Re: [nafex] request advice for yellow blueberries

[LONGDISTSHTR <longdistshtr@shtc.net>]

Ginda Fisher wrote:
> 
> I have several young half-high blueberries bushes, planted last spring
> and the preceding fall.  Three of them look rather yellow this spring,
> with some red towards the leaf ends.  One of each of my three cultivars,
> bluesky, northblue, and st. cloud, looks tired.  The others look okay,
> with perhaps a little red.  The leaves look healthy otherwise, with no
> signs of insect damage or disease.  I put a lot of peat moss into the
> soil before I planted them, but the yellow ones are located where I may
> have put a bit less - I wouldn't swear either way.  All of the bushes
> were mulched with partially rotted oak leaves last fall.  I also threw
> some hollytone around them early this spring.  Last year, the same
> bushes looked a little yellow later in the season, but not so bad.  Last
> year I was so astonished that the bushes flowered that I let them fruit
> to see what would happen - they all bore a small crop.
> 
> I thought the problem might be pH, and I bought a pH meter.  It read
> 7.0.  I tried it in various other parts of the garden, and it said 7.0.
> I put it in a glass of water with quite a bit of vinegar and it still
> said 7.0.  So I gave up on science, and went back to the hardware store
> and asked for some sulfur to acidify my soil.  All they had was aluminum
> sulfate, so I bought a small bag, and sprinkled enough of it over my
> blueberry patch to lower the pH 1 or 2 points, according to the
> directions.  (More near the yellowest ones, less near the greenest
> ones.)
> 
> That was a week and a lot of rain ago.  The blueberries that looked okay
> look marginally better, but the yellow ones are still pretty yellow.
> 
> Should I wait longer and see what happens?  Should I add more aluminum
> sulfate?  Try another hardware store?  Or is the problem likely to be
> something other than pH?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ginda Fisher
> Eastern Massachusetts, zone 6
> 
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> Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations.
> Remember the good 'ol days
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Ginda, I've had some pH problems with rabbiteye blueberries and was
interested in a comment made by Nafexer recently wherein ferrous sulfate
was successful in treating chlorosis (yellowing) in other blueberries.
This grower, as well as I, hadn't been very successful with sulfur and
ammonium sulfate. I can't understand why but if it worked for this
grower, I'm gonna give it the ol' college try if I can locate a source
near me.
(Talk about blank stares from farmer supply folks!! Wow!) I don't think
we know all there is to know about  this pH and vaccinium thing. Here in
SC people talk about standing in one place in the recent past and eating
Sparkleberries 'til they were sick. There are plenty of shrubs on my
land and they bloom, but I haven's seen a decent Sparkleberry in eleven
years and no chlorosis either. My rabbiteyes do well except for
occasional chlorosis but always improve with drip irrigation (my
brother-in-law with a watering can). Doc Lisenby Zone 8

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Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations. 
Remember the good 'ol days
http://click.egroups.com/1/4053/0/_/423498/_/959217054/
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