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Do you net your blueberries?

Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
in Fruit & veg
I've been building a small collection of blueberry bushes for the last couple of years. Some bought this year, and a couple last year or the year before. It seems I may get a small harvest this year, and i had my first spoonful of blueberries with breakfast this AM.

But this morning I also spotted a guilty-looking bird flying back into the Pyracantha heap at an altitude of 6 inches, like one of those Russian helicopters in Ukraine.

I have also lost about 6 of the 7 blackberries on the Black Butte plant bought last year, which is also looking vigorous for next year.

Can anyone give me wisdom on netting blueberries - is it necessary, and does everyone do it?

My eventual intention that (South) side is a deep, open veranda which will let me grow fruit and just net the whole thing for the summer if necessary.

Thanks

Ferdinand
“Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
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Posts

  • scrogginscroggin Posts: 437
    If I don't net my blueberries the birds ( mainly pigeons) have the lot, for me this is the case with all the currants too. Strangely they don't bother my raspberries or strawberries!
    Last year I neglected to net my blueberries etc and had hardly any fruit, even though there was a lot of fruit on the bushes. This year I made sure I netted and have had a fantastic crop.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    We found the blackbirds were helping themselves to the ripe ones early in the morning ... the bushes are right in front of the kitchen window and the birds don't usually come quite so close during the day ... and OH goes out and picks the ripe ones every evening ... but I bet we lose a few  ... 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I grow mine in a veg cage with netting - great harvest this year :)

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • EustaceEustace Posts: 2,290
    I was able to harvest a few blueberries today morning. Like @pansyface mentioned above, I try to pick as soon as there is a hint of blue on them. Still, the blackbirds have the most as they are not netted. I have seen the birds doing a stripping action with their beaks, cleanly stripping and scattering all the berries, small and big, in a twig.
    Oxford. The City of Dreaming Spires.
    And then my heart with pleasure fills,
    And dances with the daffodils (roses). Taking a bit of liberty with Wordsworth :)

  • Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
    edited July 2022
    Thanks all.

    Yes it was a blackbird. Despite the biblical plague of cats around here.

    So, harvest at night and obtain some Stinger AA Missiles.

    Interested to hear that they will ripen off the bush. That *is* useful to know.

    Ferdinand
    “Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I grew blueberries in our last garden and ended up netting them after finding the birds nicked them before they were ripe enough for us.   It's important to use a structure of some sort so that the netting is taught and doesn't get birds tangled in it.

    Too hot and dry to grow them here but, to my delight, I have found I can buy frozen native blueberries which are just like the moorland bilberries I remember from my youth in Lancashire and Cheshire.   
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Yes @pansyface.  Sauvage means wild.  Much better than the big fat American berries.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    pansyface said:
    Are those the myrtilles sauvages by Picard? We get them here from Ocado. I call them the savage Myrtles. I have a vision of an old woman wielding a large knife. 😁
    Oh my goodness, I’m obsessed with those myrtilles sauvages!!
    Absolutely delicious cooked into porridge, or sprinkle into Bircher muesli.
    I have a bag in my freezer at all times.

    Also have two sunshine blueberry bushes in large pots on the patio. No netting required - the presence of our two cats means the bushes stay intact.

    Those blueberries are nice to pick off in the morning and chuck into my cereal. They’ve taken far longer to ripen this year though - summer 2020 was insane! A handful every day, from May onwards!

    I never netted even pre cats, to be honest, after seeing several insects killing themselves in it. Baby bird must’ve been horrible… 
  • dappledshadedappledshade Posts: 1,017
    Obelixx said:
    Yes @pansyface.  Sauvage means wild.  Much better than the big fat American berries.
    Exactly.
    Often pumped with water.
    The wild ones are tiny and above all, purple all the way through (better for you apparently - has something to do with the chemical found in the purple bits - sorry, not very scientific).
    The American blueberry is only blue on the outside.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I had 3 blueberry bushes in big pots on the terrace at my old house in SW France. The blackbirds stripped them. So I netted them tucking the nets under the pots. The blackbirds pulled the netting out with their beaks and stole all the blueberries. I netted them the following year, anchoring the netting down with stones and bricks. The blackbirds pulled and pulled until there was a gap, got in and ate all the blueberries. 

    When I moved house I gave them to a friend.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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