Dr_Zinj
Veteran Member
I have lots of blueberries on my property.
Blueberries come in 2 main forms: low bush and high bush. Both types love acid soil. Both types need a good amount of water, but don't want to be drowning in it. Both types evolved to mainly be pollinated by bumblebees; so you actually want to promote nests of them fairly close by. Both types need a lot of sunlight. A little shade they can handle, heavy shade kills them.
Sounds like you have the low bush variety. They don't normally grow more than a foot high. These are the kind that you get down on your hands and knees, or sit in a clear space and pick. They should be cut to about half their height every couple of years to promote new growth. Low bush tend to be fairly small in size. I've heard some people burning to remove the dead twigs; but fire is a very dangerous tool. Contact your local fire department and have a meeting to discuss those options if you're thinking of burning.
High bush grow to as tall as 8 feet if you let them. Berries are double the size of low bush or even larger. Uncultivated, they only produce large crops every other year. 2 year old stems produce; so if you cut back a third to a half of the older stems each year, you can get a good, steady crop each year.
Heavy rains during blooming season can ruin your crop as it beats down the blossoms and keeps the bees from flying.
There is a variety of tent caterpillar that likes to eat high bush blueberry leaves. Either spray with bug spray, or as I have occasionally, WD-40. (Oil suffocates the little buggers.) I suppose you could try a vegetable based oil which should be more environmentally friendly; but you want to get it inside the nests to reach all the wigglers.
If you have high bush within 100 feet of water, they are in danger from BEAVERS. The bark tastes good to them, and the branches make good dam material. I lost more than 50% of all my bushes by the stream that runs through my property over the past few years. Fencing only slows the rodents down, it doesn't stop them. Trapping or shooting only removes those particular animals, more move into the vacuum; so this is a constant maintenance/management process, not a final solution. Check with your state Fish and Game Departments for regulations on dealing with problem beavers as they are a regulated fur-bearing species in most states.
A tractor with a hoe can clean out a dam in a few minutes. A hoe works good for digging up and transplanting bushes if you're intending to consolidate them. An auger works okay for digging new holes for planting. You can use either a finishing mower, or a hog on low bush plants. Just don't set the cutters too low or you'll scalp them. And if you have 3pt sprayer, you can fertilize and bug kill.
Blueberries come in 2 main forms: low bush and high bush. Both types love acid soil. Both types need a good amount of water, but don't want to be drowning in it. Both types evolved to mainly be pollinated by bumblebees; so you actually want to promote nests of them fairly close by. Both types need a lot of sunlight. A little shade they can handle, heavy shade kills them.
Sounds like you have the low bush variety. They don't normally grow more than a foot high. These are the kind that you get down on your hands and knees, or sit in a clear space and pick. They should be cut to about half their height every couple of years to promote new growth. Low bush tend to be fairly small in size. I've heard some people burning to remove the dead twigs; but fire is a very dangerous tool. Contact your local fire department and have a meeting to discuss those options if you're thinking of burning.
High bush grow to as tall as 8 feet if you let them. Berries are double the size of low bush or even larger. Uncultivated, they only produce large crops every other year. 2 year old stems produce; so if you cut back a third to a half of the older stems each year, you can get a good, steady crop each year.
Heavy rains during blooming season can ruin your crop as it beats down the blossoms and keeps the bees from flying.
There is a variety of tent caterpillar that likes to eat high bush blueberry leaves. Either spray with bug spray, or as I have occasionally, WD-40. (Oil suffocates the little buggers.) I suppose you could try a vegetable based oil which should be more environmentally friendly; but you want to get it inside the nests to reach all the wigglers.
If you have high bush within 100 feet of water, they are in danger from BEAVERS. The bark tastes good to them, and the branches make good dam material. I lost more than 50% of all my bushes by the stream that runs through my property over the past few years. Fencing only slows the rodents down, it doesn't stop them. Trapping or shooting only removes those particular animals, more move into the vacuum; so this is a constant maintenance/management process, not a final solution. Check with your state Fish and Game Departments for regulations on dealing with problem beavers as they are a regulated fur-bearing species in most states.
A tractor with a hoe can clean out a dam in a few minutes. A hoe works good for digging up and transplanting bushes if you're intending to consolidate them. An auger works okay for digging new holes for planting. You can use either a finishing mower, or a hog on low bush plants. Just don't set the cutters too low or you'll scalp them. And if you have 3pt sprayer, you can fertilize and bug kill.
