I've thinned many ways. But mostly now by pruning out and shortening a good share of the small shoots before bloom. Thinning berries is too slow. It really starts by pruning in the summer after harvest. I'm still learning there and trying to get more big shoots that give big berries and less of the small shoots that have small berries.

Mine are all pruned now since harvest is done. I took off about half of the big shoots and 70-80% of the small shoots. So basically I'm growing a whole new canopy. I'll do more pruning in winter as stated above. I'll take out and shorten the smallest shoots that set fruit buds. The goal is a moderate set of big berries.

Those of us in the south that have a long season after harvest play a different game than northern growers who harvest late into summer.

PS: You ask about the twigs with berries and no leaves. I'm wanting more of those provided they are thick twigs with big berries. I'm not totally sure how to get more of those shoots. To me they are half vegetative and half fruit. I think they are forced by pruning the year before.

If they are small twigs with small berries cut them out. Even if big with big berries there must be enough leaves elsewhere to support the berries. Leaf to berry ratio needs to be high to get large sweet fruit.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Thu, Jun 19, 14 at 23:29

Yeah I'm still learning too, and not much help around in my area. My last harvest is near the end of August into September. My first harvest will be around July 15th.
One nice thing is being able to have plants that harvest months apart. Very useful. Once I move I'll add some for that reason. Currently I have mid, late mid, and early late season. Spartan sounds like a good one for me for early season. Not sure about when the SHB and the SHB/NHB cultivars will ripen? Too young for fruit anytime soon. I'll probably remove all fruit next year too.

A couple of years ago one of my 5 year old container bushes over-set fruit. The bush was loaded with fruit, and very few leaves. It was suggested on this forum that I remove most of the fruit to force new growth. I removed about 80% of the berries, and new growth started almost immediately. After about 6 weeks I had lots of new growth and the bush looked normal again.

Blueberries are one fruit that I don't thin. My main stand is planted quite close so i eliminate weak drooping canes and any that will bear fruit close to the ground. They tend to not have flavor. I also prune them fairly open, but so far, never quite open enough. Next year, I swear I will purposely prune out a lot more canes than what looks adequate.

I'm not sure how much the quality would be improved by thinning as they get quite sweet when left to fully ripen. My thinking is that picking smaller berries only shortens your harvest season- those are the later ripening fruit. The earlier ripening fruit tends to be bigger when ripe as the plants kind of peter out towards the end of their harvest but one of the best things about blueberries is the long steady harvest. Of course, you could probably say the same about apples and peaches- the smaller fruit probably formed later and would ripen later so it might be a good idea to leave some when thinning.

If you thin, I suggest you do it experimentally on just a few of the canes on any given plant and let us know how much it improves the fruit. I, for one, am curious.

It is a great year for blueberries in the northeast- I've never seen my plants with a heavier set. At least it is potentially a great year.

It seems the small fruits have gone crazy sensing doom have sent out as much seed as possible. My currant crop is unreal. My raspberries have sent out hundreds of runners. My Triple Crown even sent out 4 runners. I have 5 plants now. The strawberry harvest is record setting. I'm running out of containers and it's still June!

Yes, you must thin them, particularly some varieties like Reka. If you don't thin them, you will get tons of small berries that don't ever ripen or just don't ever get any size to them. It's best to thin when they are blooming but just yesterday I cut off a good number of berries on my plants to improve the harvest overall. Limbs that are too heavy, too many berries with very few leaves and limbs that are too thin to support large numbers of berries should be removed or thinned. Don't feel bad about it, they grow back quickly.

RM

Thank you everyone so much for your input. .

Most of my blue are about 5 years old. I have early, mid and late season varieties. They are healthy but not tall. After 5 years, most are about 3.5 ft tall.

The different approach I have done this year is to prune some old canes out in early spring and fertilize them with ammonium sulfate. After reading your input, I think I do not prune enough and not as often as I should.

The no-leave twigs I have are all skinny ones. Looks like I need to prune them (both twigs and berries on them) all off.

I will try to experiment with thinning to see if it'll increase fruit quality. I can do that on my Chandler since I have two of them. Not sure if I could trust my taste buds, though. I will enlist other family members to taste them.

Thank you again for giving me a lot of good ideas. .

For how old your plants are they seem small. But mine were set back, and will not be much bigger in 5 years. Ironic as the big one is Chandler, it's huge! Only in the ground a year, and near 3 feet tall with multiple branches, best form of all my plants. Hard to see with the raspberries and strawberries.

They are rather small but I don't mind. It'd be because I do not pay as much attention to them as I do with fruit trees.

Most years, the birds got the berries before I did. Last year was the first time I netted the bushes. Of the varieties I grow, I like Chandler the best for its size and taste. But again, taste is subjective.

Cool, I never tasted it yet, it has some berries,
You know you can't win, in three or four years I'm moving. Just when it will be super productive! I'll have to buy another and start over (sigh).

Can I have few questions for Drew51?

1. I see you have all the berries grouping. Is that for the purpose of netting, a protection from birds? - Good Idea!

2. I see raised bed in the picture. Is that to contain the raspberry from creeping everywhere into uninvited location?

I only have 2 raspberry last year but now I have over 10 clones and very worry about its persistency, creeping all over everywhere. I also have a row of strawberry, growing in another location. And, I just bought 4 blueberry this year! Your picture sort of giving me the idea that I should group them together for easy protection! Can you show a few more pictures of your set up? Thanks.