Blueberry help please

peebee · November 2, 2014

I have 8 blueberry plants, only 1 has leaves that have curled under for quite some time. It's looks healthy, no discoloration on any leaves, and there are none of those caterpillar type bugs that cause other leaves to curl up, like on eggplants. This pot is in the same area as the others, gets the same amount of water and sun. Any ideas?

Also, this past year has not been a good one for fruit production. The unexpected early heat waves caused ALL the flowers to drop, so I got zero blueberries (well, maybe 6

). What is the secret to having lush foliage and tons of fruit next year, in the event we'll have normal weather again? The varieties are Sunshine Blue, Misty and O'Neal. They are planted in acid-loving mix with added peat, and a little small bark and perlite. They get the appropriate acid-loving fert 2-3 times a year and are all approx. 3 yrs old in 10-15 gal pots.

I searched online first, geez, never knew there was a marijuana strain named Blueberry

. Guess MJs get curling leaves too!

Worth1 · November 2, 2014

Even though they are all getting the same water it could be water stress.
Another problem could be that a root is choking it to death in the pot.

Sometimes when you buy a plant like this it is root bound and it will have a root circling the main trunk.
It will do fine for a few years and then as it grows tighter around the trunk it chokes it to death.

As you have read blueberries like moist soil.
With the lack of production you had last summer it may be that none of them were watered enough.
The one with curling leaves just took it harder.

In any case after three years they could all be becoming root bound.

I had a pomegranate die from root choke that was planted in the ground.
I broke off the dead trunk and sure enough there it was the dreaded root choke.
The term is called root girdle.
Here is a picture.

It came back from the roots and is doing great now.

Good luck.

Worth

beeman · November 2, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by peebee

This pot is in the same area as the others, gets the same amount of water and sun. Any ideas?
Also, this past year has not been a good one for fruit production. The unexpected early heat waves caused ALL the flowers to drop, so I got zero blueberries (well, maybe 6

). What is the secret to having lush foliage and tons of fruit next year, in the event we'll have normal weather again?

My first thought would be lack of pollination. Blossoms fall off when not pollinated, provided the plants are healthy and well watered, and yours sound as if they're looked after.
Do you have really dark green leaves or is there a look of yellowing around them? Perhaps they're getting pot bound? Knock one out and have a looksee.

drew51 · November 2, 2014

I grow blueberries but ones more suited to my area. Well most are some are not! Sounds like you are doing everything right. I have never heard of this problem. Pictures would be useful. I would also suggest posting in the Orchard forum on GW. Many expert blueberry growers there.
Sometimes leaf curl is caused by a caterpillar, check underside of leaves to make sure they are pest free. And yes, drying can do it too. Water it very well.

peebee · November 2, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by beeman

My first thought would be lack of pollination. Blossoms fall off when not pollinated, provided the plants are healthy and well watered, and yours sound as if they're looked after.
Do you have really dark green leaves or is there a look of yellowing around them? Perhaps they're getting pot bound? Knock one out and have a looksee.

Hmmm, lack of pollination, that never occurred to me. We don't have a lot of bees around here, as we all know, there's been a drastic drop in their numbers for years now. What is one supposed to do then? It seems so difficult to pollinate so many small flowers. And w/ lack of pollination, would all of them fall off at once, like mine did? It was shocking to see them all on the ground that time. I really suspect the weather, but it could've been a combination of the 2.
I looked at the plant again today, there are no pests anywhere. The leaves are green. I tried pulling one off and it was very hard to do, so I know it's healthy. I'll tried to take a look at the roots but it rained yesterday (yaaaay!) so the huge pots were too heavy. I'll try again this weekend.

Thanks everyone who posted!

drew51 · November 2, 2014

Blueberries here like full sun, but in your location it might be too much. It could be heat too, if you could deflect heat from hitting pot and warming roots. What plant is curling? Misty? As far as lack of pollination blueberries are somewhat self fertile. you will get more with other cultivars, but they should fruit by themselves. So it's not the bees IMHO. It's probably too much heat! Honeybees rarely visit blueberries. Bumblebees and blueberry bees pollinate plants. Blueberries are native here, honeybees are not. So for probably hundreds of thousands of years, blueberries did fine without honey bees.
Fabric bags are cooler, you could try 30 gallon root pouches. Not that expensive, and keep roots cooler.

beeman · November 3, 2014

Mention pollination and automatically one thinks of "honey bees". I have been a keeper of bees for over 65 years and a gardener for almost as long and I have never seen honey bees on blueberries. That's the bush type of blueberries! There is a low growing type that honey bees do like. But the normal pollination is by Bumble bees, which is why we all should be encouraging them as much as possible.
There is a strain of solitary bee which works mine, but I'm unsure of it's geographical dispersion. It's small and bright green.
"Just because it makes a buzz, doesn't mean it will sting"
I would suggest, next year sit and watch, about mid day,even dull days, bumble bees you'll get fruit, no bumbles working, then tough cookies, no fruit.

drew51 · November 3, 2014

They should pollinate with the wind, as they are somewhat self fertile.
A couple species of blueberry bee exists, but probably not in CA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberry_bee

Yes one is in CA!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmia_ribifloris

Tormato · November 4, 2014

Three years old is still kind of young, unless they were several years old when you got them. Do you have any pics of the plants? And, were they loaded with flowers this year, even though they (mostly) all dropped?

peebee · November 9, 2014

Yes they were loaded w/ blossoms this spring, I was elated. Then they all dropped, from all my plants, after the first heat wave.
Tormato, I took pics w/ my phone and tried to upload them here but got the message they were too big. I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to edit them so it might take a day or two. The good news is that there is a new branch and the leaves are all normal, not a curl in sight.

Worth1 · November 9, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by peebee

Yes they were loaded w/ blossoms this spring, I was elated. Then they all dropped, from all my plants, after the first heat wave.
Tormato, I took pics w/ my phone and tried to upload them here but got the message they were too big. I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to edit them so it might take a day or two. The good news is that there is a new branch and the leaves are all normal, not a curl in sight.

Download the app photo resizer.
worth

drew51 · November 9, 2014

I had an old photobucket account so just started using that. I don't have to resize. Microsoft paint can resize pictures, but you have to figure out by how much. It works by percentage. I would first rename it, so you don't resize original. Of course you are working with a phone, so would take Worth's advice. My blueberries are taking on the fall color here in the north, They look awesome. Here is the Northern Highbush Chandler.

Worth1 · November 9, 2014

If you want to and have Microsoft word you can dump the photos onto your computer.
Then right click on your mouse and open with photo edited.

There you can resize your photos.
I have found with the phone the resizer works best.

Worth

Alpinejs · November 9, 2014

This is probably the wrong thread for this question but, hopefully, close enough.

Have any of you grown and tasted honeyberries? I grew three bushes that should have
produced it's first crop this year but the four foot rise in the lake level drowned all three, so
I planted 3 more but won't get a taste till a year from next summer. I am anxious to taste them and just read where someone got 10 lbs. of berries off one bush!!

peebee · November 9, 2014

IMG_201411092243.jpg

IMG_201411093445.jpg

IMG_2014110918294.jpg

Ok let's see if this works,cuz I can't see them now, maybe after I hit reply..?

November 2, 2014	#1
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	Blueberry help please I have 8 blueberry plants, only 1 has leaves that have curled under for quite some time. It's looks healthy, no discoloration on any leaves, and there are none of those caterpillar type bugs that cause other leaves to curl up, like on eggplants. This pot is in the same area as the others, gets the same amount of water and sun. Any ideas? Also, this past year has not been a good one for fruit production. The unexpected early heat waves caused ALL the flowers to drop, so I got zero blueberries (well, maybe 6 ). What is the secret to having lush foliage and tons of fruit next year, in the event we'll have normal weather again? The varieties are Sunshine Blue, Misty and O'Neal. They are planted in acid-loving mix with added peat, and a little small bark and perlite. They get the appropriate acid-loving fert 2-3 times a year and are all approx. 3 yrs old in 10-15 gal pots. I searched online first, geez, never knew there was a marijuana strain named Blueberry . Guess MJs get curling leaves too!

November 2, 2014	#6
drew51 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Sterling Heights, MI Zone 6a/5b Posts: 1,302	Blueberries here like full sun, but in your location it might be too much. It could be heat too, if you could deflect heat from hitting pot and warming roots. What plant is curling? Misty? As far as lack of pollination blueberries are somewhat self fertile. you will get more with other cultivars, but they should fruit by themselves. So it's not the bees IMHO. It's probably too much heat! Honeybees rarely visit blueberries. Bumblebees and blueberry bees pollinate plants. Blueberries are native here, honeybees are not. So for probably hundreds of thousands of years, blueberries did fine without honey bees. Fabric bags are cooler, you could try 30 gallon root pouches. Not that expensive, and keep roots cooler. Last edited by drew51; November 3, 2014 at 12:02 AM.

November 2, 2014	#2
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Even though they are all getting the same water it could be water stress. Another problem could be that a root is choking it to death in the pot. Sometimes when you buy a plant like this it is root bound and it will have a root circling the main trunk. It will do fine for a few years and then as it grows tighter around the trunk it chokes it to death. As you have read blueberries like moist soil. With the lack of production you had last summer it may be that none of them were watered enough. The one with curling leaves just took it harder. In any case after three years they could all be becoming root bound. I had a pomegranate die from root choke that was planted in the ground. I broke off the dead trunk and sure enough there it was the dreaded root choke. The term is called root girdle. Here is a picture. It came back from the roots and is doing great now. Good luck. Worth

November 3, 2014	#7
beeman Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 692	Mention pollination and automatically one thinks of "honey bees". I have been a keeper of bees for over 65 years and a gardener for almost as long and I have never seen honey bees on blueberries. That's the bush type of blueberries! There is a low growing type that honey bees do like. But the normal pollination is by Bumble bees, which is why we all should be encouraging them as much as possible. There is a strain of solitary bee which works mine, but I'm unsure of it's geographical dispersion. It's small and bright green. "Just because it makes a buzz, doesn't mean it will sting" I would suggest, next year sit and watch, about mid day,even dull days, bumble bees you'll get fruit, no bumbles working, then tough cookies, no fruit.

November 4, 2014	#9
Tormato Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MA Posts: 4,959	Three years old is still kind of young, unless they were several years old when you got them. Do you have any pics of the plants? And, were they loaded with flowers this year, even though they (mostly) all dropped?

November 9, 2014	#10
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	Yes they were loaded w/ blossoms this spring, I was elated. Then they all dropped, from all my plants, after the first heat wave. Tormato, I took pics w/ my phone and tried to upload them here but got the message they were too big. I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to edit them so it might take a day or two. The good news is that there is a new branch and the leaves are all normal, not a curl in sight.

November 9, 2014	#14
Alpinejs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Alpine, Calif. in winter. Sandpoint Lake, Ont. Canada summers Posts: 850	This is probably the wrong thread for this question but, hopefully, close enough. Have any of you grown and tasted honeyberries? I grew three bushes that should have produced it's first crop this year but the four foot rise in the lake level drowned all three, so I planted 3 more but won't get a taste till a year from next summer. I am anxious to taste them and just read where someone got 10 lbs. of berries off one bush!!