How Do You Know When Blueberries Are Ready To Pick
I can't think of annihilation more delightful than fresh picked blueberries.
And If I'chiliad being honest, I become and so excited for fresh berries each summertime that I have a hard fourth dimension waiting for them to fully ripen.
While it may be tempting to pick them as soon every bit they appear, exercising restraint until the time is correct will upshot in bigger, more flavorful berries.
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Read on to larn how to harvest perfectly ripe blueberries.
What You'll Learn
- Patience Is Key
- Plant Multiples
- Harvesting
- Preserving
In that location isn't much to harvesting blueberries. In my opinion, the wait is past far the most challenging part!
Patience Is Fundamental
Information technology takes two or three years from planting time before a shrub is mature enough to produce a full crop.
For the offset season after planting, pluck off the flowers as they appear. This volition encourage the plant to concentrate its energy on growth and root development.
During the second flavor, y'all can harvest the fruits sparingly, but it is yet a good idea to option off at least half of the flowers to promote growth.
By the third season, leave all the flowers on the shrub and enjoy a full harvest!
While it may be tough to expect so long for the offset full harvest, yous will be rewarded with healthier, more than robust plants, and thus larger yields downwardly the road.
Plant Multiples
It is appropriate to plant more than than ane shrub to improve yields and extend the harvest season.
While some cultivars are self-fertile, cantankerous pollination will encourage a much bigger ingather of larger berries. Choose two different varieties with similar bloom times for best results.
If you take the infinite for more than two, I recommend planting a couple each of early, midseason, and late flavour varieties. This way, you will have fresh fruit bachelor for much longer each summer!
For tips on selecting cultivars, check out this article on top blueberry varieties for home harvests.
Harvesting
I know it may be tempting, just endeavor to restrain yourself from picking the fruit too early in the season.
For the juiciest, sweetest berries, expect until they turn deep blue in color, and look plump and full.
Depending on where you live, and the cultivars that you have planted, this tin happen any fourth dimension from late May through mid-August.
Pink blueberries, such 'Pink Lemonade' which is available from Nature Hills Nursery, will be firm, deep pinkish in color, and taste sweetness when ripe, typically in mid to late summertime.
'Pink Lemonade'
If y'all pick ones that still take a tinge of blood-red or regal, they will continue to ripen off the shrub, though they will not go any sweeter.
And then if you don't like sour berries, information technology is all-time to wait until they are completely blue earlier harvesting. Fruits that are still green or white will not go along to ripen one time picked.
This can exist catchy to practice if you lot have birds or other animals feeding on your ingather. Read our guide on protecting your berries from birds for more than details.
There are no special tricks to harvesting. With a handbasket at the ready, gently roll each berry off the stem with your fingers.
When ripe, they tin can exist picked easily without resistance. Collect all the fruits that you don't "taste test" outset.
I e'er attempt to restrain myself from eating them all immediately, just information technology'south not an easy task!
Preserving
Eat the berries correct abroad (my preferred method) or you can refrigerate them in an open container for nigh a week.
Refrigerated, they will go on longer if you look until just before eating to wash them.
They can too easily be frozen or dried for afterward use.
To freeze, gently launder nether cool running h2o and and then let them sit a strainer or colander until they are completely dry out.
Spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, making sure no berries are touching, and place in the freezer.
Once they are completely frozen, later on a few hours, transfer to an airtight freezer-safe bag or container. These will keep for one to two years.
My family eats frozen blueberries almost daily in smoothes or our morning oatmeal.
I peculiarly love this deliciously flossy berry date smoothie on our sister site, Foodal.
You can also dry the fruit by baking it in an oven set to the everyman temperature for three hours, or in a dehydrator set on low for xviii hours.
Fully dried, they will be shrunken and well-baked with a stronger flavor. Store in a closet in an airtight container for up to six months.
Not sure what to do with stale berries? You tin can add together them to homemade trail mix for an energizing snack, or I like to bake them into breadstuff and muffins.
This recipe for whole wheat pecan bread with dried blueberries, also from Foodal, is a succulent manner to make use of homegrown dried fruits!
Source: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/fruit/harvest-blueberries/
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