Blueberry Ericaceous or Peat

[veg4681]

Last year I grew a Wilko bought blueberry bush in a pot but it's growing frustratingly slow and now I'm thinking whether this has anything to do with the fact that I use peat. I may be going out this weekend and get the chance to buy a decent ericaceous compost as I have a 2nd blueberry bush to pot up.

BTW I have also got a 'Miracle Gro Azalea, Camelia, Rhodo Plant Food' as I wasn't able to buy one for ericaceous soil loving plants at B&Q then...believe they're the same . Confused as to whether I could still use peat (as I already have some with me) and feed the blueberry plant with the above plant food. Would this be adequate?

[seasprout]

Blueberry.

I think if you want the best out of your plant, and as its a fruiting plant i would use ericaceous compost and feed it with the miracle grow plant food, as it will do fine.

Plain peat has not nutrients in it, that's why its good for carnivorous plants, if you have plain peat and add your feed to it it will soon become exhausted.

Btw, you know you need 2 plants to pollinate each other, so they need to be in flower at the same time.....

[pigletwillie]

In the wilds blueberries live on very poor acidic soil with little or no nutrients, either peat or ericaceous compost is ideal but dont feed with anything other than azalia or rhododendron food as it will give the wrong nutrients to the plants.

Whilst two bushes will increase the yield, one on its own will still crop but not as prolifically.

Have a look at this post in the "growing techniques" section.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...uide_6408.html

[momol]

Veg,

I top up mine with some Rhododendrone soil ( sold in the garden centre here) just to give it some homy acidic feeling. I only feed mine with a bit of dry cow manure, haven't try any special formula. It seems to react positively to cow manure. Let us know how yours responding to the fertilizer...

Momol

[veg4681]

Thanks for all your replies. Today I potted the blueberry and cranberry (in hanging basket ) in the ericaceous compost I bought yesterday from B&Q. I haven't replanted the other blueberry in peat...thinking about it, it doesn't look too bad and it's already in a big pot, good enough to be its final/permanent home.

[pigletwillie]

Dont under any circumstances put any animal manure about a blueberries roots as they just cannot tolerate it, no matter how well rotted. It will kill them.

[Fletch]

ericaceous compost

i can get lots of squeezed (squozen for those Hydonians amongst you) oranges from a local organic shop as a by-product of their fresh orange juice sales. does anyone know if i can produce ericaceous compost from it??

[momol]

Dont under any circumstances put any animal manure about a blueberries roots as they just cannot tolerate it, no matter how well rotted. It will kill them.

Thanks for the info PW,

I did give my blueberry some small amount of dry cow manure ( but far away from their root area) plus my Blue berry bushes are older than 3 years old.
Will try to use other suitable fertilizer or just some extra humus.

[Tigerella]

Hi

I got my two blueberry bushes from wilko, knowing they needed ericasous compost, I forgot and potted them in compost.
I will change this and use a bigger pot.
It does not say the variety, but I believe not all need two bushes, although if they re-stock I may get some more.

I also got red/black currant and red gooseberry.

T

[veg4681]

Hi

I got my two blueberry bushes from wilko, knowing they needed ericasous compost, I forgot and potted them in compost.
I will change this and use a bigger pot.
It does not say the variety, but I believe not all need two bushes, although if they re-stock I may get some more.

I also got red/black currant and red gooseberry.

T

Change your soil to ericaceous compost as soon as you're able to do so.

If they're both are from Wilko then it may not be good. More than likely they'll both be same variety and furthermore being un-named variety means you cannot know if they're self-fertile variety either. For better fruit yields, you need at least two different varieties of blueberry (to do with cross pollination). Maybe you'd be better off buying a named variety from garden centre or online but don't go for too common variety in case they're the same as the Wilko ones . Sorry I hope I haven't complicated the matter for you.

[Tigerella]

Hi

Common sense would say that if they are selling un-name varieties, then they should be self fertile.
Other wise you could take them back as unfit for purpose, under the 2000 sale of goods act.
Whats the point of buying one, if it will not have berries!

But then common sense does seem quite rare these days.

T

[veg4681]

Hi

Common sense would say that if they are selling un-name varieties, then they should be self fertile.
Other wise you could take them back as unfit for purpose, under the 2000 sale of goods act. Whats the point of buying one, if it will not have berries!
T

True, you would have thought at least they'd have the decency to give you a self-fertile variety of Blueberry for the absolute idiotic reason that they won't name the variety. We can hope that it is but if you find that the yield isn't fantastic, then you can always get a third 'named' blueberry friend for your existing bushes.

Regardless of whether your bushes are self-fertile or not, apparently it's still a good idea to have a mix of variety for even heavier crops. Some of us are doing exactly that, get the cheap ones from Wilko or Woolies or Poundland and then an expensive named variety from Garden Centre or online.

[Susan Chester]

Blueberries

Although all comments were posted some time ago I just want to say thanks to all who did. I have just bought my first Blueberries and got lots of excellent advice from here THANKYOU