blueberry leaves red/orange tinged

**veggiechicken** · 03-04-2012, 03:56 PM

Old leaves turn orange/red in the autumn. Are they last years leaves or new ones? Mine are in flower outdoors now.

**jdlondon** · 03-04-2012, 05:47 PM

The info on their labels didn't include age, so I have no idea how old the leaves are. I'm totally new to blueberry plants, never even seen them before - eaten the fruits, that's the extent of my knowledge - so I may be overreacting and this is actually completely normal blueberry bush behaviour

Trawled the net and some pictures show these coloured leaves as normal, and one variety apparently starts off reddish and then turns green in the autumn, all topsy turvily, so my bushes may be fine. Fingers crossed.

**veggiechicken** · 03-04-2012, 05:53 PM

I wouldn't worry about them - see how they develop. Do you know what variety yours are? That might help.

**FB.** · 03-04-2012, 05:57 PM

My blueberries are just leafing out and the swollen buds are quite pink, with the newly-opened leaves also having faint pink tinges.
The smallest and youngest of my three (GoldtrauBe) blueberry bushes doesn't look as if it made it through the winter.
Whether it's due to the cold, or due to me not being able to give it exactly what it wants in terms of soil.
So it's possible that the pink tinges no my newly-opened leaves are a sign of not acid enough soil, or it may be completely normal.

Blueberries don't like tap water as it often has alkaline minerals in it, which neutralises the acidity in the soil which blueberries need.

**jdlondon** · 03-04-2012, 07:39 PM

My smaller one is from B&Q, and it's a Bluecrop, but the bigger one from Aldi didn't come with a variety name. I'm trying not to worry, but I just can't help myself!

FB - I read putting vinegar in the tap water helps reduce the alkalinity; that true? I've been buying those ultra cheap bottles of malt from Tesco.

**shaunbrook** · 05-04-2012, 08:59 AM

I've never heard of putting vinegaer in the water! I use rainwater i have collected to water mine. are they in pots or in open ground??? If its in a pot and you are using the compost designed for acid loving plants and water with rain water no further messure need to be taken at all! I have 2 big beautiful bushes and every year i just take the top 3-4 inches of soil and replace it with fresh. Thats all i do=] Mine are flowering and have heavy and lots of little leaves are coming through which are a green/ red colour. No need to worry about it the blueberry bush is a very hardy plant and you would be hard pressed to kill it!!!

Hope that helped??

**Falkirk Bairn** · 05-04-2012, 04:07 PM

I have 2 blueberry (top hat variety) and they both have green/orange/red colouring in them. I just planted them back end of last year in pots with erica compost and use rain water. Lots of buds on them so I'm not too worried about them at this stage.

**sugar** · 05-04-2012, 08:12 PM

There's a lot of difference in between my different blueberry plants.
Some flower before leafing out, some have orange leaves when leafing out, others fresh, lush green leaves. There are even some evergreen cultivars ("Sunshine Blue" in my garden).
There is a lot of genetic differences in between blueberry cultivars (which often result from crosses with other Vaccinium species).
So I wouldn't worry too much, as long as you see good growth and lots of buds

**jdlondon** · 06-04-2012, 10:54 AM

Thanks, everyone!

Very reassuring.

As for the vinegar water, it's because I'm on a balcony and in London and rainwater isn't something I have much of. I have a bucket out there, but I'm lucky if it gets an inch in there when it rains. There is a drainpipe but it's an old metal one which apparently can't be hooked up with a butt.

I'm thinking of attaching a length of plastic guttering on the rail, leaning it down slightly so it drains into the bucket.

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