It is important to give your blueberry shrub care so that it remains healthy and to ensure a productive harvest. If you have planted blueberries in the last couple years, it is worthwhile to check the soil ph around your plants. They need an acid soil with a ph around 5.5. Pro-Holly or Holly-tone are the fertilizers of choice. Wait until they are well established before fertilizing, then fert. twice a year – early spring then late spring. Mulching with peat moss is a good practice as well: it holds moisture, naturally acidic, prevent weeds, insulates roots during winter and add vital organic material to soil. Add a good 2-4 inches but keep it away from trunk. Blueberries are shallow rooted so you don’t want to be pulling big weeds around them and disturbing the roots as they get established. It is important to keep your lawn, weeds and competing root systems from creeping in toward the trunk of the shrub. Give the plant as much free, undisturbed soil as possible. Water deeply and regularly during growing season to develop deep extensive root systems. During dry periods, plan to give the shrubs a big drink every week or so. Blueberries are catergorized as either early, mid or late which refers to flowering time and when their pollen is available to pollinators. Cross pollinating results in greater yield, larger fruit, enhanced flavor and better ripening. Early flowering blueberry bushes will cross with a mid flowering and mid flowering will cross with late flowering, but early and late do not cross since the early flowers pollen is past. Consider expanding your blueberry season by introducing cross pollinators. Fall Creek Farm has a great chart to help you choose cross pollinators. Prune in late March Early April before new growth appears. Refrigerate blueberries as soon as they are picked; don’t wash until they are ready to be eaten as the hazy bloom protects the skin rom degradation. Fresh picked berries are ideal fro freezing. Do not wash beforehand.