Blueberry leaves turning brown.

[stevenariley]

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.

[Jenny Green]

Have you been watering with tap or rainwater?

[stevenariley]

Mostly rain water. I have watered them with Britta filterd water a few times when I have been short on rain water.

[Beccy]

How huge is the container and what size pots were the bluebrries in originally?

I suspect that unless it is at least a couple of meters across your container will ultimately be too small.

However the problem now sounds like it is either that the blueberries are too dry which seems unlikely given recent weather, or that they are too wet and the roots are rotting. Did you put in lots of coarse material, stones or crocks, to ensure good drainage?

[stevenariley]

They came in 9cm pots. The container is about 2 meters long but I only intend to keep them there for another year or so then I will plant them on.

I used a John Innes Ericaseous compost number 2 which I was told should be fine drainage wise. I didn't put any extra corse material in. Should I have done?

I have let them dry out once before (accident) but that was a while ago and they seemed fine afterwards.

To be honest, I am a little unsure as to what would warrent 'too dry' or 'too wet'. How do you gauge it?

If it is down to watering, will they recover bearing in mind this has only just started to happen?

Cheers.

[stevenariley]

I have just dug the plants out to check for Vine Weevil, (I read about vine weevil from a different post), there are no signs of them.

The roots seem fine, no sign of rotting - I am presuming that it would smell or the roots would be slimey or something like that.

The compost is slightly damp but not damp enough to stick to my fingers. Is this to dry?

Also the root balls don't seem to have sent any new roots out, they still seem to be about the same size as the pots I took them out of when I originally bought them. Is this normal?

Cheers.

[Beccy]

Right from what you have said I reckon it's the roots not moving out into the compost of the bigger container, so they are not getting enough water. Did you tease them out when you replanted? If yes they should gradually recover as the roots grow out into the surrounding compost

Try not to let the compost dry out completely, give it a good soak when you do water and then let it almost dry out. It is probably fine from what you have said, but just be aware that the compost can look dry on top and actually be quite wet underneath, so if you think it looks dry poke a finger in to make sure .I would always put a 'drainage' layer of coarse grit or broken crockery at the base of any container.; over time the roots will grow down and will be more likely to block the drainage holes if the soil goes all the way to the bottom. You'll probably be alright for a year, but I wouldn't leave it much longer than that.

I know that the advice is to repot while dormant, but I have had problems doing this and now do it after fruiting. I think the plants do better if they are growing strongly when repotted, but don't want to give them a 'check' when they start into growth in spring, because they flower and fruit so early.

Hope yours are now in recovery