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Blueberry Issues!
Alison Homer
Posts: 3
I have two blueberry bushes, one is looking fab with fat green berries and healthy foliage. The other, which has had no difference in care or placement in the garden, has very shrivelled berries which are already showing some purple colouring even though they are tiny. I assume the berries are shrivelled because they are lacking water, but as the other plant is doing fine I am now unsure of what to do. This is the second year the bushes have set fruit, both bushes produced gorgeous blueberries last year. Any advice or ideas on what I need to do? I am a newbie gardener!
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Posts
If the leaves still look good and healthy, it might just have got a bit dry at a critical stage when the fruit set. If so, the crop will be poor this year but the bush should be fine. If the leaves look a bit small or sick, then further investigation may be needed - I lost one of mine earlier this year as the pot had become a bit waterlogged - when I gave the stem a gentle tug, the bush came up and I could see most of the roots had rotted. While they don't like drying out, waterlogging will kill them. The other possibility if leaves are affected is vine weevil, but you'd probably need to tip it out of the pot to look for the C-shaped white grubs.
If the roots are ok should I cut off the fruit so the energy goes into making sure the leaves are healthy? Or is there a chance the fruit may recover?
It definitely doesn't look healthy like my other bush but the leaves don't look bad at all.
Hi Alison, that was the case with mine - it didn't recover. Many of the leaves had already dropped off by the time I noticed, a sure sign of waterlogging. As the leaves on yours don't sound too bad, it might just have dried out a bit too much earlier in the year. If the fruit isn't getting any bigger, you may as well remove it and let the plant put its energy into fresh leaves and stems for next year.