Blueberry plants no longer cropping

I've had the following blueberry plants for around 8 years now, and I've noticed that over the past one or two years, they have stopped producing flowers and cropping. I bought them as tiny plants in a set of 3 from b&q, and one any died. I think they are the Bluecrop variety.

This year I moved them to slightly bigger pots in erecacous compost and cut out most of the old woody stems. They put on lots of new growth, but produced no flowers at all this year. I have been feeding them with seaweed feed.

Are the plants too old now? Do they need to be replaced?

Thank you in advance for your advice

 

Hi,

They do look quiet small for 8 year old plants, Bluecrop should grow to about 2 mtrs tall. wonder if your previous smaller pots have kept them that way?

We put ours in 40 ltr tubs after the second year.

Found that our six plants , three different varieties, gave very little fruit this year, not sure why, just happens some years...? yet for all the other soft fruit its been one of the best years !

Worth seeing what happens next year , if nothing, get some fresh stock ?

 

Thank you for the advice. I didn't realize the plants got that big. Maybe I need to put them in bigger pots.

It's reassuring that yours also didn't fruit much this year, but I haven't much or hardly any fruit for the last few years. I think I think I read somewhere that blueberry bushes need replacing every few years, but not sure if I remember correctly?

I will give them another year to see if they fruit.

I've seen some blueberry 'duke' bushes on offer online, I'm wondering whether to get them just in case. Do you know if this variety is reliable?

Thank you

 

Im thinking as they flower on last years growth yours will be fine next year. Some tomorite in spring will help too.

 

Hi,

Not grown Duke, we got this collection, giving heights of 3 to 6ft but as small plants they need a couple of seasons to get big enough for a reasonable crop.
Though said to give a succession of fruit, found they all came together, perhaps our shorter, more northern climate ?
Buy Blueberry - All Season Collection | J Parker Dutch Bulbs

 

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I am slowly finding my way around and admittedly with help I am proud to have my avatar, an aquilegia in my garden.

Blueberries. Despite covering my plant with netting early in the season, birds have found a way underneath it and just about all of the berries have been eaten . We did get two bowls of them first, which were delicious. I am leaving them to it now.

 

Hi and Welcome to the Forum,

Unlike previous years the birds have been eagerly eating our soft fruit this time, beginning to think it might be something to do with the odd weather we are getting ?

We had to place netting on our fruit but its not the best way as many of the fruit are resting just under the netting and they still attract the birds.
Probably better to make up a little frame so it covers the plant from top to bottom and holds the netting well away from the fruit.

 

Hello BuzzyBee. Yes, we have similarly agile birds. And not only the blueberries.

I put up wooden stakes and draped the nets over them and put hoops in the soil to pin them down. The birds learned to jump up and down on the netting to break the twigs and push the fruit through the net!

Eight of my nine apple trees have been entirely stripped of their fruit by squirrels. The one that they haven’t touched (yet) is one that I don’t like either. All the raspberries, strawberries and plums have been eaten too. Happy gardening.

 

Welcome, Buzzy Bee. Honestly, sometimes gardening is a war of wits ... but birds will be birds! Maybe when they have finished the blueberries, they will hang around and do something useful like eat a few slugs.

 

Now that would be good! Slugs have eaten all my lupins, very quickly too, now just solitary stripped stems left.

Thank you for such a warm welcome, I am sorry some of you are having problems with the pesky fruit munchers too.

 

Lupins! How I would love a sea of them. Impossible, sadly.

 

I covered my blueberries and other berry bushes with day curtains this year (remnants and pieces from charity shops) . It helped, I saved the most of my berries. I tied them under bushes too.

 

We used netting from this lot and it worked fine....