Hi All,
Four years to get these things to finally flower and show any sign of fruit. Now they are dying on me.
They get watered one every other day.
No sign of aphids or critters on the underside of the leaves
-T
what's the pH of your water? have you amended the soil where they're planted recently? do they need partial shade during hot weather?
songbird
PH neutral. Don't remember the number.
Looking at
My soil is somewhat alkali. But they are planted in ground pots filled with peat moss, which is acidic. They never really grew well till this year, when they had a massive growth spurt and tons of flowers, which I never got before.
A month ago everyone got fine powdered organic bone meal. Everyone seemed to love. I used it for transplant shock too at the beginning of the season. Virtually zero shock. Only my eggplants showed any shock, but it lasted only one day.
They've never seemed to care over the years. But they never had so much foliage before. And the worst heat was in July and the first part of August: 90 to 100F and 60 to 70F at night, which they seemed to thrive under. Now it is 80 to 90F and 40 to 60F at night.
Don't suppose this is a deciduous thing and they think winter is upon them? Seems way early. And as I remember their leaves are beautiful red when the they start to fall.
I used to water every day during July and the first week in August when it was hottest. Now, every other day.
Our humidity is usually around 7 to 15%, but the last few weeks we have had higher humidity (swamp cooler hardly works) with thunderclouds all over but no rain. Lots of virga though.
With the two weeks of thunderclouds have come a lot of wind. They have never seemed to care about that in the past.
Several of my plants used to have aphids. I sprayed them with soapy water mixed with cayenne powder. And, I poisoned the ants with my cheap poison (borax laundry powder, cheapest honey I could find, and water). EVERYONE loved that!! But that was also months or so ago.
I noticed the browning of the bilberry leaves about two weeks ago. I thought they needed more water, which they got in spades, but that did not help.
-T
T wrote: ...
a lot of growth followed by a hot spell may overtax the root system, especially if it is confined as i think it may be. you need to keep the top of the plant sized to about what the root system is below. i do not know these plants in specific well enough to know for sure how much this may apply but as a general rule for bushy plants it is probably ok.
nowadays bone meal is very over processed and doesn't have nearly the same stuff it used to have. that said my guess is that this will not help your pH much.
neutral water with alkali soils and only somewhat amended area means to me that the surrounding soil is going to eventually dominate and shift the pH to alkali again if you do not consistently keep amending with somewhat acidic things.
no, i think may be more related to the plant getting bigger than what the root system could actually support. i've no idea if they will survive or not or if they will respond well to being pruned or what. since i don't know the growth habit of them...
i would keep them moist enough so that they do not dry out completely, but i would also not want to drown them.
are they dead now completely or just not looking as good as before?
if there's anything left alive i would amend with some organic matter (remove the top layer of soil around the plant and replace it with new stuff) and see if that helps. if there is any really dead and crispy stuff you could trim that off. but i would see a reference for the plant to see if there is a better time to prune or what not to do with respect to pruning because sometimes plants need first year wood to use for the next season's flowers or such.
songbird
There is nothing to stop them from going outside the pot, except that the ground is really hard.
Any idea what the dead leaves tell us?
T wrote: ...
bushes which may normally grow in a much easier place (like a forest clearing) are not too likely to do well with that.
if they are going to get bigger they'll need a bigger hole.
already gave my thoughts on that.
songbird
My blackberries and goji's have suckers over in the hard stuff.
I am afraid transplanting them would kill them.
Thank you for all the help!
that's good to hear. :)
i'm not sure if they're even alive. without pictures and being there it's hard sometimes to tell what's going on.
you're welcome, but at a distance it's just not easy at all to know for sure what's going on. even with things in my own yard sometimes i just have to admit i don't know and move on. plants are fun and interesting but at times stuff happens. there's so many different factors involved.
i hope they'll survive and come back next year yet i don't know much about those plants.
songbird
T wrote: ...
i still think you need more acidification as time goes on you have tons of material around these pots which are going to keep wanting to make the place where these grow alkaline.
you may want to look into what can help buffer acidity to help it last longer.
songbird
We had a massive thunderstorm yesterday. Tons of drama.
My two bilberries now have new leaves at the end of every branch. And they are so healthy, they are pretty!
Could it be the nitrogen water?
Or, maybe a good wash off for any tiny aphids or something else I could not see?
Is "nitrogen water from a thunderstorm "acidic"?
T wrote: ...
it is probably close to it, but it really depends upon what your area is like and what other stuff might be in the air.
songbird
T wrote: ...
that's good to hear.
rain is usually better than well water, especially out west.
a good rain will help with aphids but better yet is some lady bugs or other predatory insects that will eat them. also keep an eye out for ants herding the aphids (yes, they will herd them like farmers herd animals and harvest their milk or other products).
we potentially have many different kinds of aphids in our area but there are so many lady bugs that we rarely see them. i've seen aphids on plants five times in close to 20 years of Agardening here. there's a graying green type that like brassicas that i've seen twice of those five times. i just pulled the plant and buried it. they were weeds or random plants that were not true to type so i didn't mind doing that to them.
insecticidal soap used according to the label will help if you do have bad infestation or it may also help to trim off some of the worst of an infestation and destroy those trimmings.
songbird
I did not mention this, but when I first saw something was wrong, I noticed the leaves had little tiny brown spots like they'd been stuck with a pin. I turned over the leaves but could not find anything. My Goji's were attacked. When I turned over their leaves, I found a bunch of tiny clear circles on then. That is when I sprung into action with the 7th gen dish soap and cayenne. About 1/4 soap to a gallon of water.
Oh no fooling. And they aggressively attach you if dare touch their plant. My goji's, chock berries, and bilberries all had ants all over them.
No more though. Chuckle. Guess they had a sweet tooth for honey mixed with borax!
Fortunately, the aphids had not caught the attention of the local yellow jackets. Then you have to spray at night, or be able to run like hell.
The pin pricks and all the ants make me suspicious that the aphids were just too small to see.
Since about two days ago, now when I water, I blast the leaves.
Thank you for all the help. I clearly do not know what I am doing.
We have thunderstorm forecast for the next week due to hurricane Hillary.
:-)
-T
They are out of season at the nursery. Dang!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.