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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> My question is this.. other than berry size the following year, how does 
> hard pruning/hedging back help or hinder the shrub?

Bev, when dealing with pruning blueberries, keep in mind that unlike 
blackberries or raspberries which bear once (or twice) or cherry trees which 
bear on 
the same wood for many years, blueberries bear on the same wood three or four 
years and then become nonbearing dunsel wood.

Giving them a crewcut with hedge clippers will take away the fruiting ends of 
wood of various ages and cut down the potential harvest unnecessarily.  
Better to go through the bush and prune out the OLDEST wood first.  The wood 
becomes thicker, darker, and more fibrous as it gets older.  Second and third 
year 
wood bears the heaviest and by the time its five years old, it is little or 
none.