Blueberries are a delicious snack to add to fruit salads, top pancakes or bake into muffins and cakes – or just to knock back by the handful.
But did you know how easy it is to grow them in your own garden? All you need is acid soil (a pH of 4.5-5.5 is ideal), so if your soil isn’t quite acidic enough you can grow a blueberry bush in a pot with ericaceous compost.
Blueberry bushes thrive best in moist soil and somewhere with plenty of sunlight, so make sure you water them enough during their growing season when the weather warms up.
And in summer, when the round berries turn dusky blue, they’re ready to harvest – but don’t forget the birds will be after your fruit too, so be ready to cover the bushes in netting or grow them inside a fruit cage to keep any pesky beaks.
There’s one job gardeners can do that will help their bush produce a mega-harvest the next year, and that is pruning. There are two types of pruning: maintenance and renewal.
Maintenance pruning needs to be done every year during the colder months, which gives the plant the energy it needs to produce leaf buds.
“Pruning is rarely needed in the first two years after planting – just remove any crossing or unwanted branches if necessary,” says the RHS.
“After that, prune at any time from November to March, but ideally in late February or early March when the fruit buds can easily be distinguished from leaf buds. Fat buds produce flowers and fruit, while smaller, flatter buds form shoots and leaves – aim to retain branches with lots of fruit buds.”
With secateurs – or lopers for thicker stems – remove any dead, damaged, diseased or weak branches, as well as any that are touching the ground, recommends the gardening organisation.
You should also cut back twiggy growth at the ends of any branches that fruited the previous year, plus any new stems that grew last summer but failed to ripen and are now hollow inside. Cut them back to healthy wood, which tends to be around 15cm from the base of the plant.
The ideal bush should have an open and balanced canopy, which allows for better airflow and sunlight penetration around the plant, says DIYeverywhere.com.
Renewal pruning can take place every few years, once your blueberry bush is properly established. Select up to a quarter of the oldest and thickest stems of the plant, and cut them down to the base. “This encourages plants to send up new stems from the base, to keep them productive,” says the RHS.
You need to leave behind between four and six of the most productive canes, ideally all of different ages. “A mature blueberry bush should comprise about one-third old stems, one-third middle-aged stems and one-third young stems,” it adds.
And if you really want to reap a blueberry bounty next year, don’t be afraid of aggressive renewal pruning by cutting all the canes down to the base.
“This might result in a year without much fruit, but the bush will rejuvenate,” says DIYeverywhere.com.
Have you had any luck with growing blueberries at home? Let us know your best tips in the comments below.
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