Plants Have Problems Too

My gooseberries are having a rough time. The leaves began to show small black spots, then eventually they dropped off the plants. As of now they are all still alive, a couple new leaves are growing on each plant, but I doubt they have had enough of a chance to strengthen themselves in order to survive a Canadian winter.

What is happening? 

Black spots on the leaves are usually the sign of a fungus. This fungus comes from leaves that fell last year; the spores flew up to the new foliage in the spring. What annoys me is that this makes no sense; I planted all of these plants this spring before they had any foliage and there were no gooseberries in my field previously. There is no cure or remedial action to be taken. The recommendation is to plant gooseberry varieties which are resistant to this disease/fungus/mystery death. This means I spent $400 on plants that were doomed to die because of their genetics. Fantastic.

My currants are looking a bit yellow as we approach fall. I wonder if their feet are too wet, or if there is a lack of nitrogen in the soil. They have grown about 8 times the size that they were in the spring when I planted them, so they seemed happy enough until a couple weeks ago. I did add manure to the plants a month or so after they were planted. I wasn't overly generous as I worried applying manure when plants were so young could burn the immature root tips. In the fall and spring I will apply more generous amounts in order to increase the nutrients in the soil, and continue with regular applications of manure every year.

Yesterday the blueberries received their aluminum sulphate, which should work to reduce the soil pH. I also applied some peat moss below the bushes which increases soil organic matter and acidity too. I picked the last of the blueberries yesterday, as well as eating a couple plums and chums. I wasn't supposed to let them produce fruit until year 4 (this is year 2) but I wanted to sample the fruit to know which trees are worth ordering more of.

That's the update from the wee orchard!

Blueberries turning red in August

There's a lot to be said about doing your homework and learning from the experience of others, rather than reinventing the wheel. In many areas of my life I do learn in that way, but sometimes you have to learn by making your own mistakes.

Intellectually I knew my soil was far too alkaline for blueberries, and while I made some small effort to mulch with pine needles I did not think that the effects of a high pH would affect my blueberries this early on. I was under the impression it would reduce the amount of berries the plants produced years in the future. I have been growing uneasy throughout the summer as my blueberry leaves have been turning gradually redder and now I am forced to admit I should have taken action months ago. 

The pH of a soil will not kill your plants, what happens is that the acidity of the soil affects the plant's ability to take up certain nutrients. Nutrient deficiency leads to weak plants, and eventually death. Since blueberries evolved in areas where soil acidity was higher, they are adapted to take up nutrients in a pH of around 4 or 5. Most other plants seem to like a slightly acidic soil of 6.5. 

My blueberry plants are now bright red and waiting to be rescued. I was able to buy a tiny amount of aluminum sulphate which lowers pH, and I sprinkled it around all of my plants. There was nowhere near enough in the tiny box which was likely for people who own 4 rhododendrons. I ordered 25kg of ammonia sulphate which will be more than enough for my 60 blueberry plants. I read online that coconut coir can also help blueberries in neutral soils, though it didn't seem clear to me why this should be. I happened to have kept half a dozen old bags of coconut coir that were used to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse; I mulched the blueberries with this yesterday. It is my hope that this will help them struggle through this period until I can give them their "medication". 

There you have it, I knew what I needed to do to have happy blueberry plants and yet I needed to see the effect of not doing it before I bothered taking action. This is not a good trait to have, but learning first hand helps the information stay in my brain permanently. 

A small harvest

Have a lovely week,

Eden