Blueberries

[JPRambo]

Torvy: first picture is looking out East facing window of my house. Second is the best picture I just took. It's raining now.
Blueberries are to the right of green shed.

 

[DarkBlack]

I’ve got hundreds of hybrid bushes and lots of experience. In my area, the biggest thieves/destructors of my blueberries are as follows, from biggest problem to least:

Honey bees
Yellow jackets
Blue jays
Cardinals
Gray squirrels
Japanese beetles
Paper wasps
Deer
Fox
Bear

 

[Alan46]

@Alan46 That's quite the wildlife fence!

The fence was built by the couple ( he was a master carpenter) who built the house! We have Deer, Bears, Elk, Birds and miscellaneous critters!
We were very fortunate to get this property 5+ acres, the owners were transferred to another state in 2014!

 

[MossRoad]

We have problems with rabbits and deer eating the tender new growth on our plants. If I fence them off, there are a lot less problems. That's about the only troubles we have.

Neighbor gave us 3 plants several years ago. Heavy producers. Do not know the variety, but big tasty berries.

Two years ago a woman was closing a blueberry farm. Giving the bushes away. I got 10. This will be the first year for them. We'll see how they go.

 

[Torvy]

Torvy: first picture is looking out East facing window of my house. Second is the best picture I just took. It's raining now.
Blueberries are to the right of green shed.

Nice setup. I'll try to get a picture of ours. Just came inside. It's about 80 outside and I am worn out. We just put in about 200 ft of drainage. Not ready for the heat to start.

 

[Alan W.]

Mine from a couple of years ago.
Dont know the variety, ordered them in the 80s from sum cheap mail order firm.
They are about 12’ tall. I planted them a bit too close.

 

[jyoutz]

Nice setup. I'll try to get a picture of ours. Just came inside. It's about 80 outside and I am worn out. We just put in about 200 ft of drainage. Not ready for the heat to start.

LOL. I’m ready for it to warm up.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Evening Torvy,

Anyone else grow blueberries? Any advice or suggestions

I planted 6 bushes about 10 or 12 years ago. They have been good producers !

We have concrete reinforcment mesh I am using as a fence. About 5ft high. My biggest problem are the birds. I have been very tempted to throw some mesh over them when the berries come out !

I have done virtually nothing to promote growth. Now the grand kids are getting interested in picking them in the fall, so I may put in a few more bushes !

 

[Hay Dude]

Sorry, my joke failed. All plant life is organic.

I think when you add or plant in man-made chemicals, it loses its’ “organic” status???

 

[Torvy]

I think when you add or plant in man-made chemicals, it loses its’ “organic” status???

I am not a fan of that term for chemical-free. Another group deciding how much or what types of things qualify. The word already existed and has a meaning. The huggers like to use words already in use to gain acceptance.

I don't use many chemicals, mostly because I am cheap. We already live too long. Dad hits 92 on Saturday and seems like he is just marking time until mom lets him die.

 

[Torvy]

Good Evening Torvy,


I planted 6 bushes about 10 or 12 years ago. They have been good producers !

We have concrete reinforcment mesh I am using as a fence. About 5ft high. My biggest problem are the birds. I have been very tempted to throw some mesh over them when the berries come out !

I have done virtually nothing to promote growth. Now the grand kids are getting interested in picking them in the fall, so I may put in a few more bushes !

No grands yet. My boys and their SOs don't seem interested in kids. My daughters will probably have some eventually. They are both early 20s.

I saw a video about netting. One trick was to keep the netting far enough off of the plants so the birds don't just perch on it and pull the berries through. I tend to not think of those obvious issues until after. For now we have the netting on top to discourage the deer. Once berries set, we need to cover the sides, too or birds will just fly right in and snack.

 

[jyoutz]

No grands yet. My boys and their SOs don't seem interested in kids. My daughters will probably have some eventually. They are both early 20s.

I saw a video about netting. One trick was to keep the netting far enough off of the plants so the birds don't just perch on it and pull the berries through. I tend to not think of those obvious issues until after. For now we have the netting on top to discourage the deer. Once berries set, we need to cover the sides, too or birds will just fly right in and snack.

If you make circles from concrete reinforcing mesh to encircle the bush, you can wrap plastic netting around the wire. Then unwrap the netting and just reach through the large squares in the mesh to pick berries. I use the concrete reinforcing mesh for tomato support towers and can easily reach through to pick tomatoes.

 

[Silvia]

Something to file away for the future……….when your berries start getting small after a half dozen years you will have to cut out the 5 year or older canes to the bottom. (It took me about 30 years to discover this)

 

[Torvy]

Here's the view this morning from aboard the tractor.

 

[forgeblast]

We just planted 4 new blueberry bushes. 4 different varieties. 2 pair that pollinate each other.

For now we jury-rigged some fencing out of old t-posts and used 4' welded wire. Ran some bird netting over the top. I'm a little concerned about the deer getting into them.

Our soil out here is sandy loam and is on the acidic side, which is supposed to be good for blueberries. Mrs. T loves the berries and their supposed to be good for you.

Anyone else grow blueberries? Any advice or suggestions?

deer and rabbits will decimate them. use holy tone early spring as a feed. then after they bloom. try to keep them to about 6 main branches if they are high bush. undyed double ground hardwood much is what we use around them. Also drip irrigation.

 

[Smokeydog]

Have to admit I’m a blueberry bear. Freeze a minimum of 4 gallons up to 13 gallons per year. Biggest predator is turkeys. Move a coyote decoy daily helps. Not only scares them but also attracts coyotes that help keep the deer and other critters away.

Had a golden retriever that could pick about as fast as me!

Have lost or severely damaged young plants from bucks rubbing on them in fall after berry season.

Some of my 50year old plants are starting to die.

Mulch helps to keep them hydrated.

 

[DarkBlack]

Interesting to see how different the blueberry predation issue varies so wildly by location. The above post reminded me I forgot to include turkey. It would rank around #5 on my list. They end up shaking more onto the ground than they actually eat

 

[Torvy]

Interesting to see how different the blueberry predation issue varies so wildly by location. The above post reminded me I forgot to include turkey. It would rank around #5 on my list. They end up shaking more onto the ground than they actually eat

You mentioned bees as #1? They pollinate the berries around here. I found nothing saying bees harm them. Can you elaborate?

 

[DarkBlack]

You mentioned bees as #1? They pollinate the berries around here. I found nothing saying bees harm them. Can you elaborate?

The last few years, I’ve lost approximately 1/3 of my crop to honey bees eating the berries. I’ll get thousands of them coming into the bushes when they’re ripe. I’ve got a neighbor not too far away, with hives. I’m guessing they’re his bees. Being honey bees, there’s nothing I can do, other than try to harvest them earlier than optimum, and also do it while they’re ruining the berries.

I’ve read of another grower experiencing the same situation. I don’t know anything about bee psychology, or what environmental conditions makes them want to exhibit this behavior, but I imagine there’s more cases out there, but of course it’s not a popular subject to broadcast , since honey bees are in decline, and as such, we are always wanting to portray them in a positive light.

When mine are flowering, my pollination is getting done mainly by bumblebees, with a few honeybees, paper wasps and flies thrown in. It’s usually too cold and/or windy for the honeybees

 

[Smokeydog]

Rare to see honeybees in our blueberry patch. Their flowers are too long and tubular for them to reach. Mostly pollinated by bumblebee and carpenter bees. The later cheat usually by piercing the side of the flower to reach the nectar with less pollination. Bumblebees are better cold weather pollinators.

Some Yellowjackets and wasps on over ripe fruit.

Birds, other than turkeys, usually not too bad. Occasional squirrel.