I have a few blueberry bushes, but they are on their own for the winter. [g] I don't wrap in burlap. I sometimes will tie up a shrub that is prone to be damaged by heavy snow or ice, but very few. I have a couple of small arborvitaes in pots that stay out all winter and I tie those with string and I have one Sky Pencil Holly that has to be tied or it's a mess and difficult to correct. That's all the trouble I'm willing to go to.

Really, are blueberry bushes in danger of damage from winter snow and ice? I wouldn't think so. And if you were particularly concerned you could always walk out and brush the snow off before it was accumulating. But with a deciduous shrub with an open branching habit, I would think it would be reasonably safe.

And would burlap protect from breakage from ice? What does burlap protect from?

Hi there and thanks for your feedback.

I'll try and go without it and see how it goes. I have already pruned all the bushes for the winter, so we can try to keep the snow from piling up high on them from any drifts.

Perhaps I'm being too protective. Just anxious to see how they perform next season.

Thanks a bunch.

Burlap mostly just protects from sun scald. So when I was a kid, one of our neighbors used to wrap his rhododendrons in burlap every fall. OTOH, my father thought it was a silly thing to do.

There are things we do for our plants, and things we do to our plants for ourselves. This sounds like the second kind.

BTW, I live down the road from about 10 acres of blueberries. *Nobody* covers 10 acres of blueberries.

kitasei, thanks for the input as well,

I got these bushes from the nursery and they appear to be about 2-3 years old by the height. They are all at least 2.5' tall. I put them in a newly opened area (full sun) for my blueberries.

I did not prepare the area one season earlier, so I vigorously conditioned the soil with lots of peat and sulfur conditioner. I put 3-4" of natural pine park mulch on top of whole area for winter and left 10" around base of plant to breathe.

I did add hay around the base of the plant, so as to help prevent any ice damage (may just be a vane attempt?). I might take out the hay though since I hear diff stories of voles or the like possibly nesting/chewing on the bark. I haven't decided on this yet though.

If I really don't need the hay around the base, then I probably will take it out. Any feedback on this though?

Thanks guys.

One more thought: Blueberries take a few years to become established before fruit production really ramps up. So some gardeners spend needless time trying to figure out what is wrong with berry production after they first plant.

Hi Karen and thanks for the input.

Yes, I've been reading that as well about Blueberries.

Since the bushes I got are about 2 years old (2-3' tall) I'm presuming that they have already been nipping them to promote root growth before selling them (let's hope, LOL). So, I am focusing on trying to push down the ph level to 4.5 - 5 by really conditioning the soil with peat and soil conditioner and natural pine back mulch. This is all an experiment for me first time out, so we'll see how it progresses.

Have you checked your soil pH before you started trying to make it more acidic? Most of New England has soils that are just fine for blueberries without lowering the pH at all (parts of the Hudson Valley And the marble regions of VT excepted), so before you add more sulfur, do a pH check with a good soil lab. My soil is plenty acidic for blueberries with no modifications at all. I am right on the border between zones 4a and 5b and have never wrapped blueberries. Both the wild and cultivated ones do just fine, even after temperatures of -22 or -23F. I have not had branches broken by ice or snow either.

In future, wait until late winter or spring to prune, or at the very least wait until temperatures are consistently below freezing. Often a plant’s response to pruning is to try to replace the branches pruned off, and new growth in the fall is more susceptible to freeze damage and weakens the plant. If buds freeze after they start growing, they will die and the plant will be late leading out the following year because it will need to form new buds in the spring.

If you have voles, put a ring of 1/4” hardware cloth wire mesh around the base of the plant that is at least 3” tall to discourage them.

Hi NH..., thanks for the input.

The area for the blueberry is a new raised flower bed I opened this summer. So the soil is basically all new as well. Since the soil is basically Home Depot new the ph is 6-7, so says the tester. So I've added lots of peat and a strong mixing of sulfur conditioner to try to push it back down. It will take several months to start to break down. I'll try to check it before the ground freezes this month and again in April when things thaw out. I'm hoping it will be down closer to 5 by then and we'll see what to do from there.

About the voles, yes, we have had them this year. First time they have been so aggressive. Either them or chipmunks dug every 6" in the entire yard and ate ALL the crocus bulbs! No other plants/bulbs have been bothered, including tulips. We have never had this issue before and we've had crocus for years.?

Since we are trying to expand the yard and garden we just got rid of them, strongly. We'll have to keep checking. On the other hand chipmunks were digging holes all over this year. Not in the past strangely. So they've become a nucsence as well. Dealt with same as the voles. (If they even were voles, never actually caught one or found one dead. Only found one chipmunk dead).

THanks again and looking forward to the spring already, LOL.

Be aware that in raised beds, if they are high, they are essentially extra large pots and that makes roots are more vulnerable to freezing than in ground plants. I have used raised beds for annual veggies but generally not for shrubs and perennials since they often won’t survive in my zone.

i suggest in wars against rodents that traps and exclusion devices are better than poison because poisoned chipmunks or voles can in turn poison the predators that help control them, creating a vicious cycle with fewer predators and so more rodents. They can also poison pets.