How to Prune Blueberries

About 5 years ago, after considerable research, I bought 3 varieties of blueberries which complimented and cross-pollinated each other so I’d have blueberries nearly the whole growing season. I was told this would be simple.

Oh, how pathetic my wilting and tiny blueberry shrubs were a year after I planted them in my alkaline, hard clay soil of Pennsylvania. And forget about fruit – 1 berry per bush if I was lucky. Turns out the soil in my area was the exact opposite of what a blueberry bush needs: well-drained, highly acidic, loamy soil.

After 2 years I was about to put them out of their – and my – misery. But instead, I gave it one last shot and moved the blueberries to a raised garden bed so I could control the soil conditions. I loaded the soil in the garden bed with peat moss. To that, on a regular basis, I added elemental sulfur and compost for 2 years. Now the soil is almost where it needs to be, at a pH of 5 (but I’d like to get it to 4). Oh, and the plants look great and are producing crops of berries for the first time. I’ve learned a few things along the way.

Pruning blueberries is essential to their health

To get a great crop of blueberries every year, one also has to prune the shrubs every winter. Not spring or fall, but during winter when the plant is dormant. That’s in February where I live in Pennsylvania. Pruning is a little tricky in the beginning, but the video below from the University Of Maine explains how to prune blueberries and why.

The goal is to prune out the weak and old fruiting wood so the bush doesn’t try to support too many fruits. Without pruning, your fruit size will be very small and will tend to ripen rather late. Keeping the weaker wood also makes the plant more susceptible to disease because so much of the bush will shade itself. The idea, just as with pruning fruit trees, is to open the plant up to light and air so it heats up faster, can conduct photosynthesis more efficiently, and dries faster after rain.

Tips for pruning blueberry bushes

• Prune out older, less productive canes and leave the newer canes.
• Blueberries fruit on 1-year-old shoots – you’ll see the swollen buds at the tip of the canes. The swollen buds are the fruit buds that break in spring, producing flowers and fruit. Always prune out the smaller canes with few fruit buds and vegetative buds, as they won’t produce much fruit.
• Every winter, prune the old, graying canes which frequently are covered with lichen. They’ll be growing from the base and should be removed at ground level with loppers because they shade out new growth. There should be no canes on the blueberry bush older than 6 years.
• When pruning the top of the plant, leave the strong shoots and trim out the weak shoots (small twig-size). In fact, these can be snapped off by hand due to their small size.
• The goal is to prune out 50-75% of the blueberry bush. While this may sound too aggressive, it’s not. In fact, the aggressive pruning results in a bush that’s far more productive, with larger, sweeter, blueberries.

We garden in Pennsylvania, United States, zone 6B. Much of the info we share is based on gardening in our temperate area. But many of the flowers, vegetables, and fruit we write about can be grown in soil other than ours (clay) and significantly different weather conditions and elevations. You might need to choose specific varieties for your region, modify your garden, add soil amendments, or adjust the soil pH to match our results. Please check your local university extension website for specifics for your area.