Blueberry Watering

Hi,

Have ordered some Blueberries to try this year and have seen lots of info on keeping the PH low with the right compost etc.

Will be keeping them in large pots to start with.

While they say use rain water, a constant supply is not always possible, so wondered if using the RO water from my fish keeping equipment would be suitable ?

Its technically PH neutral at 7, but it woud seem to make sense to reduce it to PH 5 to keep the compost /roots acidic.

Have read a litte about adding vinegar to lower the PH , any experience of such methods etc ?

Also been looking at PH soil test kits/meters though they all seem to given a poor rating for accuracy by web reviewers , again any recommendations ?

thanks

 

Well, seems like I can now answer my own question - hope this will help others.

I ordered one of these little PH meters which though I tested with the calibration sachets supplied, it was already in calibration.
Electric Pocket Digital Ph Meter Tester Hydroponics Pen Aquarium Pool Water Test

My Tap water, read ph 8.5, but is also quiet soft.
Adding just 2.5 ml of ordinary cider vinegar to a 5ltr can of tap water dropped the PH to 4.7 which seems idea for the Blueberries.

Its such a small amount that it does not seem worthwhile for me to use RO water. However, expect folk with harder water will have to use a bit more.

The Blueberry plant collection has arrived in just 4 days from J.Parker, in 9cm pots about 9/12" tall but with the pots are full of roots, clearly properly pots grown plants, not just bare rooted ones stuffed into pots for transport.

Just got to make up a nice ericaceous planting mix as the bag of Erin Ericaceous compost I bought is just 100% peat , so needs a bit more body; have also got some Sulphur chips to help keep the ph low.

 

Ta Ricky looks like your post got lost on a quiet monday afternoon

 

No probs.... will hopefully be sharing Blueberry muffins before too long

 

Are you sure that's correct? That seems quite implausible to me. 2.5ml is half a teaspoon. If it could drop 5 litres from 8.5 to 4.7 it would have to be pretty potent stuff. Enough to make it pretty lethal as a condiment or cooking ingredient.

In general though, I think you are over thinking it a bit. I grew blueberries for a few years in containers. I got a respectable crop off them. They ultimately met their demise when vine weevil got in, but prior to that they were thriving. They were in cheapo ericaceous compost, watered primarily by rain, but also with tap water during dry spells.

 

Sorry being a bit picky I know, but how can a reading of 8.5 be soft?
To me that is pretty alkaline, ie. hard.

Are you sure this meter whatsit is working OK, sounds a bit dodgy to me

 

In this case hard/soft refers to the amount of solids dissolved in the water, assuming no water softener is involved. For water with a low amount of dissolved solids the pH can be changed quite markedly by relatively small amounts of acid or alkali.
I would stick with using rain water where possible.

 

Hi all,

Well all I can say is that in 30 years I have never seen any limescale in the electric kettle and from my fishkeeping days when I measured the actual hardness of the water it was always very low.
Though normally soft in my areas local reservoirs, Yorkshire Water now have a county wide ring main so in a very dry summer they could be pumping hard water to us instead.

Agree the freshly drawn tap water at ph 8.5 does sound high for 'soft' water, but my old fishkeeping ph meter did also show nearly as high, thats why I purchased the new little ph meter that came with calibration fluids to ensure both meters were reading correct.

From what I have read, they all suggest using weaker Cider vinegar as ordinary table / brown vinergar is said to be very strong and all to easy to overdose and damage the plants.

I'm no expert on PH but know its a strange thing, just double checked the tap water and its still high at ph 8.5 but just measured my tap water tub in the greenhouse which was drawn a few days ago and its down to ph 7.3 ( co2 absorbsion ?) - if the tap water was truly hard, do not think it would drop so much just in a couple of days ... ?

As said, I'm not wanting to complicate things, just wanted to get it right, same with the planting mix, a neighbour bought in the Erin Ericaceous for me, only to be surprised to see it was just 100% peat moss on the label.
Over the years have generally found plants resopond better to a mixed compost rather than just pure peat.

Think like most fruits that last many years its worth giving them a good start ...

cheers

 

Yes CO2 absorption will lower the pH after a few days and hardwater will be less affected by this.