We planted 4 little blue berries in the yard last year and they didn't do well also I discovered they were in a bad place I did not consider mowing around them. So I did some research built a box to plant them in and filled it with mostly pete moss and acidic soil. This spring 3 of them had survived the ordeal and are growing. We added 2 replacing one and getting another to make it 5 bushes 2 of one kind and 3 of another. I guess my question is in the winter when they die back do I prune them back to the ground or just leave them. Last year I just left em and they sprouted but are kind of gangly looking and not tight bushes as seen in pictures??
http://www.wikihow.com/Prune-Blueberries This looks to be pretty informative on pruning blueberries. For new plants I would wait til winter to prune.
I will be pruning my blueberries this Winter. i also use cafe grains on my blueberries as a fertilizer.
Cappy are you planting rabbit eye blueberries? I know that down south you have different heat/cool needs than we have for fruit. so, do you care for them differently than Northern bushes? I know I don't prune mine other than to prune out the dead or oversized stems. I also check the Ph and add sulfur if needed, which isn't a quick fix but it takes time to establish a great bed for them. if you cut them back to the ground you won't get any fruit if they are a Spring flowering plant. those flowerbuds are produced over the Summer months. pruning all that foliage down cuts them off.. I have never heard of cutting blueberries back to the ground, either. if we don't have the information here research it well before pruning this winter... to the ground. I just don't think you want to do that.
Just shape the plants up a bit and only remove the dead limbs.Prune the growing limbs about 1/3 this winter . Let the new plants get established this year.
I don 't have any direct experience, but Paige has been growing blackberry bushes the past several years. She's been pruning them and they're coming back thicker and stronger than ever.
Thanks for all the comments yall I wasn't planning on doing any pruning now but in winter. We have several things that in the winter we cut back to a short stubble and they seem to be better for it. One thing that if ya dont prune it it still comes from the ground new among the dead branches. I think the best route may be like you suggest and take out the leggy branches and try to partially prune and shape. My across da street neighbor prunes his back big time and his bushes look happy ad healthy.
Cappy---My climate is different here than where you live but I will tell you how I do the pruning. older and larger plants---I prune them in February or March. Young plants I prune in April. The first two years I do not prune them at all, waiting for them to makes more roots and stabilize. I have written several things about growing blueberries on here through the years, but i do not recall specifically writing about pruning them. Pruning them is a bit different than pruning other plants.
I guess we are on a berry kick. We finally gave up on strawberrys we are too far south and try as we might no berries. These blue berries are suposed to be heat loving deep south rated. We have tried lots of stuff over the years with only limited success. I guess this got to me cause in a angry huff I picked up some muscadyne vines and some dew berry vines those I KNOW grow well here so we fixing to have a fence full o them.......Lord willin'
Good luck with those, Cappy. You know...there is an interesting little fruit that you could try there, for I believe that it would flourish in your climate-- the Solanum muricatum. I tried this plant two years and was satisfied with the results, although our climate here is not really compatible with the conditions that the plant requires. Despite that i did have success, but I believe that you could have better success. I wrote about this a few years back. If you want to read it here is the link: http://www.gardenstew.com/threads/a-non-forbidden-fruit.9058/#post-85119
