I love how low-maintenance blueberry bushes are, but as I’m disappointed to discover, they aren’t indestructible.
One of my four mature blueberries, several years old, never had a good year. Small fruit, sparse fruit set, slow growth and sparse branches. Blueberries, with their surface roots, are never very forgiving of dry conditions, but this bush was extra-sensitive, fruit shriveling up at the slightest suggestion of dryness. Then, about two years ago, branches began to die back, just a few at the beginning. The leaves turned rust red and just stayed there, never dropping, just dead, and . . . there.
This last year entire sections of the bush died outright. Now, it’s mostly dead. Good for my gee haw whimmy diddle construction, bad for berry production. (I am saving the dead wood for whittling whimmy diddles).
After some searching I think I may have pinpointed the culprit: Phytophthora cinnamomi, or in plain terms, Root Rot.
At this point there is nothing to do but take this one plant out.
These are some resources I found while searching for the problem:
Organic Culture Guide for Blueberries
Blueberry problems diagnostic tool
The four new plants I put out this spring are surviving and will hopefully make up for the blueberry bush that never really had a chance.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I was pretty excited to plant blueberry bushes after seeing your post a few months ago. I got the Hollytone, two types of bushes, dug the holes… sadly, I killed two, and the rest are barely hanging in. I think blueberries must be harder to grow than they say.
We planted about twelve blueberries this year–mostly highbush, but some lowbush, too. None are doing very well. Our fingers are crossed that next year they’ll be happy.
They seem to have the same symptoms as yours, but I’ma gonna look through the cool resources you recommend to see what else it could be.
BTW, the link to your gee haw whimmy diddle goes to another place. A good place, but not nearly as fun a place as you gee haw whatsit! Ho boy! Cat just brought in a live mouse!
M–I’m so sorry your blueberries aren’t doing very well. One of the discouraging things about them is they take so long to get established, and during those early years my main problem is keeping them watered enough. The shallow roots are very sensitive to drought. My best advice is threefold: water, acidity, and patience. During the first few years it seemed I would never get enough blueberries out of four bushes to make one pie, but eventually it paid off. I hope your survivors turn the corner and start getting good. It’s worth it!
I hope you find the culprit. So far only one of mine has this problem. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Aaah! What a clever cat! She must be terribly proud of her/himself.
I’ll go fix the link–thanks for the alert.
I really want to grow fruit on my allotment but after reading all of this i don’t know that I will try blueberries…although I really love blueberries and really want to try…oh hell…I hate it when I find out something is so hard…maybe I will give it a go…now I just don’t know what to do!!!!
Tanya Walton–I always recommend blueberries. There are things that can go wrong, of course, but I don’t think they are as fussy as most berries. Go ahead and try them!