I purchased two Endless Summer plants this year. I put them in a new flower bed where a tree stump had been removed so "soil" was added. For the soil I used a ratio mix of 5 topsoil, 2 peat moss and 2 dried cow manure. I added aluminum sulphate using about twice the recommended amount. When I took a soil sample it was a mere 6.5 ph. Not nearly low enough for the dark blue I have envisioned. Supposedly that requires 5.2-5.5 ph.
I was looking ES up in plant files and reading some reviews/comments posted there and a lady named Jennifer said her DH came up with the idea to place rebar pieces in the soil. She did this and her plants bloomed blue. Does anyone remember this thread or had the experience? I Dmailed Jennifer but haven't heard from her. I'm probably too impatient since it was only yesterday.
Any thoughts or suggestions of how to lower ph would be appreciated.
Gary
Endless summer & rebar
Gary,
I have pretty alkaline soil in Missouri. My purple tier hydrangea bloomed pink this year because I forgot to treat the soil in the spring. I don't know if this time is too late for you but I usually apply aluminimum sulfate at the recommended rate of one cup per foot of bush height per plant at the drip line. I usually do this in February or March before an expected rain day. My trick to remember the right time is when the forsythias begin to bloom in my neighborhood. Anyway, I've always had true blue Nikko blues and my so called "red hydrangeas" are more mauve than red with this practice. I've never tried doing this later in the year. You can easily get a big bag of aluminum sulfate at most nurseries/garden centers. I buy it by the 20 lb bag. :)
I don't know if because ES is a repeat bloomer it might be able to take up the acidity to change color in the middle of the blooming season. Has anyone tried this before ( apply aluminum sulfate to an ES in June or July).
Rosalie
I would be careful about adding aluminum sulfate at higher than the recommended amount, too much aluminum can be toxic. You only need a little bit of aluminum in the soil to be able to get the blue color, and there are other things like sulfur that you can use to adjust the soil pH that won't have the potential toxicity issues.
As far as the rebar--I doubt that did much, I suspect her soil was already acidic from the aluminum sulfate she'd been adding over the previous years and they would have bloomed blue regardless of what she did. There's an old wive's tale around sticking rusty nails around your hydrangeas to make them bloom blue, and the rebar would be along those lines but I doubt that either one would have a significant impact. There are two things needed to make your blooms blue--acidic pH and the presence of aluminum (and if you're growing hydrangeas in the ground, frequently there's plenty of aluminum around and all you need to do is change the pH). Personally I don't see how one piece of rebar in the ground is going to significantly impact your soil pH.
Thanks for the warning for the aluminum sulfate. In my hands in the past ten years, I 've never poisoned a plant from my yearly applications. If anything I may be a little liberal with it...:)
Rosalie
I'm sure you can be a little liberal with it and be fine--I imagine the amount they recommend adding is well within the safe range. The reason I commented on it was because Gary said he had already added twice the recommended amount, so I wanted to make sure he didn't add any more, there are other things you can use to drop your soil pH if the AlSO4 doesn't get you as low as you need.
So you're saying it would probably be more beneficial to toss my empty beer can under the plant as to dig in a piece of rebar? LOL
One of the plants was purchased from Springhill Nursery. It came in a 4" pot so I'm reasonably sure it is first year growth. It's been in the ground two weeks. The other was purchased from Perfect Plant on ebay. It came in a gallon pot [the plant was twice the size] for half the price. It's been in the groumd a couple of days. I figure if I get any blooms this year they will be a bonus no matter what color they are.
After reading the water requirements I'm thinking of moving them closer to the spigot. Right now they are 75 yards away in the orchard. I don'y know why we call it the orchard; there isn't a fruit tree on the place, never was from what I understand.
Gary