Flowers that drop off and don’t produce fruit are a symptom of bad pollination on a blueberry bush. If you are having this problem, you might want to hand pollinate the powdered flowers when they open to ensure your blueberry bush will bear fruit.
Types to Plant
There are three main types of blueberries: highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum), lowbush (Vaccinium angustifolium) and rabbiteye (Vaccinium ashei). Each of these groups has multiple cultivars for every kind. Hybrids of various kinds of blueberries produce most of these cultivars. The very recommended blueberries for places that don’t have cold winters are southern highbush blueberries, which necessitate between 150 and 800 chill hours. Several cultivars of southern highbush blueberries, such as “Sunshine Blue,” can develop in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 10. For your best harvest, you will need to plant at least 2 distinct cultivars to cross pollinate the blooms. If the cultivars make fruit at different times, it is possible to extend your blueberry harvest.
Normal Pollinators
When grown outside in an open area, blueberries are usually pollinated by bees or the end. If you have your plant inside a greenhouse or in the lee of your home, you might see that you don’t get fruit from your plant. If this occurs, you’ll have to hand pollinate the flowers.
Timing
Rutgers University conducted a research on the fruit yield of seventeen trees that were naturally pollinated versus those that were hand pollinated. For the opposite pollinated blueberries, they dabbed the stamen of the flowers as soon as they opened using pollen that had been gathered from other bushes in the specialty. When pollinating your blueberry bushes, take action when you see the flowers look and open on the plants.
Hand Pollinating
To hand pollinate in your home garden, dip an artist’s paintbrush into each of the open flowers on one blueberry bush to gather the pollen. Transfer the feces into the open flowers on the other bush of another cultivar to pollinate the flowers. Reverse the procedure to pollinate the flowers on the first blueberry bush. This procedure also ensures your bushes are cross-pollinated.