Blueberry bushes (?)

Hiya Wrennie,

I have a small group of blueberries (7) and they all produced berries from off the year that I planted them. I have to cover them every year with poles and netting to keep the birds off though, for they will eat every single one.

After thinking about your probs with getting berries I think of two questions: #1- have your bushes ever had blooms, and #2- What have you done to your soil in which they are planted?

It is possible that the entire problem lies with your soil.
One tip is that they like somewhat acidic soil...like for rhododendrons. This may mean that you have to do some serious work on the ground.
What I did was:

--Dig a hole in the soil at least twice as wide and twice as deep as the present root ball.

--Fill it with a mixture of compost and rhododendron/azalia soil.

--Scoop out a hole, sprinkle a very small amount of bone meal in the bottom and fill the hole with water. Plant the bush in it. Water it in again and add more rhododendron/azalia soil around the plant's base so that the soil is even with ground level, because the soil will have sunken-in somewhat with the watering.

--You should dress the soil only with some shredded or chipped pine tree bark and needles. (This is something that you should do each year). It will act as a mulch and hold moisture. Additionally it gives the blueberry plants the correct pH.
*Some people add a mulch on top of this; however, be careful in doing this. I would suggest rough pine bark only and not chips from other types of trees. Using chips of other sorts of trees could have an adverse effect the elemental balance of the soil.

--Blueberry bushes need to be pruned every year, and I do it in March. Basically it's a question of cutting off dead, damaged and useless branches and twigs.

--The question of feeding. Most folks that I know do not give much "food" to the plants, rather they just add more pine bark and needles.
If you do elect to feed them use Azalia/rhododendron food. I do this some years, but not every year.
*With young or newly planted plants phosphorus in one form or another is very helpful in new root development. Once they are established, this will not be so important.

* Another thing that I must mention is frost- If it is due to frost when the blossoms are on the plants --COVER THEM. Cover them with fleece. I found this out the hard and sorrowful way. I really underestimated this once.
You can remove it during the day if it will not be below freezing, but replace it if it is due to freeze in the night again.

_________________
Sjoerd http://www.volkstuindersvereniginghoornenomstreken.nl/Page11.html

I asked my boss just about this same question. We state in our catalog that blueberries require loose, acid soil (pH of 5.0 or less)..... I live in Canada during the summer, we have millions of blueberries everywhere. The soil is hard clay that you can't even dig in uless it rains. He did tell me that there is a major difference in wild blueberries and cultivated ones. You should have had berries on the bushes by the second year (not alot, but some) Try a fertilizer with something like 12-12-12. If you can get some with magnesium and sulfur also it would help. You do state that you have two varieties, that should have helped you also. If you want to PM me, I can give give you our detailed instructions to get them to fruit. I doubt everyone wants to read the whole thing.