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  • From: "JPitts" <thepitts AT localnet.com>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Blueberry bushes
  • Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:29:27 -0500

most likely your bushes have peaked, being that they are that old it would probable be hard to identify the variety and maybe even harder to replace.....however you should be able to salvage sprouts for transplanting, I too have six bushes that are about 30 years old and am just beginning to see some dying occur, next season I will begin transplanting sprouts and in years past I have given sprouts to half a dozen people and they have had a real good survival rate....in the fall or spring will be a good time for this but even now I can see a dozen or more sprouts under my bushes, check your bushes and see if you too have some, and if you do just take a shovel and cut shovel deep at a slight inward angle toward roots 12 to 14 inches from, and all around sprout and then using shovel lift sprout, root ball and all and place in a previously prepared hole, remember to wait until sap is down before doing this. good luck


From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
To: "Homestead List" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 12:02 PM
Subject: [Homestead] Blueberry bushes


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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