Help with Heather's

Evening all,

I purchased some heather plants online and planted them temporarily in a plastic planter, until their new home is finished.Have both summer and winter ones.

Anyway, they seem to look dead to me, they haven't really changed colour or anything since they have come a few weeks back.

Can somebody help me with these. They are planted in peat free compost, with sand added in for drainage. I've also added some iron sulphate for acidity. But this doesn't seems to be helping

Kind regards
James

 

I find winter flowering ones are reasonably OK on what I would call normal soil but summer flowering ones really need acid conditions.

Ordinary peat free compost is probably likely to be neural so may not be acidic enough.

Iron sulphate is not likely to do much, I dont think, if it is a soil acidity problem, you need either sequestered iron or chelated iron.

Having said that, I'd not expect any real amount of new growth just yet.

 

Yeah they all turned up like that. Any way to get the half dead ones back up and running?

I'll try for a refund but I can see them saying no due to being flowers

 

Who did you get them from @Jblakes ?
The mix you have them in doesn't sound ideal, but if they've not been there for very long, it shouldn't have made much difference, and you say it's only been a few weeks.

It deosn't make any difference that they're flowering plants either - a good company should refund anything that isn't thriving - and those certainly aren't thriving. Have you contacted them?

 

Morning,

I don't want to say who it is, I've contacted them and waiting a response.ill let you know what they say.

What should they be planted in? Heard Ericaceous Compost, but then plenty of people have said normal pest free with added iron is perfectly fine, so did that because that what I had to use at the time.

Can somebody educate me as to what they need?

Regards
James

 

Compost is no use if they're going to be in a container long term @Jblakes , rather than planted out. You need a soil based medium - and you can buy those in GCs etc.
Grit or fine gravel is far better for drainage - mixed through it.
If you know which varieties they are, that helps, because although most like a bit of acidity, some are perfectly happy even with some alkalinity. A fairly neutral medium works best if you aren't sure. If you need to water, rainwater is best if your tap water isn't ideal. I agree that one of them looks ok.
Many of them get pretty big - they spread a fair bit, so you may need to pot them separately - if they live. Unfortunately, I don't think that's very likely unless there's some new growth coming away near the base.




This site will give you a few pointers as to the likes/dislikes etc though
Growing & Aftercare FAQ – Heather World

 

Evening all,

Can somebody please point out which ones are still alive, I can't seem to work out which ones are done, have a chance, or are fine (apart from the green one)
Kind regards
James

 

To be honest its not easy to say from all those pictures.
But if it has flowers or green then its probably still alive, heathers are not lush looking plants at the best of times.
I can see new growth on some of them, I just wonder if you are expecting too much too soon.

Really they would have been better in long term if you had filled the containers to about an inch from the top, they look a bit low to me.

 

Cheers for the reply, they don't seemed to have changed apart from the green one that's growing.

I didnt want to wait around it they are dead. How long should I be waiting to see them grow, they been in about 6weeks ish

 

Just hang on a bit longer, not sure what you are expecting, some are definitely alive but as I say, heathers are slow and hardly spectacular in the early stages, in a few years they will bulk up.

 

Tbh I have no clue what I was expecting, just kinda expected something to have happened

 

I'm wondering if they've been grown in those "teabag" net things. They're supposed to break down and let the roots grow through but a lot of people find that plants grown in them tend to fail as often as not and it can help to carefully remove them (although the sellers will say not to so don't try it until after you've heard back from them(.

 

I agree re the soil depth too. I don't think that peat free compost is any good - especially i n a large trough, whether you add anything or not, and for small plants- that isn't always ideal anyway. A reasonable soil with plenty of grit for drainage is far better.
It would probably have been better to pot them individually, as you can tailor the size to suit the conditions of the root system at the time.
I agree with @JennyJB that if they've been grown in those tea bag things, that really won't have helped. They should be showing some signs of new growth, even in such a short space of time, but those look very poor.
The drainage is very important too.

 

So they need to be closer to the top of the planters, if so why?

As for whats in the soil it a mix of 50% general soil/20% standard peat free and 30% eracaciouas, with grit and stones added for drainage.

What do you suggest I do with these to give them a fighting chance?