We recently got finished pruning our blueberries. We have a little over an acre planting; about 800 plants, so it can be quite a chore pruning by hand, especially since I had a lot of bad work to undo from neglecting to prune last year. All the same, it’s not an unpleasant task, and it’s really important for good quality fruit that’s easier to pick. Properly pruned bushes yield greater quantities of larger berries,
As bushes get older, and tall, berry yeild will decrease significantly because of the lack of new wood to produce buds. They also will get t and bushy, and light won’t be able to reach the inside of the bush. So the fruit will set on the outside, which means much of the area of the plant will be unproductive.
Be just to prune shortly after harvest is finished, otherwise you’ll be cutting off new growth, which is next year’s fruiting wood. <!–more–>
On rabbiteyes, it’s good to prune the bushes down to about 5-6 feet in height to make it easier to pick. These cuts are called heading cuts, and should be even across the bush. If your bush has more than 5 or 6 canes, prune back the smallest and weakest looking. Finally, all branches growing inward should be cut. Think of a teacup. You want all the branches growing outward from the base.
Now keep in mind all I grow is rabbiteye blueberries. If you don’t live in the South, then you’d be growing highbush or lowbush berries. I don’t know to much about those, but Mike at diy-guides.com has a good article on them here. Pruning should be similar, especially for highbush berries.
Here’s a few pictures, again taken by camera phone so excuse the quality, to illustrate what I mean:
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| From Pruned Blueberry bush |
A young, recently pruned bush. Notice the lack of inward growing branches. I actually pruned this bush down to 4 feet, all those new shoots, about a third of the height of the bush, are only a month old.
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| From Pruned Blueberry bush |
Base of another young plant. Not ideal, I’d rather the canes not be all clumped together like that, but I wanted to show a picture demonstrating the lack of branches near the base of the plant. I prefer a high canopy, as it makes harvesting easier. Also, those low branches are twiggy and produce poor quality fruit. Best to keep fruit bearing wood up off the ground.
Hope this helps. Happy pruning!
