Trim blueberry bushes in winter for shape and performance for years of enjoyment. Blueberry bushes serve multiple functions in the home garden. They have landscape value as a shrub, they attract songbirds for nesting and they provide edible fruit, especially when properly pruned. Your goal is a vase-shaped blueberry bush, narrowing toward the base, that allows light penetration and air movement within the bush. Requiring very little care after they are established, blueberry bushes live longer and perform more satisfactorily when they are pruned annually.
Remove two or three canes of older growth from the base of your blueberry bush at planting. Cut close to the ground to remove the entire cane. Encourage vigorous growth by removing all blossom clusters the first year.
Prune heavily during the second and third growing season. Remove spindly growth, overlapping branches and dead wood. Leave no more than two or three fruiting clusters.
Observe your mature blueberry bush and select canes for cutting with shape in mind. Maintain a vase shape by removing weak, spindly growth from the base of the plant. Cut back strong, upright bull canes to prevent excessive height.
Maintain your blueberry bushes annually by removing dead, diseased, damaged or unproductive canes.
Cut out two or three of the oldest canes each year by cutting the cane to ground level or cutting back to a strong side shoot crown. Do not leave more than two shoots from a side-shoot crown. Consider canes seven years old or older for removal to maintain the vigor of the plant.
Prune mature blueberry bushes more lightly after they reach 8 to 10 years of age, as the larger root system is able to support more wood.
Trim top foliage lightly if plants tend to overbear with small fruit. Also trim vigorously growing new shoots to encourage branching.
Things You Will Need
- Pruning shears
- Pruning loppers
- Renewal pruning of older, neglected blueberry bushes follows the guidelines for mature bushes, with removal of older canes, opening the center of the bush to allow sunlight penetration and air movement, and removal of weak, dead, diseased or spindly growth.