Hi all, I'm new to this forum and this my first post. I planted 6 reka blueberry plants last spring and they bloomed and produced 1 pound of blueberries per plant. This year they have yet to bloom, the plants are about 5-6 years old and had been given a light fertilizer application in April. The variety is reka and all the plants have lots of green leaves and good healthy growth. Do you guys know why the plants haven't bloomed? Does reka bloom late? Any ideas would helped. Thanks, Charlie
If they haven't bloomed by now they won't bloom this year. All my Rekas are blooming now. Can't say why yours didn't bloom, but you'll likely have good yields next year.
Are you sure they'll bloom next year? I'd really like to know and understand the cause of this and how I can prevent it from happening next year, anyone else have any ideas or have something similar happen to them?
They're likely establishing themselves right now. What type of fertilizer did you use? Blueberries require a chloride free type as they are very sensitive to chlorides. Something like this... http://www.store.tlhort.com/p-10435-15811brpremium-programmed-release-berry-blend.aspx
I used bone meal (2-14-0), do you think that had an adverse effect on the plants? So I guess this is a normal thing, as the plants were just budding leaves when I bought them last year that they wouldn't flower this year as they weren't established in my soil? and just another side note 2 of the plants did bud a group of 2-3 flowers, so in total they budded about 5 flowers. Kinda disappointed that I won't be harvesting any blueberries.
If you harvested a pound of blueberries per plant the year of planting, that explains why you are getting nothing this year. It's normally recommended to pick off all or at least most of the blossoms the first year to allow the plant to establish a good root system. Because your plants put all of their energy into the fruit last year, they didn't set any flower buds this year. You should have a normal crop next year.
Even if the plants were 5 years old? I bought them from a local farmer but I never knew picking off blossoms of aged plants when replanting was a good thing to do. Thanks for the info.
I should have thought of this sooner, but if you only have Reka, that is a problem. You need another type for cross pollination. Get a Blue crop, Duke, or Brigitta to cross pollinate. With 5 plants you should only require one cross pollinator...
I thought Reka was self pollinating? but even if I didn't have another variety of blueberry plants, the plants still should of flowered right or does a cross pollinator help the plant bloom?
No, it won't help the plants bloom. I was thinking of cross pollination to grow the blooms into berries. I didn't know there were blueberries that were self fertile, as it has been common wisdom that blueberries require a cross pollinator. Google research: It appears that even Rekas require cross pollination for large yields and berries.
Cross pollination may be helpful in the future; but that clearly was not the problem this year, since the plants didn't even bloom. By the way, the age of the plants has nothing to do with the need to limit fruit production when they are transplanted. Plants lose a significant portion of their root systems when they are dug up to be moved. When they are set out in their final location, they need to grow lots of new roots before they are capable of supporting a crop. When planting any fruit tree or shrub, it's a good idea not only to remove any flowers that develop but also to prune down the top part of the plant significantly.
Would you reccomend I prune the plants significantly this fall? I plan on planting two other varieties of blueberry plants to increase production in the fall. Also wanted to give you and treenut my thanks for putting my mind to ease (not understanding why the plants didn't bloom was causing quite some annoynce)
If the blueberry bushes show good growth this summer, there should be no need to prune them. After the initial pruning when planting out, pruning is only required to maintain berry size by limiting fruit production. If a bush is producing smaller than normal berries, it will usually not have much new growth; and pruning out older stems will help.
