Blueberry question

17 years ago

hey all,

I have a newbie question about raising highbush blueberries. I planted two bushes last year, different varieties (though I forget exactly which). They are about 3 feet high and both produced well last year, and I added an acidic fertilizer (hollytone) to help them along this year. Both bushes are leafing out nicely, but only one has produced flower buds. Is it normal for a blueberry bush to put out leaves first with no sign of flower buds? do the buds come later? And what does it mean if a bush doesn't put out flower buds? I pruned a few canes in late winter to thin them, but I didn't cut any branch tips or new growth. Any thoughts are welcome.

Matt

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Comments (3)

rjinga
17 years ago
I am glad to see your post, I will be tuned in to see what the "experts" have to say on this matter.

I had the same question on some plants that I purchased this year. They were supposed to be 2 and 3 year old plants (I posted on these on another thread)

They have a good amount of leaves, although it took a very long time for that to happen, but still no sign of buds.

Another batch of plants that I bought from a different grower in GA, those plants have all leafed out and have flower buds and most of them (unless they are very small ones) have berries forming on them.
ericwi
17 years ago
We have 25 blueberry shrubs, some of them were put in back in 1995, others are two or three years old. We have both highbush and dwarf varieties. All of our blueberry shrubs are beginning to flower, and all of them have tiny leaves beginning to emerge. None of our shrubs have fully formed flowers, I think it will take about a week for that to happen. In my experience, blueberry shrubs do not require rich soil in order to flower and set fruit, however, fertilizer will result in faster growth of additional woody stems. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, I have to be continually concerned with soil pH. There is a layer of limestone beneath our soil, and we have hard water. If the pH is too high, I will see the blueberry leaves turn yellow. I also have to be concerned with soil moisture. Usually we get enough rain/snow melt in the spring, but every August I have to water by hand. This year, we had two weeks of sunny, breezy weather in early April, and I had to hand water the blueberry shrubs on April 17th. I have never had a problem with blueberry shrubs that failed to flower, so I can't comment on what the cause might be.
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ericwi
17 years ago
There is some more information that might be helpful, if you are still seeing a lack of flowers on your blueberry shrubs. Once or twice per season, I will use liquid fertilizer, Miracle Grow-Acidic, on our blueberries. This formulation is high in nitrogen, but it also has some trace minerals that plants need, including boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. All of these nutrients are present as water soluble salts, so they can be absorbed by the roots. You can add too much of this product, and end up with an accumulation of salts in the soil. Once or twice a year seems to be sufficient for blueberries.