Welcome to the ultimate beginner gardening and garden design forum! Where no gardening question is too silly or obvious. This online gardening forum is run by Lee Burkhill, the Garden Ninja from BBC 1's Garden Rescue and a trusted group of experienced gardeners.
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Good morning everyone. My name is Les and while I am not a new gardener, I am new to growing two new blueberry bushes in pots of ericaceous mixture. The bushes have taken well and during this summer they have produced masses of new growth in the form of very long shoots, waving about in the breeze. Will I have to cut these back during winter, and to what extent? I attach an image on one plant but it was difficult to focus on account of the breeze. I would be very grateful for any help you can offer on this problem.
Les
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Hi Les,
Welcome to the Garden Ninja community!
Growing blueberries is relatively straight forward and they make excellent container plants. This is for two reasons one of which you've identified.
1. The first is they need ericaceous soil which has a low PH and is considered acidic or a califuge.
2. Blueberries can cope with dappled shade and don't mind being restricted in containers.
Blueberry Bush pruning Guide:
In terms of pruning, you need to prune Blueberries in the winter when they are dormant and have lost their leaves. Blueberry fruit on 2-year-old wood and older. At about 4 years they tend to become unproductive. So basically from year 4 onwards, you're nipping out any wood older than 2-3 years each year. Sometimes blueberries have a year off if the previous year's crop has been heavy.
Aim for an open structure by firstly removing any crossing or rubbing stems. Take one out back to the base or further back to the main stem. This branch will only get damaged if not.
Take off 1/4 of this year's growth to a bud this will help the blueberry bush rather than growing into a whippy leggy specimen like the one you have. This creates more floriferous/fruiting laterals and branches.
Each year you will need to both top dress with more ericaceous compost and give a liquid feed such as comfrey tea in spring and then again in summer as they are hungry plants.
I would also recommend getting it into a bigger pot next year as it puts on more root growth.
Other than that enjoy them!
Lee
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