For the second year in a row, I'm failing at blueberries. We built a 25 x 3-foot bed at the end of our driveway specially for them (and added strawberries as "ground cover"). We purchased the bushes from a farm in NJ (we're in Maryland). The bushes are each about 3-feet tall with approx. 12" root plugs, which seem to consist of very sandy soil. The farmer who sold them told us a mix of peat moss is important. The soil in our bed is about 70% neutral soil (Leafgrow and topsoil) and 30% peat. Strawberries did fine, but last year the blueberries started to wilt, and the fruit shriveled right after they got what promised to be a large number of berries.
When I tested the soil pH last year, it was still above 6. So, last summer I added sulfur. That eventually lowered the pH to mid-upper 5s by winter's end. Then this spring I added several 40# bags of more peat, plus the same amount of sand, also per the famer's recommendation. I bought new bushes (they're only $15, so worth the risk of try again) and started again. Unfortunately, they're doing even worse, with one bush already fully wilted and the other showing early signs of that. I cannot imagine that it's the pH. I realize that below 5 is ideal, but I wouldn't think that mid-5s would be fatal. In any event, the roots would still be mostly in the original farm soil that forms the root plug.
Perhaps related, perhaps not, I'm also seeing signs of what seems to be some sort of fungal rot on our Blackeyed Susans. They're in a different bed, about 30-feet from the blueberries. But perhaps what is attacking them is also the culprit with the blueberries?
Any thoughts about what is going on (and how to fix it) would be much appreciated.
When I tested the soil pH last year, it was still above 6. So, last summer I added sulfur. That eventually lowered the pH to mid-upper 5s by winter's end. Then this spring I added several 40# bags of more peat, plus the same amount of sand, also per the famer's recommendation. I bought new bushes (they're only $15, so worth the risk of try again) and started again. Unfortunately, they're doing even worse, with one bush already fully wilted and the other showing early signs of that. I cannot imagine that it's the pH. I realize that below 5 is ideal, but I wouldn't think that mid-5s would be fatal. In any event, the roots would still be mostly in the original farm soil that forms the root plug.
Perhaps related, perhaps not, I'm also seeing signs of what seems to be some sort of fungal rot on our Blackeyed Susans. They're in a different bed, about 30-feet from the blueberries. But perhaps what is attacking them is also the culprit with the blueberries?
Any thoughts about what is going on (and how to fix it) would be much appreciated.
