Yellow Blueberry Leaves - Ask Extension
We planted 35 bare root blueberry plants in early May. Most of them are growing great. About 6 to 7of them don't look too good. The first leaves were ...
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Yellow Blueberry Leaves #189747
Asked June 09, 2014, 3:40 PM EDT
We planted 35 bare root blueberry plants in early May. Most of them are growing great. About 6 to 7of them don't look too good. The first leaves were all yellow. We fertilized them with about 1/8 cup of ammonium sulfate 2 weeks after we saw leaves. Now couple of the plants have burned leaves. We water them once a week. We are not sure how to correct the situation. I am attaching some pictures.Thanks
Kent County Michigan
Expert Response
It looks to me like the soil pH is too high for blueberries. They like a soil pH of about 5, while most plants like a soil pH of 7 which is neutral. It is hard to change the soil pH with the plants in the ground. I would recommend moving the plants if you can. You could dig the plants up and buy some peat moss mix the peat moss with soil in the planting hole. I would dig a hole about 2 feet wide and a foot deep and then replant the plants.See https://ask.extension.org/questions/142207#.U5dZkPZOXZQAlso see https://ask.extension.org/questions/132956#.U5dbbPZOXZQ
The leaf burn could be a burn from the fertilizer being to close to the plants. It looks like it recovered. The fertilizer should be applied in a loose ring at least 6 inches from the plant.
I will try these suggestions. Thank you for your quick response.
