I mentioned I was running an experiment to test the affects of allowing a newly planted BB bush to flower and fruit it's first year. As this is the time of the year people tend to plant BB as well as other fruit producing plants I thought I would give an update.

Last spring I planted 9 new Sunshine Blue BB bushes purchased from Lowes. All 9 were the same size in one gallon pots and the plants themselves were about 10 inches tall. They were planted in the same row in the same soil (pine fines and peat and recieved the same watering and fertilizer. Three bushes were left to do what they wanted and the flowers that were on the plant at the time of purchase were left as is. On the 6 other bushes I removed all the flowers by pruning the top several inches from each branch.

Here are a few pictures of the plants this morning.

First couple of pictures are of those plants allowed to fruit the first year.

Now a couple pictures of the plants that had the flowers removed the first year so the plant could invest in growth.

It isn't just the remarkable difference in size either.....the plants that were not allowed to fruit kept more of their leaves through the winter and in fact have still not dropped last years leaves for the most part. The pruned plants also are leafing out sooner and that is very important. It is much better for the plant if it flowers and puts new leaves out as close together as possible as the new leaves and last years still retained leaves help fuel the development and growth of the fruit. If a plant flowers and starts to grow it's fruit WITHOUT leaves all of that ENERGY for fruit production has to come from the plants reserves and that weakens the plant and further slows it's growth. If the plant still has it's leaves from the previous year and sets fruit then grows the new leaves most of the energy that is needed to grow that fruit is being made as it is needed so all or most of the reserves can be spent on growth.

I know it is hard to prune off flowers and fruit...My newest additions are a bed of sweetcrisp BB (I very highly recommend them btw) they were planted late last fall as bareroot field runs. They were 30 inches tall and a couple weeks ago when I noticed the flower buds just starting to swell I attacked them savegely and the once tall 30" plants are now a shadow of their former selves at a wimply 10" tall but they will thank me by growing like weeds this season and reward me next spring with a bountiful crop. If you just can't bring yourself to prune off all the flowers compromise perhaps and just leave a dozen...