Watering Blueberries

**AllInContainers** · 22-04-2014, 07:16 AM

Originally posted by Marie99 View Post

I did read that Allincontainers said she will water with tap water and some vinegar for the acid.

I'm a "he"

Bottled water sounds expensive, and I think I read it can still be stighty alkaline. You can get commercial PH down, but this consists of adding an acid to the water ... just like vinegar but at a higher price probably. The reason I use vinegar is that it's cheap.

I also found last year that I got away with not using vinegar every time. In the really hot times, I would just use a shower setting on the hose attachment, but every so often (weekends when I had more time) go round with the vinegar solution in a watering can to "correct" the watering I had done during the week. Watering blueberries with tap water is less harmfull to them than not watering them at all

**Compo72** · 22-04-2014, 07:38 AM

I'm a newbie with blueberries too

Also from the north east

Well worth while looking at long range weather forecasts for a general idea when rain is likely
I'm no expert but tend to garden feed n water with the weather rather than work against it

I gave mine a feed a sulphate of potash , a few weeks ago

Today's is pouring down which will help them
Then on advice from this forum mulch them with grass clipping I have already

Before we get hot water coming through the household taps or shower
I run the cold water in a plastic jug
It's surprising over a short while how much water I do get 5 litres a day maybe
That's a canny bit over a week month .
I'm not sure of the dilution rate but will be using a bit of vinegar too
My azalea needs a good drink as well

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**rustylady** · 22-04-2014, 07:41 AM

Originally posted by Marie99 View Post

Hi I have bought a Blueberry plant, im growing it in a pot. Its typical that I wanted to collect some rainwater and would you believe we have had no rain in the North east for a few days!

As im just in my first year growing, I have never bothered to collect that much rainwater. Im planning on getting a water butt now, but in the mean time how will I water my plant.

I did read that Allincontainers said she will water with tap water and some vinegar for the acid.

Just wondering what other methods of watering is there. Do the plants respond well to bottled water? maybe with lime or lemon? just a thought!!

Don't really know

M

Is your tap water hard or soft? Down here in East Anglia we have very hard water, full of calcium, and the kettle furs up quickly. That sort of tap water is useless for acid loving plants, but if your tap water is soft you should be fine to use it.

**Marie99** · 22-04-2014, 09:45 AM

Hi

sos Allincontainers with the gender mix up

Yeh I do agree my thoughts on bottled water would be expensive, I think im just keen to keep my blueberry plant alive lol

Rusty lady - the water is really soft where I am so should be ok, will use a bit of vinegar too if needed

Thanks compo72, well I spoke to soon, Not raining here yet but will do soon as big black clouds with no sun in sight ! Should know better than to think we would not get any rain up here lol Due to cats around the area and my own, I have to cover all my pots, I put black plastic bags ontop of the soil around the plants, this tends to keep the soil underneath damp.

Thanks for all your good advice, M

**DiggerSean** · 22-04-2014, 10:18 AM

It's certainly raining here in Redcar, had some good weather over the Easter holidays so not complaining.

**dod** · 22-04-2014, 12:08 PM

The main thing is to avoid watering them with hard water, as it has a high pH buffering capacity. If your kettle doesn't fur then the occasional watering with tap water, or rain water blended with tap water when rain is only available in limited quantities, probably wouldn't do any real harm. If you are feeding with an ericaceous feed then that may well contain suitable ingredients (buffer or acid) to adjust the pH to a reasonable range.

**Marie99** · 22-04-2014, 02:20 PM

Its raining now

I spoke too soon about the sun, but yes we have had nice Easter weather, Iv got some buckets out to collect it and I will maybe look for a small water butt, the water is soft so iv no problem there. Thanks M

**Compo72** · 22-04-2014, 09:03 PM

I downloaded the weather channel app
Though you can just use the weather channel website or similar on the web
Gives me a ten day weather forecast where I live

Found it does vary to reality but gives a general idea when we likely to get a drop of water etc

Last night I cut the grass etc
As I thought would rain today

The coming weekend it's forecasting showers .

My blueberries are PInk Lemonade .
Be nice to get a half decent crop

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**doovayduck** · 26-04-2014, 11:16 PM

Following this as I have an assortment of blueberry plants. How much vinegar would you add to water to keep them happy? Mine have just been having rainwater for a while now...

**Kirk** · 27-04-2014, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by doovayduck View Post

Following this as I have an assortment of blueberry plants. How much vinegar would you add to water to keep them happy? Mine have just been having rainwater for a while now...

Absolutely none.
I cannot think of one plant that has evolved to grow in acetic acid.
Also pretty sure that the microbes in the soil will not survive in it much either.

**doovayduck** · 27-04-2014, 08:43 PM

Confused now... Am I better just leaving them?

**AllInContainers** · 27-04-2014, 11:14 PM

All I can share is my limited experience. Last year I watered my blueberries with tap water when necessary, as I have no rainwater collection in my small garden other than a bucket. At times they didn't look too happy (with tap water), so occasionally I would water them from a can which had a good glug of vinegar added to it. This did seem to make the plants perk up for a while. The percentage of vinegar was fairly small, but it seemed to give enough of a shift in the water condition until rain water took over again.

I had fruit from that bush last year, and this year it is in full bloom again. I'm not saying what I did was perfect, but it obviously worked and I will repeat where necessary on all my ericaceous plants this year (now 7 blueberry bushes, 3 leucothoe zeblid, and 3 checkerberry). Rain water is best, but it's not available, give it the best alternative you can

**Marie99** · 27-04-2014, 11:59 PM

Hi Doovayduck, water with rain water , Rustylady had mentioned that if you are in an area with soft water from the tap this should be ok to use if you don't have rain water.

You are in the same area as I am, we have soft water up here so this will be ok, having said that, we should be ok for rain water up here if you know what I mean

been raining plenty now !

I first put this post on as I had bought my blueberry plant and we had dry days over easter and I hadn't started collecting rain water, but now I have plenty in buckets

so panic over

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