Re: is wood ericaceous?


Oxymel of Squill;749966 Wrote:
Hi
I want to fill in a small pond and plant blueberries, as suggested by
El
Flowerdew. Thought of builders' rubble for filling but it's probably
limey
and I don't know where to get any. Would it be a good idea to use the

branches that blew off the sycamore tree?
Rubble would be a terrible idea, even it wasn't limey. You need a water
retentive soil but with plenty of incorporated organic matter. As you
note, builders rubble tends to be very limey because of the
cement/concrete/mortar component. In fact, if your pond has a cement
lining, you need to take it away, because the acidic soil will leach
the cement into the soil, which the blueberries won't like.

Ericaceous compost can be purchased at about £5 for a 50 litre bag from
any garden centre or DIY shed that sells garden stuff, you might pay
more at a posh one. I think you can grow blueberries in it neat as it
comes. But unless you have limey soil where you live, you could mix a
bit of garden soil in with it to save money.

If you chipped your sycamore you could use it as a mulch on top of the
soil you grow your blueberries in. If you want to use it as the
growing medium, you would need to compost it first, which means
chipping it and then leaving it to compost for a year or two. Wood
chips do indeed tend to form an acidic (ie ericaceous) compost. Not as
acidic as pine needles though.




--
echinosum
.

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