My Tiny PlotBlueberries Kick In To Autumn
Plants have a one-track mind. All they want to do is reproduce. Sometimes we forget this. But sometimes it’s so blatantly obvious that we can’t avoid it.
Take my Blueberries for instance. These two plants are the same variety (Chandler), the same size, planted at the same time in the same sized pots, into the same ericaceous compost. One of them, however, has ripened all its berries and had them picked. After which it has promptly gone into Autumn mode in a bid to conserve energy for next year’s bee fest. The other one still has berries to ripen and is still looking all lovely and luscious.
Blueberries eh? Whodathought it?
Wow. You’d hardly know they are the same plant. I never realized it, but it seems that my strawberries look pretty much the same color as the autumn version of your blueberries. That same red…. hum.
Nice to know my blueberries are not alone! I have exactly the same thing happening with my 2 plants and thinking about it now, the one that’s gone in to Autumn mode cropped first. Phew…!
And talking of strawberries, I’m suddenly picking them again. I had a load of potted up runners given to me and have no idea of the varieties. Does anyone know whether I have some strange Autumn variety or are they rewarding me with a second crop?
I have a really healthy looking blueberry plant but it didn’t produce any fruit this year?
It sat outside the polytunnel all summer and appears very happy with it’s position but if only we could get it to produce fruit? :(
Hi Tania – do you have another Blueberry bush? They need another one to act as pollinator otherwise you probably won’t get any fruit on it. The more Blueberries the better I say!
Interesting – we had the same thing with currants: two bushes did brilliantly and one sat there producing lots of leaves and very few berries … I suspect it’s too comfortable and needs a little more stress to produce fruit so perhaps if its used up some soil nutrients this year it will be forced into productivity next year.
I love the autumn colour of blueberry plants. I had a great crop of blueberries this year.
re. mtp’s comment above.
I hadn’t heard that blueberries need another bush to be a pollinator.
I had a single bush and it had some fruit last year – though the fruit was very small.
The bush is only a couple of years old and they usually take a few years before they bear a decent crop.
This year I have planted two more bushes of different types, so hopefully in the future we’ll be harvesting a decent crop.
Our first bush is again covered in flowers so I’m impatient to see what develops this year in its third spring (I’m in Australia).
Hi Tim, As I understand it they do need another bush to pollinate. I don’t know if that means you won’t get any flowers, or just a small crop if you only have one.
Allotment Blogger – How old is your Red Currant? It won’t start fruiting really well until it’s into it’s 2nd or possibly 3rd year. Also did you prune it? Red Currants need to be pruned to crop really well. You’re aiming to create fruiting spurs.
When I bought mine, I was very lucky as they gave me the advice about buying more than one…I love them so much that I now have 3 different varieties. They make fabulous patio plants as you can enjoy their white spring flowers, fruit in summer and then amazing red foliage for autumn. Win win win! I was also told to get really plump fruit, they benefit from sitting in water all summer, (rain water preferably) so I kept them well topped up and had bumper crops.
Blueberries can be self fertile or not, depending on the variety. As mtp says,” the more bushes, the better,” but is a must in some cases. Sorry I am not sure of the ones that definately require a cross polinator.