What happened to my Blueberries?

[Keaniebean]

I had 4 plants 3 Blue crop and one other variety all in a bed with Ericacious soil. I noticed one of them developing a rusty brown leaf colouring and the fruit was stunted and not growing. This colouring then totally covered the plant and it was dead. The second plant then developed the same thing and died, and I just dug up the 3rd plant yesterday as it too was showing signs of the disease. I have been left with one blueberry which did not flower or fruit this year .

Does anyone know what it was, or if I should put more blueberries back there. It's going to cost me £30 to replace them so I don't want to do it if they are going to die again.

[prison break fan]

I can't help you with why it happened Sarah, but it might console you to know the same thing has happened with mine! pbf.

[Odsox]

Almost certainly they died through lack of water (rain) as they are sort of bog bushes and need their roots to be kept moist at all times, and because they have shallow roots they can't reach the water table during drought conditions.
Mine are OK, but then it's rained here most of the summer ... swings and roundabouts, barbecues or blueberries.

[prison break fan]

Thanks Odsox, I'm sure you are right, we have had no rain at all. pbf.

[Keaniebean]

Well I replanted the one I had dug up yesterday and I drowned it in water as we have had no rain. I had kept the watering can off of it because of the alkalinity of it but I'm nothing lost I suppose. Hopefully that will work if your right Odsox .

Thanks for the tip.

[Thomzo]

Ericacious plants hate tap water because of the chlorine. But chlorine is a dissolved gas and, if you leave tap water standing for 24 hours, most of the chlorine will have evaporated and you can use the water safely.

I keep a watering can specially for my citrus plants. I top it up AFTER I have watered the plants, then I can use it the following day.

Hope this helps

Zoe

[Odsox]

I don't think it's the chlorine so much Zoe, although letting the dissolved gas escape has got to be a good idea, it's the dissolved calcium in the tap water in hard water areas that ericacious plants hate ... and that can only easily be removed by boiling, hence furred up kettles.
I don't think Calgon would help here.

[Millymollymandy]

Does your water company send you details of your drinking water with your bill i.e. nitrates/nitrites etc in it and what number it is on the scale for water's hardness or softness? Ours is very soft so no probs watering the blueberry with it and it is doing very well since I dug it up and put it in a pot.

However it never got much water during summer when it was in the soil and it never showed signs of stress due to that. (It just didn't like neutral soil + loads of ericaceous compost + leaf mould + ericaceous plant fertiliser and was still pale greeny yellow!)

[Keaniebean]

No MMM we don't get a breakdown of anything here, but I know our water is VERY hard here in SE London. It wasn't a pretty sight when I did the whole no 'poo experiment on my hair last year. I use soap nuts and vinegar on the washing but when I line dry it i can build temporary shelters out of the clothes. The socks stand up by themselves they are so stiff.

I seem to have rescued the 3rd blueberry which was looking dodgy though, I found a half used bag of bark chips in my garden, slung them over the top of the bed and just let the hose on them for about 30mins. We have since had some heavy downpours thank God so hopefully next year i might even get a crop.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm sure it'll prefer even hard tap water to nothing! I'm surprised the water is hard though cos I thought London was an acid soil area - or at least parts of it which generally means soft water. Limey soil = hard water. But then I lived in west/sw London for years and the water was hard! So maybe it's all the chlorine and chemicals they put in it in England - thankfully ours here in Brittany actually tastes like water and we never get a gunked up kettle!

[JeremyinCzechRep]

Have you considered using rainwater? It contains less calcium and less chlorine, is cheaper and is (usually) available in abundance in the UK.