How to Tell When Blue Berries Are Ripe
I can't think of anything more than delightful than fresh picked blueberries.
And If I'thousand being honest, I become so excited for fresh berries each summer that I have a hard time waiting for them to fully ripen.
While it may be tempting to pick them as soon as they announced, exercising restraint until the time is right volition result in bigger, more flavorful berries.
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Read on to larn how to harvest perfectly ripe blueberries.
What You'll Larn
- Patience Is Central
- Found Multiples
- Harvesting
- Preserving
There isn't much to harvesting blueberries. In my opinion, the wait is by far the about challenging part!
Patience Is Primal
It takes two or three years from planting time earlier a shrub is mature plenty to produce a full crop.
For the first season after planting, pluck off the flowers equally they appear. This will encourage the institute to concentrate its free energy on growth and root development.
During the second season, you can harvest the fruits sparingly, only it is withal a proficient idea to pick off at least half of the flowers to promote growth.
By the third flavor, exit all the flowers on the shrub and enjoy a total harvest!
While it may be tough to wait so long for the first total harvest, you volition be rewarded with healthier, more robust plants, and thus larger yields downwardly the road.
Constitute Multiples
It is advisable to plant more than 1 shrub to improve yields and extend the harvest season.
While some cultivars are cocky-fertile, cross pollination will encourage a much bigger crop of larger berries. Choose two unlike varieties with like bloom times for best results.
If you have the space for more two, I recommend planting a couple each of early, midseason, and late flavour varieties. This way, you will have fresh fruit available for much longer each summertime!
For tips on selecting cultivars, check out this article on elevation blueberry varieties for domicile harvests.
Harvesting
I know it may exist tempting, but try to restrain yourself from picking the fruit too early in the flavor.
For the juiciest, sweetest berries, expect until they plough deep blue in color, and look plump and full.
Depending on where you live, and the cultivars that y'all take planted, this tin happen any time from late May through mid-August.
Pink blueberries, such 'Pink Lemonade' which is available from Nature Hills Nursery, volition be firm, deep pink in color, and gustatory modality sweet when ripe, typically in mid to late summer.
'Pink Lemonade'
If you pick ones that still have a tinge of red or purple, they will continue to ripen off the shrub, though they volition not become any sweeter.
Then if you don't like sour berries, it is all-time to wait until they are completely blue earlier harvesting. Fruits that are nevertheless greenish or white will non continue to ripen once picked.
This can be tricky to do if you 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 basket at the ready, gently scroll 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 "gustation test" first.
I e'er effort to restrain myself from eating them all immediately, but it'due south non an easy task!
Preserving
Eat the berries right away (my preferred method) or yous tin refrigerate them in an open container for about a calendar week.
Refrigerated, they will keep longer if you expect until merely before eating to wash them.
They can also easily be frozen or dried for later employ.
To freeze, gently launder under cool running water and so let them sit a strainer or colander until they are completely dry.
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, after a few hours, transfer to an airtight freezer-safety pocketbook or container. These volition keep for one to ii years.
My family eats frozen blueberries well-nigh 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 out the fruit by blistering it in an oven gear up to the everyman temperature for iii hours, or in a dehydrator set on depression for 18 hours.
Fully stale, they will be shrunken and crisp with a stronger flavor. Shop in a cupboard in an airtight container for upwards to six months.
Not certain what to do with stale berries? You tin add them to homemade trail mix for an energizing snack, or I similar to bake them into breadstuff and muffins.
This recipe for whole wheat pecan bread with stale blueberries, also from Foodal, is a delicious way to brand use of homegrown dried fruits!
Source: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/fruit/harvest-blueberries/
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