Perennial Series: Pruning Your Blueberry Bushes

Pruning your blueberry bushes is the topic for today! I don’t know about you but something about pruning scares me. It is probably rooted in the childhood trauma of when my sister and I chopped her hair off with blunt scissors and it took at least 2 years for it to grow back properly. I guess you could say that I viscerally understand that if you cut too much you are limiting your plant and it can take a long time to grow back. ✂️ The ideal time to prune blueberries is in the winter or early spring before the plants wake up.

If you buy a young, new blueberry this year you’ll want to take off all the blossoms and be sure to remove any dead branches - but don’t prune it this season. By removing these blooms, you will help your young blueberry plant to establish a robust root system. This year, it needs to focus on growing roots, branches and leaves rather than fruit. In the second year, do the same thing and remove some to most of the blossoms. (I know. It’s a killer when you are looking forward to the fruit.) During the third year you can allow all the blooms to become berries and this is the year when you should begin the pruning process. 

Steps
1. Look for branches that are cross-hatching or those twisting back into the shrub. These branches block light and can help create conditions that cause disease when there isn’t enough air circulation. The goal is to try to create an open shape that will grow well over the years.
2. Cut 1-2 older canes to the ground (when pruning don’t cut more than 20% of the total shrub) Choose and save 1-3 of the new, best-positioned canes (they won’t have branches yet) to replace each of the older ones you have cut down - this number will be increasing every year. 
3. Then cut the rest of the 1st year canes to the ground. 
4. By the 6th year (and beyond) the plant should have 20+ robust canes and be fully mature. Keep up the consistent pruning without overdoing it and you will have healthy, fruitful plants.  They need acidic soil so reach out if you need help and check out this blog post to understand the special planting conditions that they need. Our Colorado soil isn’t ideal so I’ve found they grow best in an 80-120% - 90%-10% peat moss to compost ratio in large containers. Low bush varieties grow well in large pots. I grow mine in whiskey barrels!