# Blueberries



## Mad Professor (Apr 23, 2012)

What to use for a soil mix?

I'm starting with pH 6.5 loamy sand mix

I dug out current soil 1.5 ' X 2.5' dia, Mixed 1/3 current soil with 1/3 peat and 1/3 rotted manure, To this I added 1 cup of bone meal, 1/4 cup of greensand, and 1 cup of sulfur.

What you all think? Will check pH again in the fall, add more sulfur if needed

This will be topped with 4" of rotted white pine needles

These are 4 yr plants in 2 gal potted soil , New England , about 1500 ft


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## mga (May 16, 2012)

gees....i didn't go through all that. maybe i should have?

i dug a hole in the clay soil, planted them and put peat moss around them.

now i wonder how they'll do.


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## Genius. (May 17, 2012)

I'm sure Dinger will chime in if he sees this, if not PM dingeryote 

I didn't go through that much work, my PH was a little high similar adjusted with sulfer. Then I dug a hole about 3X the diameter of the plant, then mixed in equal parts peat moss and my soil, then planted my bushes.


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## redheadwoodshed (May 18, 2012)

Mad Professor said:


> What to use for a soil mix?
> 
> I'm starting with pH 6.5 loamy sand mix
> 
> ...



I see why you are called the Mad Professor!Your mix looks good for what I know of blueberries.Mine are planted in slightly acidic heavy clay.I save coffee grounds which I sprinkle around them and I have them mulched with pinestraw (yellow pine-loblolly and shortleaf) and some pieces of pine bark I raked up from around a beetle-killed pine that had slipped off.I don't use blood meal or bone meal right now because I have a puppy who likes to dig.She has already worked over my new dogwood.I hope it lives.Good luck with the blueberries,.


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## dingeryote (May 18, 2012)

Looks pretty good if not really elaborate preperation.

Any idea what PH Manure is? Reason I would wonder is Horse poop can be alkaline as all get out, and take forever to drop with Sulfur. My Crazy Cousin set up 16'x80' beds for his rooted cuttings and used 2 yr composted Horse poop/sphagnum...and it took 6 Carboys of Sulfuric acid through the Maezi before things dropped to 7...like a big stinky Tums tablet. 

Greensand? Forgive me, but that's a new one. 

With a starting point of 6.5 I doubt you'll have too many issues other than possibly needing more N untill things drop from the Sulfur.
In that light I would go easy with the Pine needles for a while, as the micro critters in the compost rob a good bit of N.

4yr old potted? I'd definately do some root pruning and loosening up the soil in a good 2' radius before planting, and then snip the thing back to force root growth over new cane and shoots. At 4 yrs they would be pushing a 2 Gal pot pretty good and looking for a 5.
If you don't root prune and spread before planting, they will continue to circle the roots like they were in the pot and never "Wake up" after planting. 

What Variety did you get?
I'd kill for about 10,000 Elliots right now. LOL!!

Stay safe!
Dingeryote


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## Genius. (May 18, 2012)

dingeryote said:


> What Variety did you get?
> I'd kill for about 10,000 Elliots right now. LOL!!
> 
> Stay safe!
> Dingeryote



I have 6


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## redheadwoodshed (May 19, 2012)

How do blueberries do in partial shade? I just put in 4 plants, 2 Climax and 2 I can't remember right now.All southern highbush varieties.I have room for many more but it would be more shaded by pines.Huckleberries do fine in this condition, but I am new to there cousins the blueberries.
The area is north Louisiana in heavy clay soil.Zone 8 I think.


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## dingeryote (May 19, 2012)

redheadwoodshed said:


> How do blueberries do in partial shade? I just put in 4 plants, 2 Climax and 2 I can't remember right now.All southern highbush varieties.I have room for many more but it would be more shaded by pines.Huckleberries do fine in this condition, but I am new to there cousins the blueberries.
> The area is north Louisiana in heavy clay soil.Zone 8 I think.



Partial shade is not a real problem. There's about 30 Feral bushes growing in our mature woodlot, and every year I find a couple more.
They will grow like a weed if they get the right conditions, and cutting them down just causes a flush of new growth...which reminds me. I gotta take a walk with the backpack sprayer and murder the things again. Wild bushes propegate disease, and thanks to some jerk from New England, a couple new Viruses have been going around here.

The ground bieng heavy clay is likely to be your biggest challenge. Not only does the Clay jack up the PH, it makes for an obstruction to root growth and slows water drainage while reducing available oxygen.

Blueberry roots are hair fine and weak, there's a LOT of them, but they are weak, and lousy at taking up water. On a mature bush, the rootball is roughly 2X the size in area of the bush they support. Drainage is critical or within 2-3 days of standing water the roots will begin to be starved of Oxygen and start dying back...which causes bush dieback/poor health.
If a guy were to open up a hole about 3-4' deep and in Dia. and fill with sand/Peat/compost and allow for drainage with a buried tile or gravel drain, the things will do fine on heavy clay. If the roots can't penetrate they will curl back into themselves like they do in a pot which further reduces thier intake capacity.
There's a guy I know in Georgia that put in 5A worth that way. He goes through quite a bit of Sulfur with constantly fighting PH, but they do really well.

The PH issue mostly affects nutrient uptake, and one of the Bizzare attributes of the Blueberry is that they will grow like weeds on rich higher PH black bottomland soil, as long as it is loose and drains well, because of the elevated nutrient concentration.

If you hit yours with a good foliar fertilizer like "Miracid"(Miracle grow for acid loving plants) every couple weeks, you can more than make up for any deficiency in soil conditions as long as they don't get rootbound or drown.


Stay safe!
Dingeryote


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