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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Blueberry bushes
  • Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:02:14 -0400

When I moved here, I acquired a monster patch of blueberry bushes. It looks like there were originally 6 bushes, but each has put out so many new canes that they had all grown together into a thicket. The thicket was about 12-15 feet tall, 15-20 feet wide and 25 feet long. The arrangement was like a 6 on a die. I have no idea of what variety they are, but there are at least 2 varieties. This thicket was what sold me on the property as the bushes were loaded the day I first stepped foot on the place. I've been very protective of the thicket-no spraying, only a bit of goat barn mulch around the base, but nothing in the last 5 years. In talking to my neighbor whose family owned this land, she says the blueberries were planted in the mid 1960's, making them 40+ years old now.

A few years ago, I noticed that some canes were dying, and I began to cut out the dead ones. It seems like the more I cut, the more that died. I never saw signs of disease or fungus, the canes just died en masse a few each year. Now, after 11 years here, I only have 3 of the original 6 bushes-really 2.5 as I can see more canes dead and dying. It is still as tall, maybe 12 feet, but we just pull the canes down and what we can't reach is bird food. Before we moved here, they backed a truck into the thicket and picked from the bed of the truck.

I've been reading up on the lifespan of blueberries, and I see everything from 20-60 years, making my thicket hit dead center of the lifespan. Is there some weird disease affecting my bushes or do you think they are just spent and dying of old age?

I've tried multiple times to get cuttings and root them, and have been unsuccessful. This past winter I did keep one alive, but it drowned in the Spring rains. I have, however, begun to buy replacement plants which I have planted away from the thicket just in case it really is some disease.

B
--
"Never expect magic from no where" Baringo (Kenyan) working motto
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA




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