Blueberry Bushes & Pear Tree

jimbugalee

My boyfriend kindly bought me 3 little blueberry plants which arrived this week.

They are in little pots and need moving to bigger ones. I think I've bought the correct size!

I says to use 'ericaceous' compost - what is this?!

Do I need to do anything else like feed them?

Second question ..... I have a pear tree in the garden which didn't do anything last year. It's quite tall and spindly ... would I need to prune it right down?

Thanks in advance for any help

WestonDave

Blueberries won't tolerate alkaline lime rich soil which is normal in this country - ericaceous compost is an acidic compost which you can buy in most garden centres and even most DIY sheds. Its a bit more expensive than basic compost but you have no choice - they will die in normal compost. You are also better off watering them with rain water because the chlorine in tap water makes that slightly alkaline as well. Its worth knowing that azaleas are also lime hating so feeds and composts for azaleas will work on blueberries.

Don't know much about fruit trees I'm afraid so hopefully someone else will help with your pears.

seraphina

Also, keep the blueberries near each other - they need to cross-polinate in order to produce fruit.

jimbugalee

Really useful info both - thank you.

I don't have a garden centre that near to me so I'll pop to B&Q on my lunch break today. If they don't have what I need I'll have to wait until the weekend.

WestonDave

seraphina wrote: »

Also, keep the blueberries near each other - they need to cross-polinate in order to produce fruit.

Depends on the variety - whilst they all crop more heavily if they can cross polinate, mine (I only have one - Gold Traube variety) is either self fertilising or cross polinating with something out of obvious sight as neither of the neighbours have one! That said I have a pot which is pleading for another blueberry if I can negotiate the purchase with the financial authorities.

pookienoodle

Also if you go to a coffee shop such as starbucks they will give you some spend coffee grounds,blueberries love these as a mulch.

peachespeaches

I have often seen blueberry plants advertised in plant catalogues and really fancy one or two. How long before they fruit? Is there a particular variety thats best?

conradmum

I could try to answer your question about your pear. How tall has it grown and do you know how old it is?

If it didn't do anything last year it could be that it's become biennial bearing, fruiting every other year. If this is the case you'll get loads of fruit this year instead. However don't let this put you off pruning it back now, as you're aiming to reduce this year's crop somewhat so that the tree doesn't exhaust itself and therefore give no fruit next year.

There's a bit of an art to bringing neglected fruit trees back into good production and I'm no expert, but you can definitely take out any dead wood and any branches that are crossing and rubbing each other. Then generally try to cut so that you open out web of branches to make an open goblet shape. You could also cut the twigs back by 1/3 (and pray that the tree isn't a tip bearer!)

jimbugalee

Right - I've planted the blueberry bushes now. They're looking good and I managed to find the correct compost and plant food. Looking forward to see how they progress

I've taken a picture of the pear tree (well, I hope it's a pear tree!) As you can see it doesn't look too great. It basically looked like that since we moved in last May.

What do you think? No idea how I would actually prune it - it's pretty high!!

peachespeaches

jimbugalee wrote: »

Right - I've planted the blueberry bushes now. They're looking good and I managed to find the correct compost and plant food. Looking forward to see how they progress

I've taken a picture of the pear tree (well, I hope it's a pear tree!) As you can see it doesn't look too great. It basically looked like that since we moved in last May.

What do you think? No idea how I would actually prune it - it's pretty high!!

I think I would take out those really tall bits at the top if you can. Then look to see if any of the other branches are crossing or facing to the centre of the tree rather than to the outside. Just aim for a nice rounded tree shape by taking out the excessively tall bits and tidying the rest up. There's nothing you can do about the kink in the trunk though :rotfl:It wasnt staked correctly when it was young.

conradmum

Yes, if you've got a stepladder I would stand on it and get something to hook down those long whippy branches and chop them about half way. Then clear out some of the mess in the middle.