Wednesday 14 August 2013

Blueberries - a meagre harvest



In stark contrast to the carrots that I wrote about yesterday, my harvest of Blueberries this year has been very poor. This is about half of it:-


I picked a similar quantity about ten days ago, and there will be another one in a week or two, but the sum total of all three will probably not reach half a pound. A very slim yield from four plants. Much less good than usual, in fact. I put this down to having pruned the plants very severely. I pruned them at the end of August last year, after they had finished fruiting. The purpose of this was to remove some old unproductive stems and stimulate new growth. Well, both of those aims have been accomplished, but the new growth has only recently appeared - far too late to produce fruit for this year. Hopefully next year's yield will be much bigger.

Next year I will have more plants on the go as well.  I have four mature plants at present, and one "adolescent" one which I acquired last Summer. It will probably produce its first fruit next year. I have also just taken delivery of two more tiny plants:


These two are freebies from a magazine ("Just pay £3.99 postage" or something similar). One is called "Powder Blue" and the other is "Pink Lemonade". The latter is presumably going to give me pink berries...
Of course they are far too small to produce fruit next year, but they are nonetheless welcome additions to my collection. You have to keep the succession going, you know!

Meanwhile, this tiny crop is probably just about enough to accompany a bowl of yoghurt for Jane's breakfast.


4 comments:

  1. I think the blackbirds have been helping themselves to mine. I do have some in the freezer ready for when I can find the time to make some blueberry muffins & I really should have picked some this morning. I do hope they are still there. I also have sent off for a 'free' Pink lemonade variety.

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  2. You have a better crop than we do and we didn't prune!

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  3. Maybe next time you should prune half your plants in one year and half in the next. I haven't gotten a lot of blueberries yet. I left during the height of the season. We did get some. But we have mostly low bush plants that don't crop as well as the tall things. But they are part of the landscaping and we needed short bushes.

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  4. Oddly mine have been fantastic this year? Plants are just so random!!

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