Soil for Blueberry tophat

TraceyB_2

I have bought three tophat plants and am a bit concerned about the soil I am about to put them in to! I cant find the papers they came with to tell me what to do and a search of t'internet just confusese me!

I have a large bag of multi purpose and a smaller bag of eracious soil - would a mixture of both be suitable?

Thanks in advance.

kimmee

Are you planting in a pot? I was told ericacious compost so thats what I put my two in, one is doing really well, the other was doing fine but now it's not very well tho I don't think it's the soil (think it got too wet). HTH

TraceyB_2

sorry, yes they're going into pots - great big ones!!

LilAmbar

Welcome to the blueberry growing world - I don't buy blueberries any more as I now know what they're really meant to taste like.

You will need to plant them in ericacious compost. If you mix the two composts it's unlikely to be acidic enough and you pay for that in the long run as you'll get fewer blueberries. I always take the top few inches of compost off the top of the pots in early spring and top dress with fresh compost to help maintain the acidity.

Other tips that might help
- feed with a feed that is suitable for other plants that like acidic soil like camellias (you would probably get away with tomato food but I've never tried it).
- water with rainwater if possible as tap water is thought to make the compost more alkaline, although it's not a disaster if you can't. My pot grown bushes do fine on tap water.
- try to keep watering 'even' or the plant sometimes aborts it's fruit production. Most of the time a good soak once or twice a week will do the trick if your pots are large enough although when it's very hot water more often so they don't dry out.
- although tophat is billed as self firtile, it's still best to grow two varieties as you will get more blueberries
- don't forget to net them before the fruit starts to ripen or the sparrows and starlings will have the lot :eek:
- Leave the berries on the plant for a few days after they start to ripen (helps develop more taste)

Kimmee - blueberries would usually tollerate quite a lot of water, as long as your pot was draining ok, it's not likely to be too much water. Are you're plants the same variety? The two varieties I grow (would love to add a third) look entirely different at the moment. One has lots of lovely lush new growth and few berries as it suffered from the cold winter, and the other is all berries and no leaves and looks rather sickly for it. It does this every year and picks up as soon as the berrie are harvested.

kimmee

Hi LilAmbar

Thanks for that - yes, my two are both the same variety (TopHat I think). I've been feeding them with a feed thats suitable for cammellia's & rhoddies but it looks so sorry for itself! Whilst my other one is growing like crazy, their both in the same sort of pot in the same location and bought at the same time from the same place - arrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

cootambear

I bought some plants from LIDL 4 weeks ago, and they are leafing quite nicely. Can I expect any fruit?

nodwah

Can I just add - go and get some different varieties, eg Chandler, Ozark blue, Bluecrop. All far better than Top hat IMHO!

Glitterati

Can I jump in with a blueberry question? I have a Bluejay plant that I bought from homebase or somewhere about 1 month ago. It appears to be lovely and healthy, but so far not even a sign of berries... if they haven't appeared now will I just have to wait til next year? and should I get another plant of a different variety as I read it helps, though I guess I need flowers first!

LilAmbar

Kimmee, that's fairly unusual then. Have you checked the roots for vine weevil larvae or is there an ants nest in the pot???

Cootambear/Glitterati - unfortunately if you were going to get fruit this summer, you would already see it on the plant. Blueberries flower in early spring and the fruits follow from there. I'm just waiting for mine to ripen. You should get fruit next year without a second variety but by buying a second variety this year so it flowers at the same time as your other plant(s), you'll get a bigger crop.

Glitterati

Thanks LilAmbar great advice!

kimmee

Eeuuuwwww , havn't checked but will this evening. Thanks for the tip and thanks to nodwah for the tip about other varieties.