Blueberries for Florida Growing

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Blueberries for Florida Growing

Blueberries suited to Florida:

Rabbiteyes & Southern Highbush

Vaccinium virgatum or V ashei & Vaccinium corymbosum L

Rabbiteyes & Southern Highbush are the 2 varieties of choice for growing in Florida. Most commercial groves in our state have transisted to growing Southern Highbush. But home growers in the northern parts of Florida will find Rabbiteyes easier to grow.

So what's the differences and how do we chose? It's easy to get confused between the species (family) names and the cultivar names (individual varieties).

Blueberries form in clusters on the bush

First, some background: most common species

Blueberries are a perennial fruiting plant actually native to eastern North America, as well as other places, with sweet edible blue or purple berries. And a few pink. They are cousins of the European blueberry, aka Bilberry: Vaccinium myrtillus.

Most blueberries need a second plant for pollination from the same family, but not the same variety.

There are at least 8 different species of American grown blueberries, but historically the most well known families are the first 3 below:

Northern Highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum)
suited to zones 3-10, need about 800 to 1000 chill hours and do quite well in the cold northern states.
Rabbiteyes (Vaccinium virgatum, sometimes V. ashei)
suited to zones 7-9a, need about 350-400 chill hours. They do well in the deep South overall, from GA to TX, including the FL Panhandle and areas south of I-10 into Gainesville and Ocala. (Supposedly they are called rabbiteye because the berries turn pink before they go blue, reminiscent of the eye color of a white rabbit.)
Darrow's blueberry aka Evergreen (Vaccinium darrowii)
a small scrub blueberry native to the Southeastern United States in zones 7b to 9, along the Gulf Coast. It typically grows only 1-4' tall.
Lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium)
are wild blueberries, and mostly native to zones 3-7.

As may be expected, Highbush blueberries are tall growing, averaging 5-6', maybe 8' in height, and are naturally deciduous, perennial shrubs. Lowbush varieties typically are less than 2.5' tall at maturity. Rabbiteye varieties grow up to 10' tall or taller for some species.

Southern Highbush:
IFAS breeds a new species for Florida.

Vaccinium corymbosum L

The Southern Highbush was developed by IFAS beginning in the 1950's, specifically for Florida's mild winters and low chill hours.

Northern Highbush need more chill than Florida has to offer. By crossing Northern Highbush varieties (v. corymbosum) with native species (v. darrowii), they developed earlier ripening varieties that would be vigorous and prolific with larger, high-quality berries.

Most of the Southern Highbush varieties are self fertile, and range from 100 to 300 chill hours, making them ideally suited to the Central Florida growing areas of 9a, 9b and 10a.

But planting more than one variety will produce larger berries, as well as increase fruit set.

Berries don't all ripen at once.

Titan has a huge berry

Now for the Cultivars

Here we discuss cultivars of Rabbiteyes & Southern Highbush only.

Rabbiteyes

Most rabbiteyes will fruit in June and July.

Many of the newer cultivars offer some advantages. Powderblue maintains firmer berries in the June rains than its parentage, the Tifblue. Climax is quite hardy and very prolific, producing up to 25 lbs per year on a mature plant in colder climates. (Most rabbiteyes produce about 15 lbs in the same colder climate.)

Blue Gem (1970), Alapaha, and Premier are all good choices. Ochlockonee is the latest one, ripening in mid to late July. Also a heavy producer, it gives about 3-4qts per plant.

Titan is one of the newer cultivars to hit the market. It has the largest berries of any of the rabbiteye blueberry plants.

Southern Highbush

Southern Highbush have been bred to be early birds, with most ripening in mid-April to mid-May: long before the Rabbiteyes. Some of the newest releases will fruit as early as late March

Emerald (1999) and Jewel (1998) are historically the two most prolific, vigorous growing varieties grown in Central Fl. The patents have just recently expired. Emerald blooms early to mid Feb, and typically ripens about May 15th in Gainesville, and up to 2 weeks earlier further south. Jewel will be slightly earlier, blooming around Feb 16th, and ripening by approximately April 10th.

Emerald continues to have very little issues with fungi and remains a hardy producer. Jewel is showing signs of fungi susceptibility, and is being replaced in part by many newer cultivars.

Kestrel (2009) needs only about 200 chill hours and is very early: it flowers Jan 30, ripens April 5 in Gainesville. Kestrel produces large fruits with superior quality and firmness. Fruits form in medium-loose berry clusters that require very low detachment force -- in other words, very easy to pick.

Windsor is an older variety (2000), but one of the more long lived. It also blooms later, making it a good choice for growing in the northern range of the southern highbush.