Easy Acidic Potting Soil Recipe for Growing Blueberries in Containers
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- An easy to make blueberry potting soil recipe that I have been using for five years now, with a few variations. It works great for growing blueberry bushes in containers. You can adjust the recipe to your preference, just remember that the pine bark mulch and Sphagnum Peat Moss are key ingredients and should make up a large portion of the mix. In the past I have replaced some of the garden soil with potting soil and used other fertilizer brands. If you can get it, I do recommend Holly Tone. If you can't get Holly Tone, look for another fertilizer made for acid loving plants like blueberries.
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Thanks for this! I’m determined not to kill blueberry bushes again this year :-)
Thank you very much for sharing. I grow mine in pots as well and it's amazing how nicely they're growing in there.
The pine bark is a great idea! I'm doing a couple raised beds for acid loving berries, I'll be adding a few bags of pine bark
Christa, I find this a very useful video for me since I am going to try my hand at growing my first blueberries here in Alabama. Thanks
Thank you - I am going to plant one blueberry plant on my patio - Great video - Jelly Bean is the one in my shopping cart
Great looking update and thanks for the info
For those beginners who want to grow blueberries in buckets:
01. Bucket 55l (15 gallon)
02. Soil from a pine forest
03. Mix the soil with pieces of sticks and pine bark
04. Pine bark mulch
Purchased soil is dead soil. No doubt.
Purchased fertilizer is not as good as slowly decaying sticks with pine bark. They gradually give the blueberries nutrients. If you really want to take care of the blueberry, it is a good idea to let pieces of pine bark stand in water for several weeks. As soon as the water "rusts", it also has a low ph, then water them. If you have blueberries in black buckets, they will heat up a lot in the sun and the roots will suffer. Either use white buckets or simply paint the black ones white or wrap them in paper or aluminum foil. One last piece of advice: the more varieties of blueberries, the more fruit you will have.
Failure is not possible with this procedure
Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for this. I was searching all over the internet for this comment and didn't expect to find it here. There's a pine forest that grows near me, and I knew pines loved acidic soil, but I didn't know if I could use the soil or not for blueberries.
@@bizzyg5751 Not at all. Enjoy planting. Cheers
Thanks for sharing!
I have to say this is the only garden channel I can actually watch for the entire video. Love that it’s strait to the point and on to the next video . Love it great work . Would be nice to see a face at the intro but hey what ever works for you .
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing
Thank you for the information 😊
I'm from tamil nadu 🙂🙏
Great information. 🙂
Glad it was helpful!
Looks great! From all of my research, and by the looks of your plans it's a great recipe. I just planned 2 Legacys and a Toro with your recipe. As long as they do well I'm going to repot my other 6 plants in this mix this winter after they've gone dormant. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!!
How did this work for you. I tested the pH and I had 7. I'm too afraid to put the plants in.
@@TheCommanderZoltan They did very well. I did add a soil acidifier for acid loving plants. The lowest I got the ph was around 5 1/2 in one pot and the others would hang around the 6 to 6.5 range. This season I'm going to use a organic sulfur to manage the ph, and just monitor the ph.
So I did this mix plus a acidifier and acid loving plants food. And I get 7. I live in MN and I'm sure my water is high in magnesium so it's probs higher pH. Do you think that is why I'm getting 7? I used nonsoftner water for the mix.
Basically straight well water.
Next time just use half peat moss and half pine bars mini nuggets and you can mix in a little sand if you like. Make sure it’s canadian sphagnum peat moss because that’s the acidic one. Someone who has a blueberry farm and ships out plants uses this specific recipe for all his plants to keep soil acidic than adds a fertilizer for acidic plants when needed.
Any photos or content with the bushes full? :)
Do you re-pot every year or just refertilize through watering?
Can I use your recipe for all berries or just the blue berries?
👍👍
Where did you buy those ingredients from?
Bagged garden soil which is containing what except high ph?
I did this mix but added a slip acidifier also. But I tested my pH with a meter and I get hardly 7. I tested right after I mixed and a lil after. I have small plants I bought online will this be fine as the pH will decrease or what's up. I already lost 4 plants cause I was dumb and used regular soil.
Are blueberries in a drain pot? I am getting ready to plant and don't want to put them In the wrong pot. Thanks, Annie
Received a blueberry as a gift. I don't even know the variety. Is it necessary to have at 2 plants for them to get a harvest. Very helpful video.
From what I understand, many blueberries are self-fruitful. The flowers have both male and female parts, that being said, your blueberries will typically produce a bigger crop and larger berries if you have varieties that bloom about the same time growing near each other. Some varieties have a low pollinator plant dependency, while others have higher pollinator plant dependency needs. One year, when I only had two bushes, one bush produced flowers and the other did not. The one with flowers did produce some blueberries, they were small. The above info applies to Northern Highbush and Southern Highbush. I am not sure about Rabit Eye varieties.
You'll get bigger and better fruit having more than one blue berry varieties
Hi Christa ...👋🏽 Great information. What size are the planters for the new berries? I purchased my berries from Sam's Club in March but it's recommended to plant in May. I live Florida and I hope they're still in the "hibernation" stage. Is there hope?
How much soil did you add?
could i buy teh seed from U miss....i wish a could
Are those the $10 dollar general pots. Asking because i am trying to determine a good pot size for my darf berry bushes
Yes! I got them a few years ago. I am also planting some dwarf berries. What kind are you planting? I bought the Baby Cakes Blackberries.
What do you do with them in the winter
I just move them to a relatively sheltered location near the south facing foundation of my house. They are fine there. When you grow perennials in pots, you want to choose varieties that are two zones hardier than the zone you live in. For example, I live in zone 6, most of my blueberries are winter hardy to zone 4. The Sunshine Blue is winter hardy to zone 5 but so far it is doing well. You can push the limits a little. Some people dig holes and sink the pots.
hi, Christa: I just bought several pots of blueberry but their leaves turned red. I'm in zone 7a. I did about the same mix as yours. What gives? thanks
I used about the same too. Forgot my soil acidifier/hollytone, but added it next day and incorporated a little farther out than the drip line. All leaves are red and some are drying out.
Hi, i sell Blureray and Bluecrop plants. This is the identical soil mixture i recommend. Ohio. I'm retired and i sell blueberry plants for extra money. I sold 300 plants in December.
That is awesome! Do you take cuttings from your bushes, plant and then sell them? I am in Ohio as well.
I just want to add that you need smaller pieces of pine bark. The ones you're using will actually cause compaction to an extend because they're a lot bigger. You can find better quality pine bark mulch at nurseries that are shredded to about an 1". The ones at Home Depot and Lowes are about 2-3", which is too big imo.
They aren't compacted at all.
less compacted because of being bigger...nuggets.
I use large my plants grow like crazy
What zone are you in? How would I do this in ohio and over winter?
I am in southern Ohio zone 6b. You need a couple of Northern Highbush varieties, they do best in our area. If planting in pots, pick varieties that are hardy to two zones cooler than the one you live in. So, for zone 6, choose varieties that are hardy to zone 4. My blueberries overwinter outdoors in pots, no problem.
I have a blueberry bush that hasn't woke up from dormancy I live in Pearland any ideas what might be wrong with it?
Is that Texas? I had to google and it's the only Pearland I could find. I am in Ohio. Do you know if it is a rabbit eye, southern high bush, Or northern high bush? Northern high bush varieties need 1,000 or more chill hours in the winter to break dormancy in the spring. Chill hours are cumulative hours of temps under 45 degrees. Southern high bush varieties need a few hundred chill hours, rabbit eyes are native to the south so you shouldn't have any issues with those. If you are growing one of the high bush varieties, it's possible you didn't reach the required chill hours to break dormancy.
@@ChristasGarden yes in South Texas its a duke blueberry bush
@@matthewlandry4293 Duke is a Northern Highbush. It could be that your winters aren't cold enough for that variety.
Sphagnum peat and pumice or perlite 50/50 is all you need. Pine bark doesn’t lower ph much at all. As wood breaks down it rots lowering oxygen to the roots. Rotting wood promotes root rot. Sand with low ph is best never let the roots of blueberries dry out. Where in nature do you find ground up trees in the soil?
A few state extension offices recommend pine bark and sphagnum peat moss mixes, as does the nursery/farm I ordered a couple of my blueberries from. My bushes are still doing great after years in this potting mix. Every spring, I top them off with a little more peat if the soil has settled a bit, some Hollytone, occasionally soil acidifier, and more pine bark wood chips. They are productive and healthy.
pine bark is ph neutral, not acidic
i’ve measured them many times and they’re usually around ph 5-6. it becomes neutral ones they are fully composted which will take a long time.
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