Ericaceous compost for camellia and two blueberry bushes in pots.

J

joanmul

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I have a camellia and two blueberry bushes in pots. They need ericacieous(?spelling) compost. Can I use the compost from my compost bin and add something to it to make it suitable for my pots?
 
You can raise the pH of ordinary kitchen-waste compost by adding a little lime since you just need enough for containers. On the whole it is impossible to make large quantitites of alkaline soil more acidic and create conditions suitable for ericacious plants. Where do you live? If it's a soft-water area such as south or west Cork you've already got sufficient acidity in the soil and very soft water. You can get a 'kit' from the gardening shop (it's just graded litmus paper, really!) with which you can read your soil pH level. All the best with the blueberry! I lost mine this spring as I slipped up when repotting and put it into ordinary compost. It immediately burned up.
 
I live in Dun Laoghaire and I think we have soft water. I'll try the lime anyway. I got a tip to water the plants with vinegar in the water and that might help. Thanks anyway.
 
joanmul said:
I'll try the lime anyway.
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ericaceous: Refers to plants of the family Ericaceae that require an acid soil generally with a pH of 6 or less.

I know nothing about gardening but I do know that lime will kill ericaceous plants!

Don't put lime anywhere near acid loving plants.


joanmul said:
I got a tip to water the plants with vinegar in the water and that might help.
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That sounds better.

aj
 
It all depends on what materials were the basis for your compost, but well finished compost will usually turn out neutral to slightly alkaline.
You will then need to adjust this through soil ammendments to lower the Ph scale further.
So, to allow the growing of camellia and blueberry bushes, you should mix in some garden centre ericaceous compost, or pine-needles/tea leaves as discussed in this post.....A tip for making soil acid or making soil more acid.

Oh and if you live in a hard water area then watering with rain water would be best.
 
Thanks Irish Garden for that link. I was wondering would coffee grounds do as a substitute for tea leaves. I wouldn't have too many tea bags (we don't do tea leaves) but in the canteen at work they offer coffee grounds to anyone that wants them.
 
Sorry - in that 'senior moment' I wrote the opposite of what I meant. Of course ericacious plants HATE LIME! so pine-needles, vinegar, tea-leaves etc. great........lime baaaaaaaaad!
 
I believe urine is acidic (although I confess I haven't ph tested it) and also a good source of phosphorous.

Not sure I would want urine-soaked compost in a pot-plant, though.
 
joanmul said:
Thanks Irish Garden for that link. I was wondering would coffee grounds do as a substitute for tea leaves. I wouldn't have too many tea bags (we don't do tea leaves) but in the canteen at work they offer coffee grounds to anyone that wants them.
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No problem joanmul.
You could use the coffee grounds as they will increase the acid level of the soil
But the jury is still out on if adding coffee ground can adversely affect certain plants, see this topic http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055130952&highlight=coffe+plants
 
Just noticed in the past few days that the leaves on my camellia are beginning to droop. It seems to have some kind of "disease" on it.....looks like little pieces of cotton and some kind of small spider thread from one branch to the next (if that makes sense) Help please, it's in a pot outside and from time to time we top it up with lime free soil. Probably neglected since the climate got colder. Some of the buds are brown guess we've lost those.

Any advice appreciated.
 
The pieces of cotton could be spiders' nests and the small spider thread looking thing could be just that!

The brown buds may just be a protective cover over the buds for the winter? The last couple of weeks have been quite dry, are you sure it hasn't dried out (causing the leaf droop).

There also seems to be a problem this autumn with the warm weather causing many plants to think it's spring and break their buds early (and then get walloped by frost). Aside from the viburnum (in flower) and the St. John's Wort (just flowered a couple of weeks ago) I have dandelions, buttercups and poppies in flower! It's madness!
 
thanks for that! Do you know how I could treat the shrub before the spiders win the war. I notice that the portion of the shrub getting least sun (north facing)is the "damaged" part. The south facing portion looks healthier.

hope all the rain to-day helps it
 
I don't think the spiders should cause a problem (if that's what they are!). You could pick off the nests (if you rub them with your thumb, they stick to it quite well!).

On the other hand, when they hatch in the spring, you'll have no problem with blackfly! (But you will be driven mad for a few days by parachuting spiders).
 
joanmul said:
.....I have a camellia.....
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We have soil unsuitable for ericaceous plants but some camelias, specifically the common pink "Donation" grow fine here. I think that the red/white ones are more fussy.
 
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