We have 3 big blueberry bushes (not the native sort) as we have slightly acid soil here and they thrive. We’ve had them a few years and had magnificent crops off them but this year we seem to have fewer berries and one of the bushes has almost none.
I was wondering - are they short-lived ? Should I be replacing them?
We have a 5 yr old bush that is now about 4 feet tall. It didn’t do very well until we put it into a large pot with ericaceous compost. Since then both growth and fruiting have improved, but this year the berries are not very sweet due to a lack of sun to ripen them properly at the relevant time. The blackbirds are enjoying them never the less.
As with any plant, climatic conditions are hugely relevant, and so with increasing levels of climate change and unreliability there are bound to be problem years.
The bushes can live 20 yrs or more in ideal circumstances, but the level of fruiting tends to wane as the plants age. Many commercial growers replace their bushes every 8 to 10 years, though these do tend to be the highly hybridised varieties.
You might like to try an acidic mulch such as pine bark to rejuvenate the bushes.
Also, have you been pruning them ? Cutting out the older stems (about 20% of the bush) will also help to keep to maintain new growth from the base, and thus maintain maximum fruiting for as long as possible.
Thanks @Robert_Hodge . Our bushes certainly aren’t as much as 8 years old but are heading that way. They are round about 4ft tall and have always fruited prolifically. Number 3 (with the biggest berries) hasn’t really fruited at all this year.
I’ll try a mulch for next year but you suggestion about pruning is good. I haven’t pruned tham at all so that could well be part of the problem. The blackbirds are certainly enjoying the fruit but normally there’s enough to share 
I’ll try and feed them for next year as well - I know our raspberries do loads better with a feed…
Have the blackbirds got there first? ours take the berries before they are even ripe.
Yes they do but normally there are enough for all of us! Three big bushes… I don’t really want to transplant them but we haven’t put them in a good spot to have a fruit cage round them (and the raspberries and the redcurrants etc) I do what I can with netting but it’s a faff. What I’d like would be something like this, but much much bigger - unfortunately the budget won’t run to it!
That’s lovely 
Isn’t it? But it’s thousands of pounds in a decent size… and I doubt if they deliver to france anyway so I’d need to find a more local supplier.
We’ve never really bothered to net our fruit. The birds really love the figs and raspberries. We seea European green lizard in our strawberries sometimes. There always seems to be plenty left for us.
There normally are for us too, but not this year 
We have an enormous cherry tree - wonderful cherries. We’ve been known in some years to have been able to taste one or two before the entire tree is stripped in an evening by our local starlings.
That’s most definitely the case for us too, with cherries. we started putting a net over a couple of branches in order to save us a few 
My 88 year old next door neighbour has a massive cherry tree and we have lots of starlings around. When the fruit is getting ripe, he stands guard and has a little .22 calibre pistol which he uses the shoot a few of the starlings when they start eating his cherries 
. He says that if you get a few, the rest leave them alone. I’m not sure about that.
Hmmm…sounds a wee bit drastic 
I agree, but he’s a really nice guy all round … apart from this one thing.
In this part of the world, sounds like most of our neighbours.
If you apply some mulch soon now, not only will it help to reduce water loss by evaporation, but during the Autumn and Winter the mulch will have a chance to start to break down and start re-acidifying the soil before next year’s growing season starts.
When pruning, be prepared to be quite radical and take out some of the old stems down to the ground. Combined with a good feed in early spring, this should promote new growth from the base of the plant.
As is often the case, ‘The answer lies in the soil’.
I don’t have a great deal of water loss problem as pretty well everything we grow is planted through heavy-duty landscaping fabric (started this in order to keep a certain amount of weed control going when the house was a maison secondaire.
However, I take your point about the mulch and also the pruning advice. I shall report back!!
It’s a poly tunnel frame painted black with a posh door. Pity the door is what changes it from utilitarian to pretty - the rest is under 200 euros.
Quite. Same here, at least the more ‘mature’ ones anyway.
That’s an interesting idea @chrisell . Given that fruit cages are a wee bit like hen’s teeth here in France and most of the sites talking about them are full of ideas for making one, my partner and I were discussing what would make a suitable frame and how robust it would need to be. Given the size we would need, I think a decent polytunnel frame would cost rather more than you suggest but I’ll investigate - thanks!