Picking Blueberries for Max Sweetness

Ferdinand2000

Hello again, everyone.

Last year I bought half a dozen blueberries for containers - early to late varieties from Earliblue and Bluecrop through to Liberty, in sizes from 9cm pots up to a couple two feet high.

My first smallish harvest is appearing, but I'm struggling with the balance of picking the blueberries a) when they are sweet and b) before they fall off.

The current solution is to apply some Bilberry Jam to the bowl of porridge.

Does anyone have any tricks or guidelines to harvest at the optimal point? They are kept well-watered.

Thanks

Ferdinand

Pete.8

I have 3 bushes that produce well.
Once the berry is completely blue/black it's ready to harvest.
The berries ripen from the flower end to the stalk end, so once the berry is blue/black where it joins the stalk it's ready, but if left a couple more days it does improve the sweetness. Leave it a couple of days more and they go soft and overripe.
I just pick them when they're uniformly black/blue all over

Ferdinand2000

Thanks.

barry island

I use the ones that fall of too as long as they aren't squishy.

barry island

Yesterday I harvested 3.33 Kg from two bushes which are growing in large tubs the ripest ones were falling off as I harvested them.

Ferdinand2000

Look forward to that.

Mine were only purchased in summer 2020.