Maintaining My Blueberry Bushes

February 6, 2025

Many gardening chores are best done in winter when the plants are dormant. Among them - pruning.

My blueberry bushes produce an abundance of fruit every summer, but they do need some maintenance to keep them productive. Pruning produces larger berries in greater volumes, ensures good air circulation and light throughout the plants, and helps to control diseases that may otherwise spread through the patch.

Here are some photos, enjoy.

: Blueberries are among the most popular berries for eating. Here in the United States, they are second only to strawberries.

: Blueberries produce from early summer through fall. I pick cartons and cartons of blueberries each year. What is not eaten fresh is frozen and used throughout the seasons.

: Blueberries are plump, juicy, sweet fruits that are low in fat, yet packed with vitamin-C and antioxidants. Everyone at the farm loves to pick these delicious fruits.

: Blueberries are ready when they are completely blue. One may want to pick them as soon as they turn, but it’s actually best a few days later, when there are absolutely no hints of pink or green on the fruits.

: Now the blueberries are bare of foliage and any fruit. It’s the best time to do some pruning and grooming.

: Pruning blueberries is an essential chore for several reasons. Proper pruning maintains an open growth habit, opens the center of the plant to sunlight, and reduces disease. Annual pruning also maintains productivity by encouraging the growth of new fruit-producing stems.

: In winter, flower buds are easily visible on one-year-old wood and their numbers can be adjusted by pruning to regulate the crop load for the coming year. New growth shows visible swelling of the flower buds. It also indicates good healthy plants. This stage can tolerate cold temperatures.

: When pruning, it’s the four Ds that are removed – dead, diseased, damaged, or deranged branches. The stems are cut off all the way to where they join a thicker branch.

: Most of the job can be done with garden pruners. Everyone on my crew has a pair. Here, Ryan cuts a dying branch.

: The crew also makes sure all the tools are extremely sharp, so they make clean cuts.

: At the base, blueberry bushes have multiple canes growing directly out of the soil in clumps. The canes or branches are smooth and thornless. When pruning, cut about one-third of the branches all the way down to the ground to stimulate new stems to emerge from the roots.

: Thicker canes are removed with our sharp STIHL precision bypass loppers.

: Here, Adan cuts branches that are too tall.

: He goes through each bush carefully as he prunes.

: Adan occasionally stops to look at the work he has done and assess where else the bush needs trimming. The goal of good blueberry pruning is to remove enough old growth to encourage the production of new.

: I instructed the crew to leave those branches that protrude from the sides – I wanted the bushes to remain full.

: The posts are the same 18th-century Chinese granite uprights I use for the clematis pergola, my apple espaliers, and my raspberry bushes.

: Here’s just one load of pruned branches ready to be taken to our chipping pile.

: Phurba rakes up any debris in between the rows.

: And then the patch is ready for a good layer of composted mulch.

: The middle of the rows look so much better – no more overcrowding. And they look so tidy top dressed with nutritious composted mulch. Blueberry shrubs are actually extremely hardy. Some varieties survive down to minus-35 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, blueberries need a set number of hours below 45-degrees in order for their flower buds to open and produce berries. Without ample cold weather, blueberries do not produce fruit.

: Pruning and grooming takes some time, but the benefits are great. With good, regular maintenance, my bushes are sure to produce bounties of fruits year after year.