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Blueberry Bush help
Alex 9
Posts: 11
in Fruit & veg
I planted a Patriot blueberry bush last year (in ericaceous compost) and it grew well, producing a handful of berries last summer and I was really looking forward to this year's harvest. Everything seemed to be fine in the Spring, it flowered abundantly but then all the potential berries dried up and fell off and the few leaves started turning red as they did in the Autumn, most of the leaves haven't developed properly, last year it was really bushy. And most recently the stems have started going black from the ends inwards. See the photo below. Is it stem blight? or something else? can the bush be saved?
I'd be grateful for your thoughts as this is my first attempt at growing blueberries.
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Has it been kept well watered?
perhaps not as well as it could be, could that be the problem?
I think that is a distinct possiblity.
Especially when the fruits are forming.
ok, thank you, I will get watering, I hope it will be enough to save the plant at this late stage!
Could something be eating the roots?
I have two such bushes one really failed last year the other was fine. I half suspect it might have been vine weevils chewing at the roots. I tried vine weevil grub killer and it is still surviving but not as strong as the unaffected one. It is certainly getting enough rain at present.
Last edited: 28 June 2016 17:14:32
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
how would I tell if it is a problem with the roots? Do I just treat it and hope for the best?
Take it out of the pot and have a look.
I have been Googling. It appears that vine weevils are such a severe problem in commercial blueberry farms that the Canadian government has published papers on how to manage this.
This is speculation but I wonder if once a lot of the roots have been chomped away close to the stem it probably takes a long time for them to grow back enough to support much top growth.
I wonder if hard pruning both the plant roots and top growth would help. Too much vegetation giving off moisture on top of a very poor root system might cause the plant to be even more stressed. Does that make any sense?
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
If you need to treat for vine weevil, be careful, because the root-drench kind of treatment can't be used on edible crops.