Blueberry plant leaves turning brown.

Hi, I was wondering if anybody can give me some advice?

I bought 5 blueberry plants of 3 different varieties in January. They are Brigatta, Bluecrop and Early Blue. I planted them in a huge container in ericasious compost.

They all grew and flowered very well. Some of them are now dropping their flowers and starting to produce fruit.

Problem is is that some of the leaves on all of the plants are starting to turn brown and wither. They are browning from the edges inwards not from the veins.

Any ideas? I would hate to loose all of my plants, especially when they have been doing so well.

Thanks.
Steve.

 

Hi, and welcome to the site!
Check your compost to see if it is very wet or very dry. Have you been watering them with tap water? I believe London water is quite hard and might have too much lime. Rainwater is better.

If they don't seem to be too wet or too dry, you might have something eating the roots. The only way to check this is to take one of the plants out and have a good look at the roots. If you find any cream coloured grubs in there then you probably have vine weevil larvae, which would mean getting new compost and relacing, or at least going through it really well to pick out the creatures.

The only other thing I can think of is lack of feeding. The ericacious compost probably had some plant food in it but this doesn't last forever and you may need to give them some plant food, I use tomato feed or you can buy ericacious plant food.

There are several sites available offering advice, here is one:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0801/blueberry_care.asp
Hope this helps!

 

Can't help you there mate, but someone will be able to. Welcome to the site. :D

 

I have checked for Vine weevil and there is no sign of them.

They are watered with rain water or Britta filterd water if I run out.

I fed them with some organic ericasious seaweed extract about 3 weeks ago.

I am a little unsure as to what would warrent 'too dry' or 'too wet'. How do you gauge it? The compost is very slightly damp at the moment, but not damp enough to stick to my fingers. Is this to dry?

Ta.

 

No, I wouldn't think so. They don't like to dry right out, or to be soggy. Putting some pebbles, slate etc on top will help to keep from drying out. It sounds unlikely that you have at some stage allowed the container to dry out sufficiently to cause this.
You seem to be doing everything right. There aren't any cats around are there? :confused:
Perhaps someone else has got ideas...

 

There are a few cats around. Do they chew them or something?

They did dry out once about 6 weeks ago, but they perked up very weel once watered.

Is it better if I water them very little but often?

How often should I feed them?

Also, when I dug them out to check for the vine weevil, I noticed that the root ball was still them same size as they where when I planted them. Should they not have sent out lots of new roots by now?

 

No, cats wouldn't chew them but they might pee on them! Bark or pine needles or the pebbles with a sprinkling of chili powder will help to stop this if it does happen.

Water little and often, and you're right to use filtered water if you run out rather than let them get dry. Feed every couple of weeks in growing season [now].

I would have expected signs of root growth. If you noticed that the roots looked tightly compacted or still had little fibrous pots round them, then tease the roots out gently. It's possible that the rootball is not getting enough water if this is the case. I have done this with some plants, although the soil was damp the actual rootball was filled with dried out compost, and roots were not growing.


Also the plants do like to be well drained- is your pot raised a little off the ground so that drainage holes are not blocked with soil, and did you put crocks or anything in the bottom of the pot to help drainage. It might be a good idea to add some perlite or clean sand to your soil mix to ensure it doesn't get clogged.

Hope some of this helps!

 

The root balls do seem to be dryer than the surrounding soil, and they are quite compact. I will try to tease them out a bit. I have always been a bit scared of doing that incase I kill them.

The pot is raised and there is a layer of gravel in the bottom of the pot.

I will add some perlite when I loosen the root balls.
I will also give them another feed.

Thanks very much. I will let you know if it helps.

Steve.

 

I found this online hope it helps...

Position: full sun or partial shade
Soil: prefers moist, well-drained acidic soil but will grow in sandy or normal soil
Rate of growth: fast-growing
Other features: light blue berries (July)
Hardiness: fully hardy

Garden care: Prepare the ground well before planting. Blueberries can also be grown in large pots and containers if ericaceous compost is used. Prune in winter, cutting out dead or damaged branches. In spring, feed with sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of potash and bonemeal and top-dress with ericaceous compost