Blueberries/watering

[impkin]

Hi all

I have been told that blueberries must be watered with rain water only as it tends to be acidic? as I don't have a water butt up and running yet would boiling tap water reduce the alkalinity enough to make a difference?

[impkin]

[grannyjanny]

I think I read somewhere (prob here) & it was on a gardening programme, that if you put a couple of tea bags in the watering can the water will then be suitable for acid loving plants.
Janet 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Depends where you are. If you have hard water locally, don't use it. Soft water will be fine.

[artichoke]

If your water is hard you could try distilling it.

Large pan of boiling water, large metal bowl of cold water covering the top, small empty bowl floating on top of the boiling water catching the drips. I've done this as a panic rescue for a car battery just before a long journey because all local garages closed.

[manicscousers]

do they need watering? ours are wet from the recent rain  ;D
seriously, we have them in buckets of ericaceous compost, buried to the top in the soil, keeps the roots damp and cool, they seem to like it and we don't have to water them much, if at all  :)

[grannyjanny]

Hi MS. When you say buckets do you mean the black buckets we plant tomatoes in.
Janet

[manicscousers]

yep, janet..good old florists buckets, bottoms cut off and buried, full of flowers at the moment  :)

[amphibian]

Hi all

I have been told that blueberries must be watered with rain water only as it tends to be acidic? as I don't have a water butt up and running yet would boiling tap water reduce the alkalinity enough to make a difference?

It depend on your water, where I grew up our water was brown with peat and acidic, where I love now it is so hard the kettle forms a half inch of fuzzy scale in a week.

Surely boiling water would increase the alkalinity.

[cordyline]

If you're in a hard water area you'll need to collect rain water for watering.  If your soil is alkaline you'll only ever be able to grow them in pots in ericaceous compost.  They hate - no, they will fairly swiftly die - if they are not provided with an acid soil and water that isn't from chalk or limestone sources.  If you can grow rhododendrons, pieris or heathers you can grow blueberries.  They like the same conditions.

[amphibian]

If you can grow rhododendrons, pieris or heathers you can grow blueberries.  They like the same conditions.

I have often heard this, but in Tunbridge Wells rhododendron grow like the weeds they are, but blueberries, in the ground, get chlorosis and die.

[cordyline]

If you can grow rhododendrons, pieris or heathers you can grow blueberries.  They like the same conditions.

I have often heard this, but in Tunbridge Wells rhododendron grow like the weeds they are, but blueberries, in the ground, get chlorosis and die.

If you are talking about Rhododendron ponticum - the really weedy rhodo - it can actually tolerate slightly limy conditions.

[amphibian]

If you can grow rhododendrons, pieris or heathers you can grow blueberries.  They like the same conditions.

I have often heard this, but in Tunbridge Wells rhododendron grow like the weeds they are, but blueberries, in the ground, get chlorosis and die.

If you are talking about Rhododendron ponticum - the really weedy rhodo - it can actually tolerate slightly limy conditions.

I've no idea, never swatted up on ornamentals, if you can't eat it, I'm rarely that interested. Whatever it is, it's all over Tunbridge Wells, comes up in the woodland and all about especially near the big houses, which often have large hedges of the horrid stuff. Tunbridge Wells has a slightly acidic soil, but if obviously still has too much lime in it for blueberries.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That'll be Ponticum; it has large pink flowers. Trouble is, it spreads like mad, swamps everything, and is extremely hard to kill.