Liquid for Lime-Hater Plants.

 

I'm told that my new acid loving Blueberries (in containers) should be
watered only with rainwater......but in these dry conditions I no longer
have any !
My tap water is neutral ph, so, could I not make suitable non-limey liquid
by throwing a handful of ericaceous compost in a bucketful of tapwater and
letting it "stew" for a couple of days.
Would this have any detrimental effects on the plants ?
Does anyone see any problems, or can offer alternative advice.
Best Regards
VSOP

 

vsop wrote:


Mine get tapwater when rainwater is in short supply and don't seem to
mind all that much. Add some Miracid feed to it if in any doubt.

The insides of your kettle is a good guide to how hard the water is. If
you have to descale it every month or it blows fuses you have extremely
hard water (like Belgium). If it is clean inside then your water is very
soft - most places are somewhere inbetween. Water engineers tend to add
a trace of lime to very soft water to dicourage it from corroding pipes.

As long as most of their water is soft rainwater the odd bit of tapwater
will do them a lot less harm than prolonged drought.

Regards,
Martin Brown

 




According to the RHS

<quote>

Watering
Blueberries should be watered little and often using rainwater. Do not
allow to dry out even if this means resorting to tap water in dry spells.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Mulch open-grown plants with bark mulch or pine needles to conserve
moisture.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


If you're desperate to conserve as much moisture as possible, you could
put a layer on polythene on the surface of the compost in your containers
and cover that with the bark mulch for the sake of appearence etc. Maybe
removing it at night to let air get to the soil,

...



There are dozens of ericaceous feeds on the market, which when
added to neutral water should do much to conserve the balance - given
that you're presumably using ericaceous i.e acid compost to start with.
Most of the manufacturers of powder feed, Miracle Gro, Phostragen etc
make an ericaceous formulation.

A straight Google of  [ ericaceous feed ] gives 5,970 hits

http://tinyurl.com/a34ay

with hits for most UK suppliers on the first page.



michael adams

...

 


Are you in a hard water area or a soft water area? If your tap water is
soft, then you will probably be OK.

If not, then de-frost your deep freeze and use the melted water from
that. It's not going to last you for very long though!

--
Kay
       "Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"
                                        

 


: I'm told that my new acid loving Blueberries (in containers) should be
: watered only with rainwater......but in these dry conditions I no longer
: have any !
: My tap water is neutral ph, so, could I not make suitable non-limey liquid
: by throwing a handful of ericaceous compost in a bucketful of tapwater and
: letting it "stew" for a couple of days.
: Would this have any detrimental effects on the plants ?
: Does anyone see any problems, or can offer alternative advice.
: Best Regards
: VSOP

Move to Plymouth and use tapwater (tongue firmly in cheek lol)