Better Homestead Blueberries

After talking about journalling yesterday I figured I would start off with an entry on better Homestead Blueberries! I absolutely love blueberries and can not get enough of them when they are in season.We got our plants from Cashwell Farms and they have an excellent product. They were planted and somehow managed it through the drought we had last year. I think we are still a few years away from a lot of blueberries but perhaps we can make them more productive.I made sure that the birds have plenty to choose from and actually have plans to plant more as they make an attractive landscape plant and very wildlife friendly.Some of the plants have old rabbit cages around them. This prevents the chickens from stripping the leaves while they are young. You can tell that the plants that had the cages seem to have done better. We may switch the cages around this year to give the smaller ones a fighting chance.Another thing that will help all the bushes grow better is too remove the grass and weeds around the bushes. This is competition for the blueberry plant and is unwanted or needed. It will also make it easier to keep it watered once the mulch is around it. We are planning on removing at least an 18″ circle and mulching heavily with rabbit manure.The last thing that I am contemplating is to prune some of the bushes. I am guilty of not shaping the trees and bushes early on due to the risk of filling it. I think some of the later problems could be avoided if a little pruning was done early on.

So what do you think should be done. I need some help from the green thumb blueberry folks. It is critical that we have better Homestead Blueberries because I go through them by the pint at one sitting while in season. I look forward to hearing from you on how to improve.