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.
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