Over-applied sulfur to blueberries - recommendations for rescue?

[Legacoid]

We've got some blueberries in big tubs - they're mature, over 4 years old - and I was aware that their soil had been slipping towards neutral, so I applied sulfur. I've overdone it, or not done it well, and now the top few inches of the tubs are still a little too close to neutral (PH 6.5-ish), there's a thin band where PH looks better (around 5-5.5) but down lower in the tub it's PH 4 or lower. The blueberries are fruiting but one by one they're looking like they're starting to suffer. There's still sulfur in the soil that will no doubt continue to lower the PH and I'm considering options to save the bushes.

The main thing I'm considering is moving them out of the tubs into the ground. We've got a site in mind and were intending to do this for next year, but now I'm thinking do it now to keep the bushes alive. The soil in the site will be our garden default (PH 6.7) - I've done nothing to change the PH at this point, but I can dig it out and mix in plenty of ericaceous compost.

Does this sound like a reasonable course of action? Any other ideas?

 

[Anniekay]

I think I would give them a batch of fresh soil and just pot them on to a bigger pot until it's the proper time to transplant them into the ground. You could wash away the old soil on the bottom before repotting.

 

[Legacoid]

I think I would give them a batch of fresh soil and just pot them on to a bigger pot until it's the proper time to transplant them into the ground. You could wash away the old soil on the bottom before repotting.

Sounds like a safer move, and gives us time to prepare the in-ground bed properly. Many thanks for the advice!

 

[gary350]

Baking Soda will neutralize the sulfur.

 

[Harveyshot]

I planted blueberry bushes (zone 7a) and didn't prep the soil and they did not do well. So, after much research, I started prepping the soil where the new ones will be planted. I've heard it takes 6-12 months to lower the ph. so I started last March adding Sulphur, pine chips and sphagnum peat moss and watering it in really good. Three applications so far. Fingers crossed.

 

[gary350]

I planted blueberry bushes (zone 7a) and didn't prep the soil and they did not do well. So, after much research, I started prepping the soil where the new ones will be planted. I've heard it takes 6-12 months to lower the ph. so I started last March adding Sulphur, pine chips and sphagnum peat moss and watering it in really good. Three applications so far. Fingers crossed.

Green pine needs have acid. Dry dead pine needles have no acid. If you burn green pine needles they burn like gasoline that is the acid burning. Most if the acid has evaporated away in dry dead pine needles. Dry dead pine needle make very good garden mulch.

 

[Harveyshot]

Uh, what’s your point?

 

[gary350]

Uh, what’s your point?

Acid.

 

[Harveyshot]

Ok, but who said anything about pine needles?

 

[Mystic Moon Tree]

I would personally remove them from the soil that is the wrong mix gently & plant them in the ground where you want them to live long term, or new pots that are the appropriate size starting from scratch. You will kill blueberries with fertalizer, maneur, or compost that is too rich. Blue berries simply need an organic potting soil mix like G&B Blue Ribbon, or Nectar of The Gods soil. Fox Farms is ok, but often comes with fungus gnats or detrimental pathogenic funguses like root rot lately. Here anyways. G&B is my favorite. To get blue berries to the right ph I don't use sulfur. I use one batch of used coffee grounds from the coffee pot, or a whole pot of coffee dumped temperate onto the roots when transplanting to the new soil. Then I add a table spoon or 2 of Lemon Juice sprinkled about the base where the roots are. That's it. That's all you need. They need only a little bit of coffee & lemon juice or shredded rinds for slow release mulched in a couple times a year. They like their own leaf litter as well & when you prune the excess wild cross bush branches each year you clip them to small pieces and add them to the leaf mulch. They like a fair amount of water, but not water logged, they have to be planted with 5 to 8 bushes of different types to be plentiful in pollinating to produce a long & full harvest of berries. I fertalize them with home made citrus compost scrap tea in the fruiting season. They guild well with clover, strawberry, false strawberry, borrage, honeyberry, lemon tree, coffee tree, chocolate tree, orange or other citrus trees. Don't spray folliars spray onto their leaves as it will kill them. Baking soda & other basic substances in the soil will kill them. Hope that helps.

 

[Mystic Moon Tree]

but they also have other chemical constituents like tanins & turpinoids. So the type of plant you are using pine needles with matters because some aren't tollerant of the type of acid or the other chemicals a coniferous pine needle mulch will create. In this case I think blue berries would be tollerant of pine needle mulch as they generally grow near or in connifer forests. I have not used pine needles to mulch blueberries. It probably would be smart to research the particular connifers blueberry grows near.

 

[Mystic Moon Tree]

But baking soda will kill the blueberries as it is too strongly basic.

Baking Soda will neutralize the sulfur.sulfur

 

[Harveyshot]

I’ll just stick with what the state extension people advise.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Our local soil is an acidic 5.5pH clay. It is the middle between two "windows" of maximum phosphorous availability which is important. The preferred area is around 4.5pH here. I get there with ammonium nitrate maybe once a year- if I remember to do it in the early spring. We dug and amended compost to start but that was decades ago now. Sulfur and other nutrients can have a "wave front" of concentrated values as they move through the soil. Too much Lime will do the same thing. Always best to use light loads of a pH amending material on a 90 day drop and ease into a changed pH state.

Ever used milk to calm an acidic tummy? The protiens are good for the soil. The biota will eat it and flourish too. When they die they leave organic matter. The calcium is a liming agent.