I’ve got the opportunity to revive a 150’ 6-7 row blueberry field that has been neglected for years. The property owner tells me probably over 10 years of neglect, but the bushes are still producing.
I don’t know how to identify what species they are.
There’s a lot of invading plants that will need to be removed.
Deer are a issue, as the owner tells me he can tell when the berries are ripe, cause there’s 5 or 6 deer showing up and the bushes are being shook back and forth.
Any advice is greatly appreciated, or any suggestions on where to get advice also.
I plan on major pruning and non-blueberry plant removal in late Feb or early March. Followed by fertilizing in April.
I also plan on looking into some nets for birds, but am concerned on what to do about deer.
If the blueberry patch has been left unpruned for 10 years and
deer have been pushing and shoving branches, deer have in effect have tip-pruned all the branches, leaving only a few new branches left to produce berries.
If you can wait 2-3 years, the easiest method would be to cut plants down and, each year, selectively thin new growth.
You can combine welded wire with grape netting to make a block impenetrable to deer and birds. This is my rough job. I roll back the netting each winter to prevent collapse from snow load. Note that netting is twisted poly which is less entangling and easier to roll up than common black bird netting.
i would mow them to the ground and then thin for the best shoots coming back. you will have to wait for a while before getting berries but it will save you alot of work. maybe clean up some so you will get a harvest and mow the rest. like said , get a soil test done. cutting them to the ground will also eliminate most diseases that might be in there. after fertilizing, id mulch heavily around them to keep the weeds at bay. maybe lay cardboard then mulch or lay down 3ft. of heavy plastic on each side. welcome to the site.
You have a lot of Blueberries! Enough for some type of commercial operation which I understand you don’t want. Looks like the top two rows are too close to the tree line. If you plan on eliminating some of your plants, I would remove those. My guess is that they will the least productive due to competition for water, nutrients and sunlight provided by the trees.
Your plants should produce over 5 pounds per plant so you will have a lot of fruit!
Duh, being a newbie, I figured the damage from deer would be them eating berries. Then it dawned on me, they want the new shoots.
I’ve seen posters mention grinding the bushes down. Is this actually grinding, like with a stump grinder?
I have access to all kinds of equipment, (skid steer, mini-excavator, tractor) so getting my hands on a stump grinder may not be out of the question. I haven’t looked around yet, but someone I know has got to have a grinder, maybe, hopefully.
For deer, I’m considering a single electrical tape fence with plastic bags, powered by solar panels with battery. There’s no nearby electrical service.
brush hog would work well to do it quickly or manual pruners if you wanted to do it gently. brush hog mulches the branches whereas the prunings would need to be hauled away.
