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Wild highbush blueberry fruits are typically small (6-10 mm) but strongly flavored. They tend to ripen erratically, so there are always a few ripe ones in a branch but you have to forage over several bushes to pick enough fruits to make a meal. Without question, older (more than 10 years) shrubs growing in full sun bear the most fruit. A highbush in shade may flower and thus spread its pollen, but rarely fruits very much. Birds are very effective at monitoring the shrubs as well, so it is hard to get a good crop without some attention and bird netting. Many highbush cultivars have been developed for commercial fruit production, and all the large fresh blueberries found in supermarkets are harvested from these cultivars or hybrids between V. corymbosum and closely related species. Many of these cultivars and hybrids have been selected for large size as well as concurrent ripening, so you can get large crops of fruit off fewer plants than if you relied on wild ones. To spread the harvest out over the season, select early, mid and late-ripening varieties recommended for you area. Fall Creek Nursery, a wholesale source of plants, has some excellent information on many varieties and your local agricultural experiment station or extension service may have recommendations for your area as well. A newly purchased blueberry bush will likely consist of a few main trunks 2-3 feet tall. These will begin to flower within a year or so and bear fruit, but this will weaken the plant as it is trying to get established. I prefer to prune recently transplanted specimens back by 1/3 in late winter to encourage a flush of new vegetative growth from the trunks and more importantly, the base of the plant. These lower sprouts will shoot up over the course of several years to eventually become larger, fruit producing branches once the plant is settled in. Acidic soils (pH below 6) are important for good blueberry culture. Ideally, the shrubs should be mulched with either 2-3 inches of rotted wood chips or compost each spring along with a sprinkling of a granular organic fertilizer (blueberries, like many plants in the heath family, are sensitive to over fertilization with chemical fertilizer). |