Really nice blueberry hauls coming in this year.
Wine bottle added to the pic for scale.
18 Likes
For the first time EVER - we got more than a handful of blueberries. I netted the few blueberry bushes that I have in pots and we built an 8’ x 16’ ‘blueberry cage’ which has confounded the birds that showed up to pick berries as soon as we finished!
It was ‘cruelly fun’ to watch the mockingbird try to find a way in! “Sorry, Charlie!”
I picked up a few new bushes. Legacy. Blue Crop. Premier. Climax. All but Premier went into the cage with my existing Reka and Elliott(?). Premier is supposed to get huge . . . so planted it out in the ‘orchard’. All the others will have to be kept pruned to share the netted space. We are trying cardboard bordering - to help keep weeds and grasses out. Going to add pine mulch when I get around to it.
7 Likes
Haha! That’s how it starts. Before you know it, you’ll be swimming in berries.
My little blueberry habitat has been going strong for about 10 years now:
I’ve said this before, at the end of the season I’m pretty tired of picking blueberries.
3 Likes
A year later and the crop is bigger this year. A handfull ripe on EarliBlue but others are growing nicely and will have blueberries…a handful at a time at least…for the next 90 days probably here.
2 Likes
Our blueberries have really loved being in their ‘cage’. They have tons of berries this year.
One thing I have noticed, though -
Their taste, this year, is ‘lackluster’. One bush - ‘Sharpblue’ - has outstanding flavor, but the rest are very bland. Sweet, but very bland. Is this due to lack of fertilizer? Too much rain, perhaps - after a dry spell? Maybe they need a ph adjustment? Anyone know?
2 Likes
Plenty of sun, and not too much fertilizer, and a little on the dry side seems to make for more brix or sugar. But you said yours are plenty sweet. Growing in cloudy or shady conditions and excess moisture can cause low brix and also bland flavor in a sweeter variety…and sourness in a variety not known for being sweet.
(Or maybe the blandness is a residual effect of getting over the Coronavirus 
.)
1 Like