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Old 04-14-16, 09:37 AM   #4
natethebrown
Apprentice EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: North Alabama
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox View Post
Looks great. Got any updates?
I wish I had better progress.. First, my seedlings really haven't been doing well. I wish I knew why, so I may end up just having to buy some plants for the garden. Second, I have had very little time to give the seedlings the love they deserve. I have been completely focused on other pressing projects like finishing everything for the nursery, fixing the riding lawnmower for this cutting season (deck had to be welded), and doing everything else my wife is too tired to do. I never did put up pictures of my blue berry bushes...

Back in February, since I want to get my land to work for me and I want to save some money not buying as much fruit at the store, I got 4 Rabbiteye Blue Berry bushes ($72 total). The two varieties are Tifblue and Powderblue. According to the gardening place I got them from, they cross pollinate well together (mutually beneficial) and produce at slightly different times of the year. Also, the rabbiteye varieties are native to us Southerners, so that should mean much less maintenance or upkeep. Unfortunately, North Alabama has a REDICULOUS amount of clay with very little organic matter in the soil. Blue Berry bushes HATE wet feet so I had to do some major soil reconstruction. I got ½ cu. Yd. of soil conditioner ($21) and a truck load of free leaf mulch from the local Botanical Gardens.



The guy at the garden shop told me to prep the hole for what the bush will become, not what it is when planting. Blueberry bushes’ roots apparently don’t go deep but wide. I dug the holes roughly 5’ across and around 1.5’ deep. Since the clay can act like a bowl and retain all the rain we get, he also told me to dig a drainage trench. The holes are dug on a slight mound in the yard with the trench going away slightly downhill.



I mixed roughly 1/3 original clay soil with 1/3 leaf mulch and 1/3 soil conditioner. Also, since blueberries love acid (3.5-5 pH) and my soil is around 6 pH, I put about 1/8 cup of sulfur per hole (I haven’t had a chance to retest the soil again to see what the pH is).



After a lot of digging and work all the bushes got planted. You can see, the root ball is mounded even within the hole I dug to help shed water.



To date, all my blueberry bushes are looking blooming but it is possible I have Septoria leaf spot on them (*sigh*). I need to check it out a bit more but I will likely have to spray them with a fungicide. I will get some pictures up later of where they are at now.


On a lighter, more fun note. I wanted to see what happens when one puts the root of green onions from the grocery store in water with a couple of drops of liquid fertilizer. Here they are after about 2 weeks (they were previously cut down to the white).


Last edited by natethebrown; 05-31-16 at 09:39 AM..
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