Blueberries are an all-round super crop. Not only are they super-easy to grow, but they are also a tasty superfood, packed with vitamins and antioxidants. August is a key time in the blueberry season, and a few important jobs will keep your plants healthy and preserve your harvests.
When you grow blueberries, August is prime picking season, so get out and harvest regularly, being sure to place your fruits carefully into a basket or this garden hod from Burpee. This way, you get the fruit at its best and avoid losing many of your berries to birds. If birds are an issue, as they often are, it is wise to net the plants this month to protect your harvest.
Another important thing this month is watering; you need to water plants during hot spells so they don’t dry out. And there are preferable ways to go about it. Here we look at what to do with a blueberry bush in August, plus a few tasks not to do.
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Harvest Blueberries Often
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This is the fun part – picking. I have a happy blueberry bush in a large container in my garden. It has taken a few years to get to this stage, but it is covered in fruit at the moment. When you have a bush like this, regular harvesting is crucial.
The blueberry harvesting season will vary depending on your climate and the type of plant. But, in general, July to September are the prime picking months. During this time, check every few days, as blueberries across the bush will ripen at different times. If you don’t get to the fruit quickly, a bird will likely come and steal it.
To test if a blueberry is ripe, check the color. It should be completely purple-blue. If any pink or red blush remains near the stem, it is not ready. A ripe blueberry should easily detach from the bush; if you feel resistance, leave the fruit for another few days.
You can get a berry picker like this on Amazon to comb over blueberry bushes and harvest ripe fruit with ease.
Net Fruits Against Birds
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I mentioned that my blueberry bush is covered in fruit. Unfortunately, it is not only me who revels in that sight. I have seen local birds coming down and stealing fruit from the bush – sometimes brazenly in front of me. If you also have this issue, it may be time to net the plant to keep the fruit to yourself.
Nets are the easiest way to protect soft fruit in your yard from birds. You can get large fruit cages to install over your fruit bushes permanently, and these are large enough for you to access for maintenance and picking – like this crop cage at Wayfair.
However, protection doesn’t always need to be so fortress-like. You can simply install bird-proof netting over the plants once they become an issue, using material like this bird netting at Amazon.
For the best protection, I have always found it is best to use posts or hoops around the bush and put the netting over these. Otherwise, clever birds can just reach through the netting and get to the fruits if you just place it on the plant – and that kind of defeats the object.
Be sure to secure the nets to the ground with landscape staples (available at Lowe’s), bricks or stones. This prevents birds from getting under the netting and getting stuck.
Water Deeply in Dry Spells
(Image credit: Trevor Chriss / Alamy Stock Photo)
Blueberry plants have shallow roots. To get a blueberry bush to fruit to its full potential, you need to water plants during hot, dry spells in summer. This is especially true when you grow blueberries in pots, as the soil can dry out very quickly as temperatures rise.
Established blueberries need extra watering while the berries are forming and ripening. Check plants every few days during hot spells and water the garden when the top few inches of soil feel dry. You can check the levels with your fingers or a soil moisture meter (you can get a soil moisture meter at Amazon for instant results about when to water plants).
When you water, water deeply in the morning. This ensures the roots are soaked, and the moisture isn’t lost to evaporation at the surface during the hottest parts of the day.
Topping up any mulching materials around your blueberry bushes will help to retain moisture in the soil. The best types of mulch for blueberries are acidic, such as pine bark or pine needles. You can get a bag of pine bark mulch at Lowe’s.
Where you can, water blueberries with rainwater. Natural rainwater from a rain barrel is better for blueberries than tap water, as it is naturally acidic.
Fertilize Blueberries in Pots
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Anytime you grow berries in containers, they need more fertilizer than bushes growing in the ground. Early to mid-August can be a good time to fertilize blueberries in pots for a boost of nutrients to finish ripening the last of the crop.
The best fertilizers for blueberries are special ericaceous feeds. This month, use a liquid fertilizer like this TPS blueberry fertilizer on Amazon. Mix the product at the recommended rate with water and use it to feed plants.
What you don’t want to do this month is give blueberries any high-nitrogen fertilizers. Doing this would be a fertilizing mistake, because it would encourage a late flush of new foliage and stems rather than ripen the remaining fruit.
This soft, new growth runs the risk of being damaged when the temperatures drop, leaving the bush more susceptible to pests and diseases.
What to Shop
This stylish rain barrel connects to standard residential downspouts and stores up to 50 gallons to use for watering the garden. You can even plant up the recess on the top of it.
A pack of 10 8-foot bamboo stakes that gardeners can use for supporting plants or putting up bird netting over soft fruit bushes to protect the harvests.
This slow-release fertilizer is specially formulated for acid-loving plants, including rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas, evergreens, and blueberries.
Another no-no for the month is pruning a blueberry bush. You should prune in late winter or early spring, as this is the perfect time to establish a good mix of productive branches on the bush and set it up for a bumper summer crop.
If you see dead or damaged stems this month, yes, they can be cut out with clean, sharp pruning tools to keep the bush healthy. But any major trimming could see you miss out on fruit and would also encourage a late flush of new growth that can be damaged by frost.
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