I had a deep well on my property when I moved in. After a couple years I had issues with certain
trees including jabos and I had my water checked and it was very high in salts. I had an abandoned shallow well
and switched. That has helped allot.
What root-pruning pots are you using, and how big are the jaboticabas in them? Also, what sort of mix do you use for them in containers? How often do you feed the epsoma and at what rate? Sorry for all the questions, after buying my first early last year I’m slowly building up my collection of jabos and I’m still figuring out what makes them tick, especially in regards to container culture. I’ve done considerable research on them over the past couple years but it always helps to know what specific routine different people follow for their own plants.
Rain water is definitely a necessity for me...I thought I could get away with a couple waterings of my high ph (8.0) irrigation water but it burned the leaf tips on a beautiful red just 3 weeks later. It also seems I’ve overestimated how much sun a young potted jaboticaba can tolerate as my 3 year old plant has exhibited some leaf-yellowing (not iron related it seems) over the summer in 6+ hours of sun. It’s still in a 3 gallon pot though, so I think it’s also related to warm roots despite the fact I painted the pot white and tried to shade it. It grew from 1’ to 3’ in a year, which I suppose is pretty good growth despite it not always getting consistent water, a little too much sun, and only a few handfuls of compost throughout the entire time. Not quite sure if I should step up slowly to a 7 gallon, or to a 15 to give plenty of room for root growth?
I’m interested in the idea of keeping them in an air root pruning pot, since I don’t think I’ve heard much of anyone else trying such with jaboticabas, but am a little wary of the idea for myself since I’d figure they’d need much more watering and these are already fairly thirsty plants. (And I have limited amount of rainwater storage)
Speaking of root-pruning, I was originally planning on using MicroKote (copper based paint for pot interiors which prunes root-tips) for such a purpose since I’ve had some experience using it on annuals i.e. tomatoes and other veggies, and have had very good luck. I’d imagine a decently thick coating could last a good 4-5 years with a jaboticaba since their root systems aren’t particularly aggressive compared to a 8’ tall cherry tomato, and I’ve had a couple coated pots holding several of the latter for the past 2 years and the paint could probably still last another season. I’ll probably try it when I repot my biggest red.
No one mentioned soil ph yet, does soil ph matter for Jabo? and could it be responsible for the observed symptoms?
It’s pretty darn established that jaboticabas like it acid, but some varieties are supposedly more sensitive than others. I’d say a ph of 6.5 would be the minimum, (5.5-6.0 would likely be safer) any higher and sulfur or chelated iron would be needed to help prevent signs of iron chlorosis. Watering a couple times with my irrigation water bumped up the ph to 7.0 for my largest jabo and I got some chlorosis as well as tip-burn, but an iron drench and subsequent waterings with rain water fixed it pretty quickly.
Also note that tip-burn in jaboticabas (at least in most common cases with significant symptoms) seems to be due to an excess of mineral salts (calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, etc.) and not exclusive to high ph, though high ph water or soil is often so because of an abundance of specific salts. I don’t see any major chlorosis in OP’s plant though, so while the ph might be fine, the burn is probably due to salty well water as achetadomestica suggested.
