I have found pest pressure to be low on blueberries. It may depend on your area. I at times spray if the spray I'm using for strawberries, or fruit trees is compatible with blueberries. While i have the stuff out, as a preventative.

I've been growing blueberries for 20 years and never sprayed them, as far as I can remember. Of course your experience might be different in your location. If you are going to spray them, you should first know what you are trying to kill.and you shouldn't be killing the bees that are pollinating them.

For me the biggest problem in raising blueberries is stopping the birds from eating all of them.

Hi Mrs. G,

I've had blueberries for the past 5-6 years. I've never sparyed for anything. My main focus is to keep the ph low enough for them to thrive. I fertilize them with acid-loving fertilizer.

I did not protect them during this past brutal winter, either. All mine have come back looking great (little to no die back) including the 3 that were planted last spring.

Thanks all! Right now the leaves a small but green and the flowers are about to open. I do have a few buds that did not make it. Unfortunately my new 'pollinator' has no flowers. I'll settle for two berries! Glad to hear there is little spray to worry about. Can't wait to see what might happen! Mrs. G

I tend to spray mine for fungi, I don't just randomly spray. It reminds me of tomato growers that get wilts, and blights, etc, you have to spray before you get them, not after. Since some of my plants are surrounded by strawberries which seem to attract grey mold, i often hit the blueberries too, some can't help but get on it as I do have to treat the strawberries. Here is Chandler, it's 2 years old.

Drew what a good looking shrub. How many do you have? Is there a pollinator close by? Mrs. G

I've never had to spray here in Wisconsin. Birds are another issue! Northwoodswis

"I've never had to spray here in Wisconsin. Birds are another issue! Northwoodswis"

I agree, it's just with me the darn strawberries are fungal magnets! So I'm a little paranoid. Plus when spraying those strawberries, the spray hits the blueberries anyway.

"Drew what a good looking shrub. How many do you have? Is there a pollinator close by?"

Thanks! Yes, I have 7 total 2 others in beds, and 4 others in pots, all kept near each other.
Hard to see in photo the middle bed is 4x4 and I have three of them, two are pictured. Each has a blueberry. Plus all pots seen are blueberries.

Here's another picture of the beds earlier in the year before the blueberries leafed out. The large bed in the foreground is all strawberries with a row of radishes in the center. I just harvested those and got about 3 pounds. I pickled half of them. I just did that tonight! After that in the middle are 3 4x4 beds all with a blueberry surrounded by strawberries.
4 pots are now on the grass between each 4x4 beds, so plenty of pollinators near by. The 2x4 beds to the left of the 4x4 beds have tomatoes, peppers, and ground cherries.
Ground cherries are a pretty cool plants to grow, everybody should try them.
The link is to the recipe I used to pickle my radishes

Here is a link that might be useful: pickled radish recipe

This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, May 28, 14 at 1:31

Here's a close up of one of my ground cherries. This one is Aunt Molly's. Related to Tomatillos. Google them, cool plants!

Drew,
Is another name for those Cape Gooseberries? Brady

I think our weather is similar. My Cape Cod soil seems to do well with Blues. I planted them in an area I cleared in my woods and some have reached 6 feet tall with a spring Hollytone fertilizer. the only thing I spray for early on is emerging little caterpillars. This year seems to be a quiet one for the little buggers. even my ornamentals don't have too many caterpillars on them. other than that I don't do much except as some people have mentioned the birds find them. Catbirds seem to be my number one problem. I had to cage my whole 10 plants and put a door on it.

I haven't had to use any sprays on my blueberry plants yet. I get an occasional leaf roller catapillar, but not many. Most on my plants have been in the ground 4 or 5 yrs now, and a few longer. All of these varieties are "1/2 highs" because of the harsh winters here. Max height is about 3 ft.

l do have to use netting to keep the birds out. Especially catbirds. Here is picture of my netting from 2 years ago:

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northernmn impressive. I have seen that photo, is it just as mulched now? Everything going OK?
"Is another name for those Cape Gooseberries?"

Yes, sort of. Cape Goosberries are related, same genus. As are Tomatillos.
For ground cherries we have
Aunt Molly's
Pineappple
Goldie
Wright's Ground Cherry
And another cultivar just called "ground cherry"

I also grow Tzimbalo
Solanum caripense

A very rare fruit that is quite similar to the pepino, but having round fruits growing to a bit over 1" wide. Like the pepino, the fruits are cream colored, with prominent purple stripes. Flavor is melon like, with some sour and tart overtones.
Here's a photo of one of three I have. Still a small plant. Damaged a little while hardening off. I may have to bring this in, in the fall for it to bear fruit.
I have grown tropicals for 40 years, and lately have been adding edible tropicals really tomatoes and peppers are just that! I just added a black pepper vine. Temps need to be above 65 F so it will be brought in sometime in September.

I still love tropicals and added Orange peel night jasmine
I have three jasmines. Night jasmine is the world's most fragrant flower. I have a 2 story house upstairs in a closed bedroom, the fragance is thoughout the house. I have learned to let them take a light frost to kill flowers and force into dormancy. My whole yard smells in the summer, probably 1/2 the block!
I could not resist the Orange peel hybrid!
CESTRUM HYBRID - A cross between Cestrum diurnum and Cestrum nocturum (night jasmine). Clusters of tubular orange flowers from june till frost producing the sweet scent of orange blossoms in the evening. A decidious shrub in the south, a houseplant in the northern areas. Zones 7-11..Sun..Attracts hummingbirds. Mine is forming flowers right now. i can't wait to see what the fragrance is like!

This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, May 28, 14 at 9:29

"northernmn impressive. I have seen that photo, is it just as mulched now? Everything going OK?"

The picture is a little misleading on mulch. What you see in the walkway is wood chips that I get free by the truck load,from the power company. In the actual rows of blueberries (about 3 ft wide) the mulch is actually pine needles (mostly White Pine) about 4" deep. The needles decompose very slowly. I only have to re apply about every 3 years.

I really like the pine needles because (1) They allow air and water penetration better than most mulches. (2) It is easy to roll it back to add something like sulfur. (3) It does a great job of blocking out weeds. (4) Retains moisture very well so I have less watering to do.

The winter damage to the blueberries turned out to be less extensive than I expected. 33 of the 38 plants have very strong blossom sets. They should be opening in the next couple of days. The weather forecast looks pretty good, so I'm hoping the bumblebees will be showing up to pollinate. If they show up, It should be my best crop of Blueberries.

Awesome! I also use pine straw. I need to get more though. I go through it. I started using it for just about all my plants. I added about 35 potted plants this year, and it killed my supply. I do harvest it myself in Northern Michigan.