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Blueberry plant leaves gone orange
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[Deleted User]
Posts: 0
in Fruit & veg
Hello,
I planted three blueberry plants last year and one now has orange leaves. It changed in less than a week.
Any advice please?
Thank you.
0
Posts
What's your soil like, blueberries like an acidic soil.
I put them in pots in multi purpose compost.
Does the orange mean it's dead?
Thanks!
I would have thought the leaves would drop off when they're actually dead but it certainly means it's dying. As mentioned Blueberries need acidic soil (pH somewhere around 5, I think) so they won't survive in multi purpose compost which is likely to be close to a neutral pH (7).
If you can repot them ASAP using ericaceous compost (you may be able to mix in around 25% multi purpose) and water only with rain water, then they might survive.
If you can't do that today, I would consider watering them with a mixture of vinegar and water (Dilute approximately to 1 part vinegar to 5000 parts water). This will not change the pH of the soil, though, you will still have to repot them.
Ahhh, thank you that's very helpful.
Hi metalmama,
Acid-loving plants suffer from iron and manganese deficiencies in non-acidic soils, because iron and managanese become "locked up" and unavailable for plant uptake in non-acidic soils.
Iron and manganese are needed to make chlorophyll, the green pigment that harvests light for photosynthesis.
If deficiency of these minerals occurs, there is a lack of chlorophyll production. The green colour is lost, making other pigments, such as orange carotenoids, visible - like you get in the autumn.
The lack of chlorophyll results in reduced photosynthesis, leading to poor growth.
Apply chelated iron and manganese to the compost to help immediately, e.g. Sequestrene which is readily available from garden centres and hardware stores.
However, what you really need to do is to repot your blueberries into ericaceous compost as soon as possible and then feed them regularly with ericaceous plant food.
Thank you for that, I will get go and get some before the others go as well.