The sweet and tart fruits of blueberry bushes are renowned for being high in antioxidants and offering many health benefits. They are also super-tasty, whether eaten raw or used in baking.
It makes sense that, when you grow blueberries, you always strive to harvest the fruits at the peak of their ripeness. Too early and they will not have the sweetness you desire, too late and the fruits are soft and shrivelled.
I spoke to an expert blueberry farmer, who revealed the two signs that show a blueberry is ripe and ready for picking. So, if you want to discover when and how to harvest blueberries like a pro, then this guide is for you.
Experts reveal the best way to harvest blueberries
When you have your fruit in the ground in a kitchen garden or grow blueberries in pots, you want to pick fruits at their peak ripeness and harvest them carefully.
I have grown and harvested blueberries as a professional kitchen gardener, picking the fruits for chefs to use in dessert dishes. I also currently have a blueberry bush at home in a container I am carefully tending to, though it is still young, and I have yet to get a good harvest.
When it does start cropping, I will be following these guidelines for when and how to harvest blueberries to pick the tastiest fruits ever.
When to harvest blueberries
The season to harvest blueberries is between June and September, with the peak picking times often in July and August. The cultivar you pick when you plant blueberries, plus your climate, will affect when the fruits ripen.
To ensure you pick blueberries at the right time, the color of the fruit plays a crucial role. The color develops as the fruit ripens, so growers need to keep a keen eye and check regularly, as not all the berries on a bush ripen at the same time.
‘Blueberries actually turn blue up to ten days before they’re ready to pick, so they can be a little sneaky, adds Courtney Stevens, owner of Wilmot Orchards, a family-run blueberry farm in Ontario, Canada.
To avoid falling foul and picking too early, the expert blueberry grower offers a second factor to consider that helps ensure you pick blueberries at the perfect moment.
‘You should look for two things when picking: first, the berry should be blue throughout. Sometimes when blueberries are not quite ready, they tend to be white, green or pink at the bottom near the stem, but if they’re completely blue, the berry is ripe and ready to enjoy,’ says Courtney.
‘And second, the blueberry should easily come off the bush. If you have to really pull, it’s not ready to be picked yet.’
Only harvest blueberries that are ripe and leave the rest on the bush to ripen further. There is no need to rush and pick them too soon, as the fruits develop throughout the summer. However, do not leave them on the bush for too long, as overripe blueberries become soft and begin to shrivel.
How to harvest blueberries
It is a simple technique for harvesting blueberries by hand directly from the bush. You should ‘roll’ the berry off the stem between your thumb and index finger. A perfectly ripe blueberry will detach easily using this technique.
There is an alternative of using a handheld berry picker, which features an in-built metal scoop to detach berries from stems and collect them inside the tool. Such an example is this berry picker with a metallic comb available at Amazon in a range of colors.
When you harvest blueberries by hand or machine, take care not to damage the delicate fruits.
Pick one berry at a time from the plant and carefully place it into your basket or container. It would be a harvesting mistake to bruise the fruits by being too forceful when picking or dropping them into a container from a height.
FAQs
Do blueberries ripen after they've been picked?
'Blueberries continue to turn blue after they have been picked, but they won’t get any sweeter,’ says Courtney Stevens from Wilmot Orchards. ‘To ensure the blueberries reach peak ripeness, we recommend picking them directly from the bush.’
Can you eat blueberries straight from the bush?
You can eat blueberries straight from the bush after harvesting. However, it is always recommended to rinse the fruits to remove any dirt and bacteria before consuming them.
If you are struggling to get a blueberry bush to fruit profusely, there are some ways to boost your chances of a good yield.
They include growing two types of bushes as, despite blueberries being self-fertile, having more than one variety can help to increase any crop. Also, adding plants for pollinators near to fruit bushes will help to bring in beneficial insects to pollinate more flowers.
