Picking Blueberries

[Not]

My blueberry plants have matured, and are full of fruit. The berries seem to be in clusters and today one cluster will have a couple of berries that are blue, but quite a few more that are still green. So I'm wondering if one should pick the ripe ones, or wait for the whole cluster to ripen (as one does for grapes). Picking is not easy, because we built cages from seine netting since the birds prefer their berries green, and removing the netting is quite a project.

[hubops]

.. as my old Granny always told me : ... don't pick the red ones - they're still green . jt

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[Boron Elgar]

We leave one side of the netting accessible with a peel back just so we can go in and pick as the berries ripen. Pick each one when it appears to reach its peak (different varieties ripen with different colors, so you may have to do a bit of tasting to get it right), and do not wait for the whole cluster to ripen.

Boron

[Not]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had a 60 inch zipper laying around, and we installed it today and harvested a pint of berries. There will be more tomorrow. This seine netting is white, and much easier to see and work with than the black plastic stuff the garden centers carry.