PRUNING OF HIGHBUSH BLUEBERRIES

Pruning of highbush blueberries is required to maintain the vigor and productivity of the bushes.
In a trial, four pruning treatments were compared for their effect on yield: no pruning, yearly tipping back the fruiting wood without removal of any canes, yearly tipping back the fruiting wood and removal of one or two of the oldest canes and yearly tipping back the fruiting wood and removal of three or four of the oldest canes.
No pruning resulted most years in more but smaller berries and also in a reduction of new vegetative growth.
Although, tipping back the fruiting wood, with or with cane removal, seemed to reduce the number of fruit buds per shoot, differences in production between treatments were not reliable in most years.
However, from the point of view of fruit quality and because sufficient vegetative growth is essential for future fruit production so far a combination of tipping back the fruiting wood and removal of a few of the oldest canes seems the best way to keep a good balance between fruit production and vegetative growth.

VI International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture

W.A.G.M. Jansen

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.446.49