Please Don't Plant Japanese Blueberries. They Don't Belong Here.

Q. I have 13 Japanese blueberry that have been planted for quite a few years. They have grown tall but only one filled out from the bottom to top because of some shading. This shading is now gone. What can I do and when to stimulate the growth and hopefully have them fill out all over? 

I have railed against this plant before in other posts here:

https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2015/07/more-problems-growing-japanese.html

Why nurseries are selling it for desert landscapes is beyond comprehension.

A. You cant just plant Japanese Blueberry anywhere you want in a desert landscape. They are not desert plants. Japanese Blueberry became popular in the Las Vegas Valley and used inappropriately in my opinion as a visual screen between properties because the plant is evergreen. 

Hopefully most people have steered clear of this tree for this purpose because it’s not suited for desert climates. Using it as a screen in the desert is questionable because it uses a lot of water (probably as much as a mulberry tree) and requires quite a bit of future maintenance (think pruning and leaf cleanup).

            

Japanese Blueberry will grow to heights of 35 – 40 feet. The planting spaces between them should be 15 to 20 feet wide. If planted as a screen it would be a tall one at somewhere around 15 to 20 feet. Planting distances to walls or foundation should not be closer than perhaps 8 to 10 feet.

            

As these trees get bigger they will naturally shade each other. Parts of the tree that receive light will sucker and grow new branches when they get some. If planted closer than 15 feet apart consider removing every other tree as they start growing together. This will provide more light to the bottom of the canopy and help them fill in down there. 

Pruning to reduce its height through a method called “drop crotching” should help keep it around the 15-foot-tall in height and encourage them to fill the spaces between them and grow wider.

            

This is a tree that should be used as a medium-sized specimen tree in a cool part of a landscape if used in our climate at all.  The soil should be heavily amended at the time of planting and the tree grown in an area where woodchips 3 to 4 inches deep improve the soil surface.