Blueberry advice please

[Curlykale]

Earlier this year I repotted some blueberry plants - they had previously been quite small bushes but had produced loads of fruit. I repotted them into much bigger containers in new ericaceous compost.

Since I repotted them they have grown a lot bigger but although they have produced lots of foliage they have hardly grown any fruit. They are starting to look a bit leggy now.

Can anyone tell me why they haven't produced much fruit? Should I prune them?

Thanks in advance!

[FB.]

When did they last bear fruit and when did you re-pot them?

In many cases, if the soil is too fertile, fruit bushes or trees will grow instead of fruit.
It's nature's way of ensuring that plants get as big as possible and out-compete their neighbours before starting to fruit. In a "wild" environment, tiny little plants that fruited and didn't grow would soon be crowded-out by those that did grow.

Winter pruning will only delay fruiting and encourage strong leafy re-growth.
Hard pruning in July is usually the best way to control over-vigorous plants and it should make them fruit better the following year.

[BUFFS]

are blueberries self fertile?had one bought me this summer,but do i need another one?

[oldie]

The usual advice is that it is better to have 2 (or more) although many are self fertile you will get a better crop with multiple bushes. Do you know which one you have? A "google" will tell you if they really are self fertile.

[gojiberry]

When repotted plants will often make new roots over the following year at the expense of fruit. Don't worry they will start fruiting again hopefully this year. As with all self fertile fruit it is still better to have two or more plants for an increase in production. Am planting saskatoon this year as an alternative to blueberries.

Ian

[Sinmara]

how near do blueberry bushes have to stand to each other in order to pollinate each other? I have three bushes and they are standing next to each other in individual pots, that should be ok, shouldn't it?

(sorry to hijack your thread, didn't want to open up a new one!)

[northepaul]

Depending which blueberry bushes they are, (ie early mid or late fruiters) it might not be a good idea to prune in july. I prune mine now, (or when they have dropped their leaves) but only remove dead looking wood and/or to stop them becoming overcrowded.

Most blueberrys are only partially self fertile, and it helps to have two different ones. They need to be within bee flying distance really, although mine are about 25ft apart.

The other thing to look at is if something is in the pot, ie vine weavil, that would probably stop the bush flourishing....

[drichard12]

Blueberries can take up to 3-4 years before producing a good crop of berries they love acidified soils and will often do well the first year of planting, but if the soil is incorrect a slow death will occur.

Although there is a number of methods to overcome this problem I found that the self containment method the best.

I only look at home growers.