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I bought 2 blueberry bushes mid spring and planted them in my yard. They now have this new growth I have never seen on any of my other blueberry plants. The new growth limbs are long and thin with lots of small branches. The ends of the branches have pod like things on them that have purple and white flowers on them. But the pods are breaking open and they have fluffy white seeds in them, that look like the seeds of a dandelion.( the kind that blow away with the wind). What is going on with these plants? I'm completely baffled. (Yes I know I need more nitrates also lol)! I'm trying one more time with new pics.. They all come off of one main trunk. The limbs actually go from bb bush to this thing which does look like the plant someone mentioned below in the comments. So idk.. enter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description here

Taz
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  • Can you add some photos please? – Bamboo Jul 21 '18 at 20:40
  • @Taz Are you trying to upload more pictures? Do you need help? (hey I always do)...blueberries need acidic soil do you know what your soil's pH is? Tell Bamboo you had a picture up and that I am not crazy? Grins! – stormy Jul 22 '18 at 23:07
  • Yes I tried to upload 2 more pics and for some reason it erased the one I originally had up there lol – Taz Jul 23 '18 at 01:46
  • I don't know the PH of the soil where I have them planted. But I do know it is very alkaline beings its mostly clay. I have bad soil here for sure. I'm prob just going to end up pulling them and starting over and putting a bunch of pine needles in soil and other nitrate rich stuff and making a good mulch for top, sense no one can figure out or tell me what's going on with these ones I have. I'll just make sure a buy them from a good nursery this time instead of trying to get them cheaper. – Taz Jul 23 '18 at 01:51
  • Clay is not an indication of high pH. In fact, the electrostatic properties of clay tend to hold onto Hydrogen atoms. Blueberries need an acid soil. The best way to deal with blueberries is to plant them in pots with potting soil. Pine needles will not change the pH enough to do any good and you have to wait until they decompose. Sulfur is the best way to lower the pH but it is generally unstable. Organic matter will buffer the pH of a soil. All soil is good soil. All soils have different management techniques but all soil is improved by dumping decomposed organic matter on the surface – stormy Jul 23 '18 at 03:33
  • @Taz We are completely able to give you advice on this but look at it from our end. A fuzzy picture? These are better but we'd need closeups of the flowers and to be able to know what belongs to what plant before we can responsibly answer. I did my best with the fuzzy picture just to get the ball rolling. I would like to see you find success with your blueberries. I am dying to know what that other plant is that is involved as well as you. That other plant will not at all cause problems for your blueberries. Looks like an 'extra' bonus? Use a balanced fertilizer, – stormy Jul 23 '18 at 03:41
  • By the few leaves of your blueberries in the photos, yes they need fertilizer but it could also be a pH problem that is not allowing the chemicals your blueberries need to do photosynthesis. pH can cause problems by 'tying up' chemistry where the plants are not able to take up the chemistry necessary for photosynthesis to make food the the plant. Blue berries are bog plants, love lots of water and acidic soils (5.5 to 6.0) Clay is not indicative of alkalinity. Give this a chance, we want to make gardeners by being successful. So you don't have to make all the mistakes we've all made. – stormy Jul 23 '18 at 03:47
  • I can now see the photos, but I can't tell whether this growth is actually coming off the stems of the blueberry, or is simply growing from the soil around the blueberry bush. There seems to be a clump of the same plant to the left in the picture. Without being able to see whether the growth is coming off the blueberry stems, it does look like another plant which is growing in and around the blueberries. – Bamboo Jul 23 '18 at 11:39

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You have two different plants in the same spot here. One is your blueberry (thick branches with round leaves and berries), the other is a weed that happens to grow there as well (everything you described as “strange growth“). Those are not new branches of blueberry and you can simply pull them out. In fact, I recommend you do so soon, it’s outcompeting your blueberry with regards to water, light and nutrients.

For a precise identification we would ideally have better photos, preferably close-ups, but from what you gave us, I would say it’s probably smallflower hairy willowherb, Epilobium parviflorum. Widely distributed in Europe, it’s a neophyte in the US (which already means you should pull it out). If you let it be, you can expect to see more of them next season, as the “white fluffy stuff“ are seeds which get distributed by the wind - just like the dandelions you compared it to.

Here are some photos from my garden (yes, I’m quite lazy when it comes to weeding): enter image description here
The flowers and some open seed pods.

enter image description here
A seed pod just about to open. Note the fluffy seeds ready to be blown away. In the background, open pods and flower buds.

Stephie
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  • Wow, beautiful picture Stephie. Gee, I am sold! Until someone else comes up with something even better? – stormy Jul 29 '18 at 06:06
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We definitely need better photos. Is that the 'blueberry' in the center of the photo? What variety of blueberry? The plant in the center is the weird growth you are talking about? Along with the loopy 'aerial roots'?

I think you have an Epiphyte. A non parasitic 'air' plant. You picked it up at the nursery with your blueberry shrubs. Until you send better pictures we don't know which epiphyte. I would call the nursery or store you purchased your shrubs and ask them if they also sell air plants. Perhaps one was on a tree above the pots of blueberries? Or a seed blew into the soil of your potted shrubs?

Very interesting. This could be Spanish Moss.

Spanish moss in cultivation Spanish Moss

stormy
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  • No that pic is of the middle of one of the new shoots coming off the blueberry plant. I've looked at the dirt below the bb and it is deffenatly part of the bb bush. It is supposedly a highbush blueberry. The small thin finger like protrusions split apart and make the spiral type thing you see in the pic. In the center of the spiral thing there is a fuzzy thing that looks like a dandelion fluffy seed. – Taz Jul 22 '18 at 05:33
  • Well I'm mystified - I'm not seeing any photo of this blueberry plant at all, there are no photos attached to the question... – Bamboo Jul 22 '18 at 10:04
  • @Bamboo Honest, there WAS a picture, very blurry, all I possibly recognized was these curly cue epiphyte thingys and I went with it. The epiphyte thingys couldn't possibly be any things else, I was thinking? Weird. – stormy Jul 22 '18 at 23:04
  • Yes there was a photo. I tried uploading more and it seemed to have erased the original one.. Sorry. I'll try again. – Taz Jul 23 '18 at 01:55
  • Spanish Moss grows with abandon in Washington, especially on the coast and the Olympic Peninsula. Forests of trees with 'beards'...quite the sight. I am not saying this has to be an epiphyte. I was just going on a tiny tiny bit of information. 'Fluffy' seeds was a red flag as that would definitely be a dicot not an epiphyte or monocot. Right? Those vigorous shoots are NOT blueberry and you are probably correct. But the curly thingys? – stormy Jul 23 '18 at 04:43
  • I love this ID, sure makes sense. Good job Stephie! – stormy Jul 23 '18 at 04:46
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    @stormy curly things = seed pods. With willowherb, they split open lengthwise, and the parts curl backwards and twist and twirl. – Stephie Jul 23 '18 at 05:50
  • That is what I am seeing...I am sure you are correct. Excellent ID Stephie, seriously. And I've got epiphytes dripping from trees into blueberry pots....sigh. Isn't it a good thing to take a stab just to get discussion and ideas going? Grins. I've never seen willowherb. Fairly distinctive specs! – stormy Jul 23 '18 at 06:06
  • I'm trying one more time with pics. There is one main truck that all of this is coming off of. Not different plants. The pics of the branches show small thin branches coming off of them that lead up to the strange growths.. So I guess I will try and cut those off down to the main bush and hope they don't grow back. If they do I will just pull the whole bush and start over. – Taz Jul 24 '18 at 00:42
  • @Taz A few more pictures? This is a weird one and I would feel better knowing that we actually answered your question correctly. – stormy Jul 24 '18 at 21:03
  • @Taz I promise: those are two different plants. Just pick one end with the curly bits, follow it down a bit towards the soil until you have a thin stem and pull. “See” with your fingers, if necessary. – Stephie Jul 28 '18 at 21:06
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These are not blueberry plants at all. I can show you pictures of blueberry plants Blueberry Plants

tammy sons
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  • The bottom part looks like a bb plant and has bb on it. The rest of it idk wtf is going on. I've had bb plants at many of my previous homes I know what a healthy plant looks like th. – Taz Jul 23 '18 at 01:44