Pruning Blueberry Bushes

As strange as it sounds, pruning and thinning plants is stressful for me. It is something that I dread doing. I hate being wasteful and feel like that I am throwing away something that is still perfectly useful. I know, however, that it is of greater benefit to prune and thin plants than to leave them all crowded together. The blueberry bushes are pretty much done producing berries this year. I have been putting off pruning them for about a week, but I finally got it done today. When I moved onto our property, the blueberry patch was very overgrown and dying. One of the first things that I worked one, before we were even completely moved in, was cleaning them up. There were very few berries on the bushes and a ton of dead limbs and brush surrounding them. The following two years I was amazed by the amount of berries we got off of the plants! We could easily pick 30 lbs of berries each time and we picked at least twice a week. This year was different. I didn't prune the bushes since the first year because they were doing so well. Why mess with a good thing, right? Wrong. This year we didn't even get half of that amount, despite the typical fertilizing of the plants (twice, once when they start budding and once around a month later when the blueberries are really starting to grow) and normal watering. Blueberry bushes grow shoots. The shoots start to produce berries at about a year old and produce the best at around 3 years of age. Once the shoots reach around 7 years old they don't produce well any more. The branches tend to crowd each other and keep proper light from reaching throughout the bush. I have read contradicting information as to when the best time to prune. Some say to do it in the spring once you can see where the buds are centralized. I went with the method of pruning them as soon as they finish producing. I made this decision because the new berries are produced on last year's growth. Once they stop producing berries they start filling out and growing next year's shoots. Any branches that will hang down and touch the ground when heavy with fruit should be pruned. Branches that are too high to reach and don't look like they will bend down soon (old growth hangs down on the sides and many times the new shoots grow straight up initially and then hang down to replace the older ones that have been removed, kind of like sharks teeth) should be cut to increase the light penetration. Any branches that are crossing over each other and not giving each other room to grow should be thinned. Not too many shoots should be cut at the same time, however. Pruning old growth, a couple of large shoots and a few smaller branches each year, will keep a succession of shoots growing and producing. As much as I hate to prune them, I am excited about the potential of having much higher fruit yield next year! This year I have a couple of gallons of berries in the freezer and I canned 12 half pint jars of jam. I am already compiling a list of options to use next year's blueberries!