Blueberry Wisdom

The above sketch I did in 2007.

 I have had 40 or 50 blueberry bushes for a decade or so.  I rarely harvested a single blueberry.  This year I acidified the ground with pine bark much, put in 2 10 foot copper rods filled with basalt.   The spring looked incredibly optimistic with boatloads of flowers and young berries.  I started reading about techniques to keep the birds from your blueberries.  Most involved complicated hoop structures with bird netting.  My blueberry area is too big to build a structure such as that.  The bushes are 6 to 8 feet tall.  

I learned 2 important techniques.  I bought rubber snakes from the Dollar General and placed them in and on the bushes.  I also harvested before they were ripe, put them in a closed paper bag for 2 days.  

Thanks to these 2 techniques, I have had the best season ever with multiple pints of blueberries harvested. 

Growing your own food sounds easy and pat.  In reality it is extremely challenging.  Just when you have a beautiful cabbage saved from cabbage looper moth caterpillars, a critter comes in one night and eats the whole thing.  Continuous learning...