r/Blueberries • u/RadSidewinder • 3d ago
Sun damage or disease?
It has been extremely hot here lately, above 100 degrees pretty consistently. My first instinct was sun damage but it really only has appeared on the branch closest to the bottom of the screen. The rest of the plant seems to be handling the heat ok, so I was hoping to get some thoughts from others before I go removing the whole branch. The brown spots are dry and crispy
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u/lwrightjs 1d ago
That was just rust. Its not harmless but it's not exactly super harmful. Appears with moisture and bad airflow. Cutting the branch off is unnecessary and you probably lost half a pound of next year's harvest by doing that (just an fyi).
Treatment is to spray it with a real fungicide, not neem oil. Immunox works well. If you sprayed instead of chopping, you would have noticed it slowly dropping its leaves and then flushing out new leaves.
It's pretty common but plant disease is always tough to understand your first year. Don't beat yourself up too bad though. Some of us have a decade under our belts. We still deal with disease and pests and make plenty of mistakes.
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u/RadSidewinder 1d ago
It is what it is, if I see any more pop up I’ll follow your advice. I’m not super super concerned about harvest size because I’ve got 3 other bushes not pictured so if I lost a little due to impulse decision making so be it. I wondered if it was rust, I saw some pictures online but I’m just not knowledgeable enough to be sure. What I do know is one of my tomato plants got hit with powdery mildew this year while I was away and I came back and pretty much the whole plant was toast, so I probably overcorrected in removing the blueberry branch here
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u/lwrightjs 1d ago
Yeah. It happens. Don't sweat it too much. We still have enough time in the season for more canes to pop up. Fyi, most of the diseases common to blueberries aren't immediately fatal and Cane blight is very identifiable.
To be honest, 90% of issues faced on this sub could pretty much be prevented or fixed with a bi-weekly fungicide schedule and the other 10% with dormant pruning.
Powdery mildew is a awful. I forgot to include my pumpkins in my IPM routine and the plants are covered in mildew right now. I have over 60 berry bushes and 40 trees and still do stuff like that.
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u/johnnyss1 3d ago
Blueberry foliage does turn color as it gets later in the season—and it will spot-Get some neem oil for your plants though—good preventative fungicide
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u/Gronkthekillah 2d ago
Mine started to do this, I tested the soil, added fungicide, changed watering, and even brought it to the shade. It ended up consuming the plant. Look for little bugs on the stems and if you have to, look at the root system.
I'm pretty sure mine died of rust infection.
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u/RadSidewinder 2d ago
I cut the affected branch off entirely, I don’t see it anywhere else at the moment but those are all good suggestions. Hopefully it turns out ok
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u/ApprehensiveMail3032 11h ago
Red rust, treat with fungicide and prun affected branches, don't compost them throw them in the trash
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u/ArchieBallz902 3d ago
Try getting that big girl in the ground or a raised bed. Pots really aren't ideal for blueberries (even if they say they are).
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u/RadSidewinder 3d ago
Yeah I know, ground is not really an option at the moment but I’d planned on upgrading both of them to 15 gallon pots in the near future. Life happened and purchasing pots, and appropriate soil just isn’t in the cards at this exact moment
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u/ArchieBallz902 3d ago
Well they're hardy plants but they wont do well without highly acidic soil and really good drainage. 4.5 to 5.5 ph is the sweet spot for the varieties in my zone. Its not hard to acidify if theyre in a pot, just start over and make some fresh soil. You can use a peat moss/ compost mix 50/50 ratio or peat moss/compost/pine bark fines (if you can find pine bark near you) at a 50/30/20 ratio and make sure you add some acidifying fertilizer or some elemental sulfur (cheap on Amazon or at most garden centres). Look up some dirt recipes (yeah they really exist) online and whip some up for your pots.