Hi All,
Four years to get these things to finally flower
and show any sign of fruit. Now they are dying
on me.
They get watered one every other day.
No sign of aphids or critters on the
underside of the leaves
https://imgur.com/N6q9AuC.png
https://imgur.com/nhDQtao.png
https://imgur.com/VRvf9qA.png
I hate to see four years go to waste!
T wrote:
Hi All,
Four years to get these things to finally flower
and show any sign of fruit. Now they are dying
on me.
They get watered one every other day.
No sign of aphids or critters on the
underside of the leaves
https://imgur.com/N6q9AuC.png
https://imgur.com/nhDQtao.png
https://imgur.com/VRvf9qA.png
I hate to see four years go to waste!
what's the pH of your water?
have you amended
the soil where they're planted recently?
do they
need partial shade during hot weather?
songbird
My soil is somewhat alkali. But they are planted
in ground pots filled with peat moss, which is
acidic. They never really grew well till
this year, when they had a massive growth spurt
and tons of flowers, which I never got before.
have you amended
the soil where they're planted recently?
A month ago everyone got fine powdered
organic bone meal. Everyone seemed to
love. I used it for transplant shock too at
the beginning of the season. Virtually
zero shock. Only my eggplants showed any
shock, but it lasted only one day.
do they
need partial shade during hot weather?
They've never seemed to care over the years.
But they never had so much foliage before.
And the worst heat was in July and the first
part of August: 90 to 100F and 60 to 70F
at night, which they seemed to thrive under.
Now it is 80 to 90F and 40 to 60F at night.
Don't suppose this is a deciduous thing and
they think winter is upon them? Seems
way early. And as I remember their leaves
are beautiful red when the they start to fall.
I used to water every day during July and the first
week in August when it was hottest. Now, every
other day.
Our humidity is usually around 7 to 15%, but the
last few weeks we have had higher humidity (swamp
cooler hardly works) with thunderclouds all
over but no rain. Lots of virga though.
With the two weeks of thunderclouds have come a lot
of wind. They have never seemed to care about
that in the past.
Several of my plants used to have aphids.
I sprayed them with soapy water mixed with
cayenne powder. And, I poisoned the ants
with my cheap poison (borax laundry powder,
cheapest honey I could find, and water).
EVERYONE loved that!! But that was also
months or so ago.
I noticed the browning of the bilberry leaves
about two weeks ago. I thought they needed
more water, which they got in spades, but that
did not help.
T wrote:
...
My soil is somewhat alkali. But they are planted
in ground pots filled with peat moss, which is
acidic. They never really grew well till
this year, when they had a massive growth spurt
and tons of flowers, which I never got before.
a lot of growth followed by a hot spell may
overtax the root system, especially if it is
confined as i think it may be. you need to
keep the top of the plant sized to about what
the root system is below. i do not know these
plants in specific well enough to know for sure
how much this may apply but as a general rule
for bushy plants it is probably ok.
have you amended
the soil where they're planted recently?
A month ago everyone got fine powdered
organic bone meal. Everyone seemed to
love. I used it for transplant shock too at
the beginning of the season. Virtually
zero shock. Only my eggplants showed any
shock, but it lasted only one day.
nowadays bone meal is very over processed
and doesn't have nearly the same stuff it
used to have. that said my guess is that this
will not help your pH much.
neutral water with alkali soils and only
somewhat amended area means to me that the
surrounding soil is going to eventually
dominate and shift the pH to alkali again if
you do not consistently keep amending with
somewhat acidic things.
do they
need partial shade during hot weather?
They've never seemed to care over the years.
But they never had so much foliage before.
And the worst heat was in July and the first
part of August: 90 to 100F and 60 to 70F
at night, which they seemed to thrive under.
Now it is 80 to 90F and 40 to 60F at night.
Don't suppose this is a deciduous thing and
they think winter is upon them? Seems
way early. And as I remember their leaves
are beautiful red when the they start to fall.
no, i think may be more related to the plant
getting bigger than what the root system could
actually support. i've no idea if they will
survive or not or if they will respond well to
being pruned or what. since i don't know the
growth habit of them...
i would keep them moist enough so that they
do not dry out completely, but i would also not
want to drown them.
I used to water every day during July and the first
week in August when it was hottest. Now, every
other day.
Our humidity is usually around 7 to 15%, but the
last few weeks we have had higher humidity (swamp
cooler hardly works) with thunderclouds all
over but no rain. Lots of virga though.
With the two weeks of thunderclouds have come a lot
of wind. They have never seemed to care about
that in the past.
Several of my plants used to have aphids.
I sprayed them with soapy water mixed with
cayenne powder. And, I poisoned the ants
with my cheap poison (borax laundry powder,
cheapest honey I could find, and water).
EVERYONE loved that!! But that was also
months or so ago.
I noticed the browning of the bilberry leaves
about two weeks ago. I thought they needed
more water, which they got in spades, but that
did not help.
are they dead now completely or just not looking
as good as before?
if there's anything left alive i would amend
with some organic matter (remove the top layer of
soil around the plant and replace it with new stuff)
and see if that helps. if there is any really dead
and crispy stuff you could trim that off. but i
would see a reference for the plant to see if there
is a better time to prune or what not to do with
respect to pruning because sometimes plants need
first year wood to use for the next season's flowers
or such.
songbird
There is nothing to stop them from going outside
the pot, except that the ground is really hard.
Any idea what the dead leaves tell us?
bushes which may normally grow in a much easier
place (like a forest clearing) are not too likely
to do well with that.
if they are going to get bigger they'll need a
bigger hole.
On 8/19/23 07:21, songbird wrote:
bushes which may normally grow in a much easier
place (like a forest clearing) are not too likely
to do well with that.
My blackberries and goji's have suckers over in
the hard stuff.
if they are going to get bigger they'll need a
bigger hole.
I am afraid transplanting them would kill them.
Thank you for all the help!
Thank you for all the help!
T wrote:
...
Thank you for all the help!
i still think you need more acidification as
time goes on you have tons of material around these
pots which are going to keep wanting to make the
place where these grow alkaline.
you may want to look into what can help buffer
acidity to help it last longer.
songbird
We had a massive thunderstorm yesterday. Tons
of drama.
My two bilberries now have new leaves at the
end of every branch. And they are so healthy,
they are pretty!
Could it be the nitrogen water?
Or, maybe a good wash off for any tiny aphids
or something else I could not see?
Is "nitrogen water from a thunderstorm "acidic"?
T wrote:
Or, maybe a good wash off for any tiny aphids
or something else I could not see?
a good rain will help with aphids but better
yet is some lady bugs or other predatory insects
that will eat them.
also keep an eye out for
ants herding the aphids (yes, they will herd them
like farmers herd animals and harvest their
milk or other products).
we potentially have many different kinds of
aphids in our area but there are so many lady
bugs that we rarely see them. i've seen aphids
on plants five times in close to 20 years of
Agardening here. there's a graying green type
that like brassicas that i've seen twice of
those five times. i just pulled the plant and
buried it. they were weeds or random plants
that were not true to type so i didn't mind
doing that to them.
insecticidal soap used according to the label
will help if you do have bad infestation or it
may also help to trim off some of the worst of
an infestation and destroy those trimmings.
songbird
lady bugs
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