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Blue berries please help

Posted by Pikas none (My Page) on
Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 13:57

Hello, Nearly a year ago, I bought 2 blue berry plants. They told me it would be helpful to have 2 plants instead of one because it would help pollination and we'd get fruit more consistently hence 2 plants. I bought these plants with fruit and in the year since I've had them, I have not had a single fruit. I have used coffee grounds, got some actual acidic soil mixture from Home Depot but nothing seems to make a difference. Lately it has been changing color. Is it dying. Please help. Thanks


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RE: Blue berries please help

picture of the second plant.


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RE: Blue berries please help

  • Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
    Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 14:21

Mine is changing color too, but it is supposed to where I'm located. I can't tell where you live, so have no clue if normal or not? Acidic soil alone is not enough. If you threw 10 gallons of salt water in Lake Michigan, it would not change much, the water would be fresh in seconds. You need to acidify the soil, keep adding acid to keep it that way if in the ground. My native soil has a PH of 6.5. ideal for most plants, slightly acidic. But for blueberries it is not enough, I went to raised beds where I can control the PH a lot better. To get the PH down add sulfur, but that will take a year to 6 months, so buy ammonium sulfate fertilizer, 1 teaspoon per gallon. That will quickly acidify area.
Unless you dig a large area out and replace it with acidic soil, you're going to have to work at keeping the soil acidic.
Also keep soil moist blueberries like moist soil. Use rainwater if possible most city water is very basic and hurts your blueberries. Acid eats pipes, cities add carbonates to make water basic. You should have removed blueberries when you bought it as plant tries to protect seed instead of forming a good root system, no seeds it concentrates on roots. So this didn't help matters.
Your plants do look like they need PH adjustment. Do you know the PH of the native soil?


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RE: Blue berries please help

Did they have any blooms on they?
maybe you fertilized to much or not enough sun.


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RE: Blue berries please help

You would need two different varieties of the same species for pollination, not just two plants (2 different varieties of southern highbush, northern highbush, or rabbiteye). I live in southeast Texas and some of my blueberry plants are turning purple due to the cold weather we just had. However, the plants in the picture do not look very vigorous. That could be caused by high pH, low fertility (use fertilize for acid loving plants) or poor drainage.


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RE: Blue berries please help

I live in Fresno, California. Thank you for all the advice. I will take them out of the soil and put it in a pot so that Ph, drainage and sunlight can be better controlled. Will keep you posted. Thank you very much.


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RE: Blue berries please help

  • Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
    Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 17:20

You know the southern and northerns are so mixed up, it's not always true you need the same type. I have Cara's Choice and it has wild, Southern, Northern, and rabbiteye in it's lineage. Classified as Northern.

The plants don't look terrible, you should be able to turn them around easily. The first show red and yellow, so it's not getting the nutrients, which is almost always due to PH, follow my instructions, it will work! You can get Ammonium sulfate almost at any independent nursery, Amazon, or look at grass fertilizer ratio is 21 0 0. Some are just pure ammonium sulfate, look at ingredients.Also to add P-K and micros nutrients use Holly-Tone or Cottonseed meal or any acid loving fertilizer. Only use acid loving fertilizer as it is low in nitrates, Blueberries do like Urea, or ammonium based nitrogen. The Ammonium sulfate will lower PH so the plant can utilize the nutrients. Feeding them without doing this will not help at all.
Another amendment to consider is Iron, iron sulfate may help the situation too.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 19:29


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RE: Blue berries please help

Drew

Hope you are right. I have 9 southern highbush and 2 pink lemonade that I think are closer related to rabbiteye. If next spring they do not produce fruit lack of pollination could be one of the problems. I guess I will wait and see.

The point I was trying to make was 2 plants of the same variety doesn't help in pollination.

I also misread the plants were in the ground for a year. I thought they were in the ground for 2 years. They don't look bad for 1 year old plants. I would take a soil test to see what the pH is before digging them up. If between 4.5 and 5.5 pH would not be a problem.


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RE: Blue berries please help

  • Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
    Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 19:25

Gary, you're right, and it is best to have the same types. All I meant is it is not always easy to figure out what you have! Pink Lemonade is a good example! Cara's Choice and Pink Lemonade were both released by Dr. Mark Ehlenfeldt
Cara's Choice is just as strange. here's some info on Pink Lemonade
PINK LEMONADE is a cross of NJ 89‑158‑1 x Delite (V. ashei) and was originally tested as ARS 96-138. The female parent, NJ 89‑158‑1 came from a cross of two triploids, NJ 856‑1 x NJ 859‑1 made by Dr. Nicholi Vorsa (Rutgers University). The clone NJ 856‑1 is a cross of G-434 (a sibling of ‘Pink Champagne’) x NJ 85-CS (an albino-fruited, wild, 2x selection of V. corymbosum). The clone NJ 859‑1 is a cross of V. darrowi >Florida 4B= x Rancocas (see attached pedigree). The cross that produced PINK LEMONADE was made by M.K. Ehlenfeldt at Chatsworth, New Jersey in 1991. PINK LEMONADE was selected in 1996 by M.K. Ehlenfeldt at the Marucci Center for Blueberry & Cranberry Research and Extension, Chatsworth, NJ. The selection was subsequently evaluated by M.K. Ehlenfeldt between 1996 and 2004, and also evaluated at USDA-ARS/Oregon State University test plots in Corvallis, Oregon. Its general characteristics are, mid-late- to late-season ripening, moderate yields, medium-sized, glossy fruit, bright pink fruit-color, mild pleasant flavor, and good firmness. The bush of PINK LEMONADE is vigorous, upright, and full. Leaves are glossy green and lanceolate, with a serrated leaf margins. Leaf surface texture is smooth, very similar to that of V. ashei. Limited observations suggest that PINK LEMONADE has some resistance to the blighting phase of Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi (mummy berry). Flowering time is similar to other southern blueberry germplasm, with flowers developing earlier than hardy northern cultivars such as Bluecrop. Plants are hardy in New Jersey, but fruit production is irregular, producing reduced, or no crops in years with late spring frosts, and moderate crops in years with mild spring temperatures. Cropping ability is most likely related to flower bud deacclimation and hardiness in spring. The ideal area of adaptation of PINK LEMONADE is unknown, but its background suggests that it might perform equally well, or better, in milder climates, including areas where rabbiteye cultivars can be grown. Because of the inherent self-fertility problems of rabbiteye germplasm, it is recommended that another rabbiteye cultivar be planted with PINK LEMONADE to ensure good cross-pollination. In some southerly locales, ‘Florida Rose’, a pink-fruited cultivar recently released by the University of Florida, may be suitable for this purpose.


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RE: Blue berries please help

Thank you both. Since your initial post, I have bought a PH tester on amazon. Once I get it, will check the soil before uprooting. Will also make changes per your suggestions and update. Thanks a bunch......


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RE: Blue berries please help

  • Posted by Drew51 5b/6a SE MI (My Page) on
    Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 22:34

If you get the Ammonium (you can get it cheap on Amazon). 1 teaspoon per gallon is a high dose. At first use it every 2 weeks, then once growing only once a month, and then cut dose to 1 teaspoon per 2.5 gallons.

Also VERY IMPORTANT

We are entering dormant season so I would not use it till spring. To bring the PH down for now use vinegar in tap water. use your meter to get water to about 5.0.
We want blueberries around 4.8 to.5.5.
Vinegar is only temporary but it is not a fertilizer, so OK to use if plants are dormant. I use sulfuric acid in water and bring it down to 5.0. I use battery acid you can get at any auto parts store. it is very safe to use. Acid must be pure or it could damage battery, even make it explode. Rumors of lead in the acid are not true, the lead is in the battery, don't use the acid out of a battery!
Be careful handling. Sulfuric acid turns carbonates to gypsum. So removes them for good. Vinegar converts them
to calcium acetate. Calcium acetate can be broken back down to carbonates by bacteria in about a month. So this is a temporary lowering of the PH. In pots calcium acetate: can be washed out and so vinegar works better and does work longer.

Sulfur added to the soil is converted to sulfuric acid by bacteria. it takes 6 months to a year. Once stable use sulfur to maintain a proper PH.

If you wish to stay organic you do not have to use the ammonium sulfate. You can use vinegar or sulfuric acid to stabilize PH, and use an acid loving organic fertilizer in the spring. Like Holly-Tone, or cottonseed meal, or Dr Earth for acid plants.
Again once PH is where we want it, I use sulfur. It's cheap. I monitor levels and such. I can adjust using battery acid. If too low, straight tap water will raise it. If PH drops below 4.0 you need to raise it.

Hope I didn't confuse you. Lot's of info to absorb!
My bluberries are turning red due to the cold, and will drop all leaves. Here is a photo of one in full fall color.
 photo 016-3.jpg
Here it is in the middle of last summer
 photo 022.jpg

Ripe berries from the same plant
 photo 001-12.jpg

This post was edited by Drew51 on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 22:39


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RE: Blue berries please help

Blueberries take 3 years before they produce, hence they are often found with three price ranges representing years grown (though they may say '1 gal, 2 gal and 3 gal'). Pay for the most expensive if you want fruit that year (well worth it). Of course not necessarily what you get at HD or even appropriate cultivars for your area.

If blueberries flower at the same time they will cross fertilize regardless of "species." Whether there are pollinators available to visit the bell flowers can also be a problem.

Some of that can be the season ending "fall colors" of dormancy on the second pick, down low and working up. Could be salt damage or under watering on the first image, but not too bad. But frankly I doubt you can grow blueberries in the ground in Fresno in the long run no matter what you do. I know some areas have great topsoil but others are alkaline soil aren't they? Half wine/bourbon barrels. Hopefully the chill hours in your area will support fruiting of those cultivars?

Good luck with the pH meter. I have never had one yet that worked.

Here is a link that might be useful: acid loving fertilizer (not organic)

This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 15:15


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