser and Springhigh were my 2 earliest ripening varieties and as it turned out they were also 2 of my best tasting varieties. Snowchaser stole the show on taste alone. Jewel and Emerald produce major lbs so a must have from production stand point and also an above average berry size with good taste. Sweetcrisp is in a class of its own and from what Im seeing now on my 4 year old plants I would have to question the lack of production that seems to hang over this variety. Both my 4 year olds are loaded with fruit buds this year and I actually had to thin them for the first time. Seems they just may take a little longer to really put on the fruit. If I had to have just one plant it would be Sweetcrisp.

Chelsea, to keep the pots from over heating in the sun I wrap the pots in several layers of tin foil. Even so they still seem to really slow down in the heat of summer and Im sure the pots heat up despite my efforts. I believe the best thing would be bury the pots in the ground if you have good draining soil or mound up mulch to the lip of the pots. I cant bury mine as I have clay soil here and drainage is very slow to say the least. As far as watering I start off slow in the spring. Its all weather dependant and you kinda just have to get a feel for it. Good thing about blues is you really have to try hard to overwater them. Usually in the spring its once to twice a week. In April weather depending, 2-3 times a week. By the time May gets here and we start to push 90 degrees Im pretty much watering every day all the way through summer. In Sept/Oct I start backing off the water to minimize tender growth going into winter. Dont back off too much though because thats when they start putting on fruit buds and lack of water can make a huge difference in the number of fruit buds set.

Fruitnut suggested a couple of the early ones too, same cultivars. I'm worried in my zone they will not work. Really NHB is better here, I have three currently. I want to try SHB though. So I chose ones that will grow here. Southmoon and Legacy. But I want to try Sweetcrisp too.
So those three have been ordered. Southmoon and Legacy are meant for colder zones so might work better here than your place. Plus I got a report that indeed they do perform well here.
If it works maybe the early ones can adapt to this zone and produce early for here, but not too early. The NHB seem to vary less, I have Toro, Liberty and Chandler. Toro and Liberty are good, but I need to trial more cultivars to form a more educated opinion. I will add more NHB once I move. My NHB are in ground. I may try to propagate when I do move in about 4 years.
On the mix I thought of messing with it, but if not broke don't fix it! I will use pumice instead of perlite so I can recycle. Pumice works well in raised beds and never breaks down. So will work well recycled into raised beds. Perlite lasts a long time, 5 years or more. So if I don't have enough pumice, I'll use perlite. My budget is shot for the year. It won't really hurt to use it.

Thanks a lot for the answers, very informative!

One question i also have is what exact Microlife products are you using? The Azalea, but what exactly is the other product?

Drew, I like the idea of pumice in a mix. Its porus and never breaks down like you say. Sounds like it would do fine. I wasnt really impressed with Southmoon at my location. The berries had a very distinct off flavor to my whole families palate. My oldest son said it had a after taste like the smell of bleach. I agreed but I did notice that after refridgerating the berries they were actually pretty good and that off taste seemed to dissappear. It did put on a lot of fruit and was one of the coolest looking plants I had in fall. It was like a fire bush with all the dark red and orange leafs. It was a real eye catcher! The problem I think you will find the early varieties of SHB is early bloom during mild weather in your zone then freezing temps. Offcoarse putting them in pots will give you some flexibility being able to move them if bad weather hits. One note on Springhigh is that it sets alot of fruit with out pollination as its the first to make berries in my area. The only plant I have that opens flowers around the same time is Emerald but Springhigh seems to have a very short bloom to fruit set time compaired to all my others so really it needs to be self pollinating and it is 100%.

I just the regular Micro Life 6-2-4. I only use the Azalea fert if I notice chlorotic leafs coming on because that means my Ph is drifting above 5.2. At that point, one application of the Azalea 6-2-4 will lower the Ph back into the desirable range and the leafs green back up nicely in several weeks.

This post was edited by blueboy1977 on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 0:51

Thanks for the watering info, Blueboy. My plants will be in tan fabric containers and sitting in a mulched area. Good idea mounding mulch around them. I'll have to try that. Can't wait to get my blueberries in the mail!

Yes, I have 2 negative and one positive reports on Southmoon. I'll have to try it here. The colder zone might make a difference, at least I hope it does, and if not a good excuse to buy another plant :)
Yes the early ones may not be worth trying. Once I have enough, just for fun, I'll try one.
Fruitnut likes Santa Fe too, did you try that one?
Ton's of NHB cultivarsI want to try too. Sweetheart is a double cropping hybrid. Darrow, Hannah's Choice, Spartan an early one for this area. Also standards like Jersey, Bluecrop. Some from my Alma Mater MSU like Blue Jay, Aurora, and Bonus. Bred here for here! It makes sense to grow what for sure will grow well here.

UPDATE:

The blueberries have been potted for about 3 weeks. Swollen buds, looks like it is about to break dormancy. However, I did notice a 2 or 3 very dried out branch tips. I checked the soil and it is moist, not soggy. Is this normal? Except for 2 days of heavy rain, it has been very sunny, 70-80 degrees. Should I move them into shade until they leaf out or are 2 or 3 dried branch tips not that big of a deal (very small, I pruned off about a 1/4"-1/2" dried tips).

Thanks!

Usually you want to acclimate new plants i.e. slowly expose them to more and more sun. If you have had them out three weeks they are acclimated or hardened off now. Probably the brown tips were due to sunburn, but if it has been 3 weeks they should be fine where they are at. Pay attention though, other causes like fertilizer burn, root damage etc. could also cause that symptom.
Blueberries usually like full sun unless you live in a place where it is extremely hot and sunny all the time.
I myself slowly expose plants more each day for 2 weeks. I have to do it every year with my cacti I bring in every fall. Tomatoes and peppers I start from seed under lights. Over the years, I have found this a very safe period for acclimation. You can push it to one week, but I have found 2 weeks works a lot better for me.
Cacti are tough, tomatoes and peppers need the proper air and soil temps, besides slow sun exposure. Much tougher to get them hardened off.

Thanks. I'll keep a close eye on them. I sprinkle some Epsom salts into the container two days ago so I wonder if that played a part.

They're probably just getting acclimated to their new environment, and a little die back isn't at all unusual in my experience. They more than likely lost some root volume when they were packed for shipping, when you repotted them, etc., so it could be that they're simply equalizing the canopy size with what the roots can currently support. That's just speculation, of course, but I see no reason for concern at this point.

Super excited. They are all about to break dormancy, buds are swelling. I will be using Jack's Acid fertilizer. Do you guys start fertilizing now when they the buds start swelling or when the plant is showing more growth and sending up new shoots? Do you use full strength fertilization or half strength?

Thanks!

If organic full dose. I use an organic and supplement with soluble at 1/4 strength. I like organic as it stays in the medium and is used when needed, but soluable runs right through. I would fertilize soon. With organic do it now.

I wait for new shoot growth to fertilize and am using similar stuff,mine being their 21-7-7 instead of yours at 17-6-6 if I recall correctly.I did use Jack's Classic Acid Special for a couple of years with good results,but switched to the other because of a bigger container.Having over fifty plants,the little tubs were always running out too quick.
Most of my Blueberries get their first shot in April and then once a month through July at one tablespoon per gallon of water. Brady

Thanks Brady!

Alright so everything looks great so far, everything is starting to leaf out and flowers are forming. But now it looks like I have fungus gnats? Lots of little black fruit fly looking things on the surface of the soil. Any suggestions? I know drying out the soil is a remedy but I know blueberries hate dry soil.

Thanks!

Yeah I deal with them a lot. I have found the best way is to go after their young. Add 1 tbsp. of H2O2 to a gallon of water and water your plants. it won't hurt them, might even oxygenate the roots, will kill the gnat eggs. in the soil. This at least knocks down the population. I germinate peppers and tomatoes inside, and have about 35 house plants. I seem to get them each year. I tried BT, didn't really work. Yellow sticky strips is a way to get the adults, I never tried it. Hydrogen peroxide worked well for me. I do have BT in all my plants too, In the form of mosquito bits. But I noticed a decrease when I used H2O2.

Thanks Drew. Just finished watering with the hydrogen peroxide. Do I keep watering until I don't see them any more? Weekly? Daily?

I highly recommend Gnatrol..it's a biological larvicide. Buy it online, dissolves in water, and gnats gone in a week or two since it doesn't kill adult gnats.

Just add it to regular watering for a couple of weeks. If no results try the Gnatrol. You can get it at amazon. Although I found the h2o2 works pretty good! I had some on hand, i didn't have to buy anything.
Actually if no results in one week, double the dose. it does work! I used it on seedlings, none died! It's safe and does help makes roots grow. H2o2 is an emegency treatment for air starved roots.

So, I haven't started fertilizing but I was going to go with Jack's Acid Special for some of the blueberries and try and go mainly organic with the one of the blueberries. I had already purchased Happy Frog Acid Loving Fertilizer when earlier in this thread it was mentioned that organics may not work in a soilless media. I emailed Foxfarm to ask about if organic fertilizers would work in soilless media and this is what they responded with:

"It is true that you have to provide food for them or they will cannibalize, but with the use of Bushdoctor Microbe Brew, you can achieve amazing results with millions of beneficial colonies. They attach to the roots of your plant, so it doesnâÂÂt matter if you are in soil, NFT, DWC, or straight hydro. The Happy Frog Acid Loving Plants will inoculate your medium with a great deal of mycorrhizae, and if you sustain their populations by supplying food for them, i.e. Microbe Brew, Molasses, etc., They will exponentially populate your medium regardless of its makeup."

Can anyone offer any insight into this? I have no reason to not believe them but would like an outside opinion since a lot of the above mentioned information is way above my head.

Thanks.

It would be nice to have the right species for blueberries. And my bet it doesn't.
Fungi of the genus Hymenoscypus or Rhizoscyphus, and most typically Rhizoscyphus ericae.
If not this fungus, it will not attach to the roots.

I can see the value in providing good energy sources for soil microbes, but don't overlook cheaper alternatives that might be just as effective as that snazzy brewed stuff -- blackstrap molasses, hydrolyzed fish, kelp, and homemade compost tea for example. To my mind, though, it's even more important to provide an environment that's conducive to microbial activity. You can do that by keeping the potting mix temperature as stable as possible (this is especially important in hot summer regions where root zone temps can get really excessive, especially in plastic pots), by keeping the moisture level stable, and by using a potting mix that drains well (so that it holds plenty of oxygen at all times). Of course, these are also the conditions that promote healthy root growth, so they're well worth your attention even if you're not especially concerned about soil microbes (i.e. if you're relying exclusively on synthetic fertilizers).

--duplicate post--

This post was edited by shazaam on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 20:21

The cloth bags really stabilize temps. I heard on a gardener broadcast about a test of smart pots. Plastic reached 120 F whereas the Smart Pot was at 80 F .
40 degrees cooler, that's a huge difference! Might not help at the start of the season though! (tomatoes, peppers) I like to mix dry molasses in with the soil. In all my blueberry pots. As is the proper fungi, and I'll be adding bacteria once outside for good.

brownmola,
This is a 3-4 year old Jersey Blueberry plant that was mostly if not entirely being fertilized with Jack's Acid Special.I bought it at Home Depot back then along with one other Jersey and two Draper.It was at the end of growing season and these plants were scrawny,neglected and under watered.They were about a foot tall and cost $3.33 each.
Right now they are about four feet all look similar to the one in the picture and this is after pruning. Brady

This post was edited by Bradybb on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 22:06

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the insight and advice. Jack's Acid Special it is then.

Brady are your blueberries in a soilless mix? Do you use CRFs or just the Jack's fertilizer?

I mix about 3 parts of conifer(Pine and or Fir)bark mulch to 1 part Peat moss and some Perlite if available.
I've never tried CRF with Blueberries.I bought some Osmocote and gave some to other plants recently.I've also tried Fish/Kelp/Molasses.That can get kind of expensive,especially if using the cold processed liquid fish.It depends though on how many plants someone has and money to spend. Brady

"Do you use CRFs or just the Jack's fertilizer?"

Someone just mentioned Miracle-Gro Shake 'n Feed Tomatoes, Fruits, & Vegetables CRF in a thread in the Container forum, which reminded me that a frequent poster there (edweather) has had good results with this particular product for blueberries. While it's not as long lasting as Osmocote Plus or Dynamite All Purpose Select, most of the nitrogen is in the form of urea and ammonium with less than 20% nitrates. If I'm not mistaken, Ed also uses some ammonium sulfate on occasion.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of Ed's Blueberries...

This post was edited by shazaam on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 10:54

I have nothing to add, but just wanted to say thanks for everyone's contributions to this thread. I've read a ridiculous amount of books on growing fruits and vegetables, container and urban gardening, etc. over the past couple years, and the info in this thread wasn't covered in any of them. Thanks!

Well, almost exactly one year later, here is the update. All three put out a lot of growth last spring and a few tasty berries. They never truly went dormant and had leaves all year round.

Right now, both the Jewel and Windsor are flowering like crazy! The Emerald had quite a bit of caterpillar leaf damage (middle plant) but looks to be putting out a lot of new growth and flowers, just not as prolific as the other two. One question for all the 5-1-1 soil people: I know that the 5:1:1 is supposed to be changed out every year but I was planning on changing it out every other year or when the plants start showing signs of less vigor. Anyone here with blueberries have experience with when or how often to change out this soil mix?

brownmola,
Those plants look great.I've been changing my mix only when putting the plants in a bigger pot,about every two to three years.
Is your location in California?I'm in Western Washington and some of the Southern Highbush keep their leaves also. Brady

Yep, I'm in So. California. Can't wait till the blueberries ripen! Bradybb, do you bird block your plants?

I don't need to use bird netting yet.Either they have not found them or the numerous cats roaming the area keep them away. Brady

I need bird block here in Nor Cal. There is one type of bird that picks them clean. If you wonder why you are waiting for berries to ripen and they never get there it is probably because a bird is taking them every morning before they can get ripe :)

Wow, houzz sucks!

Just got signed up and saw your update post. Very nice looking plants! Be sure to prune them pretty good after harvest and they will push out some nice growth this summer. Keep it up, looks like you got it by the short hairs!!!

Thanks for the pruning advice. I'll need to read up on that since I have no idea how to prune blueberries.

Its not hard. First I look for crossing branches that are rubbing on each other and see which one makes the most since to remove. Next I look for branches that grow back into the center of bush and remove them. You want sun light and air to get to the center of the plant. If its a 4 year old plant or older I will look to remove a few of the oldest canes but leaving a 3 or 4 inch stub above the soil line. It will sprout new vigorous canes from the stub. Then I just cut back the top and sides of the remaing branches and canes. Some plants like sweetcrisp and springhigh have very thin long branches. I cut them back hard to keep them from getting too long and flimsy. Plants like Emerald have very thick and sterdy branches and my not need to be cut back hard. After a good hair cut they tend to flush out alot of new growth which will be all your new fruiting wood the following season. Its important to start tipping all the new growth early and often as they will get out of hand in a hurry if your fertilizing often. I like to tip my new growth at about 6inchs. It slows the plants down, keeps there size in check, strengthens the branches and increases fruiting wood as each time you tip it promotes more branching. You have to keep it up all growing season. I usually stop tipping around Aug/Sept. Let the new growth go after that point and that last flush will produce all your fruit buds for next season.

Very nice brownmola, what has your watering and fertilizing schedule been like so far? I have a Sunshine Blue but the leaves are not as deep green as your plants.

I usually water once a week if really hot. I fertilize probably every other watering with Jack's Acid Special. I have Dynamite All Purpose in the potting mix as well.

Sounds good! What is your rate for the slow release? I have both miracid and ammonium sulphate on hand, as well as a granular for acid loving plants.