Yellowing Blueberry Bush leaves. Is this normal?

I planted my blueberry bush in a container with lime and 10-10-10 fertilizer. Now the new leaves are yellowing. Is this normal?

 

COuld be that there isn't enough drainage and the roots are too wet.

 

The tall blueberries, and huckleberries like acid soil. At least the ones that I grow do. They grow in bogs that dry out in the summer (but are still moist soil in our region most of the year), but it is pretty hard to over water them.

If you look at the pictures of my pond you will see that the low point of my pond where the water drains is where one of my blueberry bushes is. It gets the largest, and most blueberries because of that. It is really loaded this year. You might want to repot with just a really good potting, a handful of peat and hope for the best. Blueberries are a really long-lived bush so just be patient. Given time if repotted it should be ok. It took mine a few years to look respectable.

 

Thank you for your advice. I will try repotting and using peat. Do you need two different varieties to help them produce?

 

Hiyah G'gater-- I was very surprised to see that you had added lime to your plant. I believe that blueberry bushes prefer an acid soil, not an alkaline one. Addittionally, the fertilizer that you added-- I personally find a bit strong as well.

You may thumb your nose at me :-D , but if it were my plant, I'd remove it from the container and dump out the soil.
--I would then put a thin layer of pot chards and sand in the bottom of the container. Like G'mama said, make sure that there are holes in the bottom of the container so0 that it can draim well.

--Next I would almost fill the container with pure Azalia or Rhododendron soil and re-plant your bush in that.

--Water it in thoroughly with rainwater or pond water. If you don't have any then use tap water that has sat open for a few days. You don't want any chlorine or calcium in that water if possible.

--with the reamining space left, add a thickish layer of pine needles and cover that with pine bark chips and water lightly again.

As I said, I believe that the 10-10-10 fertilizer that you are using is not required, but that is a personal call.
I don't know how young or small your plant is, but hopefully you can still save it. I am a bit worried about the leaves turinig yellow.

Please keep us posted on it's progress.

 

I'm pretty sure the issue is the acidity level of the soil. Blueberries love their acid.
If you don't want to purchase special soil for the plant you can add coffee grounds to the soil around the plant. I started new blueberries this year and had a similar problem-even though I knew better. In fact, all I had left was a stick. It's now doing great with just the addition of coffee grounds around the plant once a week. I just use the grounds from our 12 cup maker.

Your other question about varieties...yes, you need at least 2 different varieties in order for the bushes to produce as they cross-pollinate.
Good luck and keep us posted on their progress.

 

Hello
I would agree with other members that Blues like acidic soil. I planted mine in a raised bed of black loam. I feed them crush pine cones and needles all the time. Wild Blueberries in Northern Ontario grow in very poor soil not much more then composted evergreen plant matter.
Regards

 

Thanks Sjoerd, Gunz and Edible. I believe you've put your fingers on my problem. I would never thumb my nose at you Sjoerd. I value your considerable knowledge in gardening. I will use the abundant pine needles in my yard and as you said overhaul the potting dirt. I will give progress reports when I see a change.

 

Ok, GG....I shall cross everything that I have that is crossable for you.


BTW--I am so jelous of your abundant pine needle source. Oh, what I wouldn't give for such a ready supply. It is such a difficult thing for me to find them here. When I do, it's never enough and involves lots of biking or troubling someone else (which I REALLY do not like doing.

 

Say GG....
How are those blueberry bushes doing now?

 

That's got a lot of good blueberry info in it. The only question still remaining is about the amount of sun/shade they like. I have one spot that is shady and another that is part shade...

 

I chose to place my little group in a partly-shady place. In my opinion that is better than an exposed, full sun place. I also felt that a purely shady place was not optimal either.
Other folks may disagree, but that is my take on it.

I made another comment on blueberries over on the "Soup, Jam and a Stranger" thread, if you care to read that.