At one time our blueberry shrubs were heavily mulched with shredded cypress bark. This material does not rot, so it must have anti-fungal properties. It worked well as a mulch-I don't think it hurt the blueberries in the least. I don't know if it would help with botrytis blossom blight. So far, I haven't seen that problem with our shrubs.

Yes,at least one and pruning out some of the oldest canes starting about year five will help promote that. Brady

I would strongly recommend against buying anything from DiMeo Farms in Hammonton. I just drove 1.5 hours (each way) to buy some bushes, and was really looking forward to buying local(ish) and supporting new Jersey Agriculture. However, I found Anthony DiMeo III to be the single most rude and obnoxious merchant I have ever dealt with, and I've lived in New York and New Jersey all my life. I opened my car door, and he yelled at me to come over to him, demanding I give him my variety choice immediately. I said, "well - I'd like an early variety, a..." he stopped me and barked "I'm a millionarire, and a 4th generation farmer, and I don't need small sales like you." I said I was considering the following 5 varieties (x.y.z...) and he spit out "you can only have 3 varieties". I was speechless. He then told me to drive my car over to some location, and I did. I stated my 3 varieties. He WOULD NOT let me choose the bushes, directing his worker to choose for me, who chose spindly single or double branched bushes. The worker started roughly shoving them into my car. I protested, and said I would load them myself: "just let me pay, and I will load them myself". He said "I am a millionaire, a 4th generation farmer, and i don't have time for this" .At one point in his psychotic tirade i asked him "have I said or done something to insult you?" I then asked him to point out which of the bushes were which variety, as he had just thrown them together into one group, and with complete exasperation he said "are you kidding?" In between all of this I told him that I had just driven 1.5 hours to support NJ agriculture. I've only covered the highlights of the abusive 10 minutes I spent at this place; there's much, much more. Finally, I had enough and told him "I can't believe I just drove so far to do business with such a #$@#$%", and we terminated the transaction mutually. If this guy had bushes that produced 24K berries, I wouldn't buy from him. A rude, arrogant, dismissive, insulting, psych job. If you hate your job, hate your customers and have millions of dollars - get out!

What you are suggesting I have tried on other single stem plants, but was not successful. If it were possible to split the stem, or trunk down through the roots so each half would have some of the crown AND some roots you might do it, but I don't think it is possible with the plants you have. I also do not think any dressing or sealing material would help. Al