Blueberry Pruning Guide
Post sponsored by Welcome to PDX Real Estate Agent, Deb
〰️
Post sponsored by Welcome to PDX Real Estate Agent, Deb 〰️
Blueberries are delicious fruiting shrubs native to North America. They can live for decades, providing an addictive and abundant snack source year after year. Therefore, it is important to maintain your bushes with regular annual pruning so that you continue to get large, healthy and abundant fruit consistently.
Fruiting Habit
Before you prune any fruiting plant it is important to know where they set fruit so that you aren’t pruning all of the most important parts off. Blueberries fruit at the tips of last year’s new growth. For example, if you’re pruning your blueberries this year you will want to keep the growth from 2024’s growing season. The flowering buds which will turn into your fruit are more plump and round than the buds that will be vegetative and turn into more branches.
When to prune
Blueberries should be pruned during the winter season while the plant is dormant. This is typically from mid December to mid March.
Pruning Budget
Your pruning budget for blueberries will be 30% of the bush. It is helpful to keep your pruning pile beside you so that you can determine how much you have pruned off. It is better to be more moderate with your pruning and to prune every year than to heavily prune. You want to balance the fact that you will be cutting off some of the fruiting buds.
What to prune
While pruning blueberries you will want to start by removing all of the dead wood first. The dead plant material does not count towards your budget. Removing the dead first will give you a better idea of how much of the bush you are actually working with in terms of pruning budget.
Next you will want to remove any damaged or diseased branches or twigs.
There tends to be growth lower down that may droop to the ground when it sets fruit and you will want to go ahead and remove that as well.
You will then want to remove older less productive growth to keep the bush abundant. This will be more woody growth and have a lot of scraggly less shiny growth attached to it. They won’t look as vibrant and healthy as the newer growth. It is important to not just cut out all of the more woody growth and to observe the system as a whole because there could be a lot of new abundant growth attached.
Aiming to open up the center of your blueberry bush while pruning is ideal to let sunlight through the entire bush.
Make sure to keep checking in with how much you are pruning off to stay within the 30% budget.
Harvesting blueberries on Mudbone Grown’s blueberry farm.
Remember: Sanitize, saNITIZE, sANITIZE
Lastly, blueberries need at least one other blueberry bush to cross pollinate so this means you will be pruning more than one bush. It is important to sanitize your pruners with isopropyl alcohol in between each bush so as not to spread any potential disease.
We hope this helped you gain some clarity and confidence when approaching your blueberry bushes this winter. We are also hosting a FREE blueberry pruning workshop March 1st with Mudbone Grown plus a practice session the following week. They have 8 acres of blueberries so there will be plenty of opportunity for practicing! See dates, times, and details here!
Do you have questions or need help?
Check out the Home Orchard Education Center for workshops and more
Find articles and more with the Oregon State University Extension school
Take the next step with Portland Fruit Tree Project!
This content was generously supported by:
Are you interested in sponsoring Portland Fruit Tree Project content? Send us an email!