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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

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