[stompy]

Tell me about it!
I remembered to net last year and got a fabulouse crop, but the year before, well lets just say we had blue birds on the allotment for the first time ever.

[JayG]

I did net mine last year but not well enough for the very determined blackbirds round here!

(If it's possible to mouth very rude words whilst simultaneously gritting one's teeth that's what I did last year on at least 5 occasions as I let the panicking intruders out of their breakfast bar!) 

[Trillium]

I know the birds will be after my new bushes so I'm going to the trouble of caging them into their raised beds. I have some scrap 2x2's for braces and got a lot of door screening very cheap at a charity shop to screen in all the supports. The ends will have some weldmesh with larger holes for the bees to pass through.
As I have two 4x8 ft raised beds, I made sure I planted the shorter varieties in one bed, the taller ones in the other and will adapt the cage heights to that. My beds are 18" tall so that helps a lot too.

[SG6]

All I know is that they like to be in acid soil, have rainwater and like to be wet/damp at all times. After that pretty easy going.

Thought they came from the northern reaches of America so cold shouldn't be a problem for them. Mine is simply in a large pot and sits outside all year for the past 8-10 years. Have a layer of mulch on the top, to reduce moisture loss, which the occasional squirrel plants something in, usually a monkey nut from next door.

My blackbird doesn't panic, he defends the bush from all intruders, including me, and he won't back down. Demented creature

Ever tried to explain that 26gm of feathers isn't a match for many kilograms of me and isn't really a fair fight. The problem is I always lose, he eats the lot.

[andreadon]

i think it must have been a virus.
i took the dead one out of the house and put the one that had been outside the back of the shop in the house with the okay one, unzipped the flap so that they're not hot at all.
the okay one is now getting very brown-ended leaves and the new one has got a couple of brown spots on some leaves.

i've been watering them everyday.

i did notice some ants on the okay one on the weekend.  oculd that be significant?

[Trillium]

I've never heard that ants bother blueberries but it's worth having a good look over the whole plant including leaf undersides for any pests the ants might be farming.

[Siouxfly]

Silly question but are you sure it's dead?
I though mine was but it's suddenly sprung back to life this week with a couple of new shoots sprouting out the main stem. I was about to throw it out and am glad now that I didn't get round to it. Mine was 'killed off' by the late frosts, lost all it's leaves and went a strange greeny/brown colour but it's reincarnated all by itself I didn't water it or anything.

[sclarke624]

My two look dead as well but I am going to leave them and see what happens.  This is their second year.  Had four berries in total last year on them LOL.