Cultivars

Cultivars: Initial Planting 2009

The cultivars of the northern highbush blueberries are members of Vaccinium corymbosum. Blueberries are native to North America and were gathered by Native American tribes from the forests and bogs of the northeast. Today we recognize three different species of blueberries:

V. corymbosum (Northern Highbush). Grew wild in the forests; used to culltivate the modern highbush.
V. ashei (Southern Rabbiteye). Thrives in southeastern US; called rabbiteye because the berry calyx resembles a rabbit's eye.
V. angustifolium (Lowbush or "wild blueberry"). Dwarf bushes, only one-two feet high, are cold hardy and found in Canada and the northeastern US states.

Visit the US Highbush Blueberry Council web pages for information about growing and marketing blueberries. US Highbush Blueberry Council Website

Five Cultivars

We are initially beginning with a planting of 179 plants representing five different highbush cultivars: Duke, Blue Crop, Jersey, Chandler, and Bluegold. The characteristics of these are described in the table.

Plant Quantity	Cultivar	Timing	Berry Description	Plant Description	Age & Size
43	Duke	Early ripening	medium to large berries; good color and firmness; light blue color; mildly sweet fruit, ideal for eating fresh	Blooms late, ripens early, vigorous upright bush with high yields; Matures 4-6'	3 yr plants 16-20"
44	Blue Crop	Early to mid-season ripening	large firm sweet berry, good flavor, long loose clusters	Most widely planted variety in US; upright bush, hardy, drought resistant; Matures 406'	3 yr plants 16-20"
45	Jersey	Late ripening	medium to large firm berry, sweet good taste, loose fruit clusters, favorite for baking	One of the oldest and most widely grown; hardy productive upright vigorous and fast-growing. Matures 6-8'	3 yr plants 16-20"
28	Chandler	Mid-Late season ripening	Delicious, sweet, longest ripening; dark blue berries	Chandler features the largest (cherry-sized) berries produced by any highbush cultivar; Dainty waxy, bell-shaped white flowers appear in May; Ovate, dark green leaves turn red and purple in fall. Matures 5-6'	1-1.5' plants 2 yr?
19	Bluegold	Mid season ripening	Firm, flavorful, sweet and uniform sized berries, sky-blue color, high production, heavy fruiting; good storage quality	Bright-white blooms, yellow fall foliage; Hardy plants; Matures 4-5'	1-1.5' plants 2 yr?

Sources

Duke, Blue Crop, and Jersey ordered from Finch's Blueberries, NC @ $3.75/plant; Early December delivery. These plants, 132 of them, arrived on December 3, 2009 and were planted by Elva the following day! The plants were in good condition except for one Duke plant which was about half-sized and had a minimal root system.

Chandler and Bluegold ordered from Miller's Nurseries, NY @ $8.95/plant; November 25, 2009 delivery. The planting of these were completed on Thanksgiving Day,11/26/2009. These plants were in excellent condition..

We ordered our plants in June 2009, for fall (late November/early December) delivery. These are bare-rooted plants and need to be planted after they become dormant.

Planting Guidelines

Tools and Items needed for each planting team: bare-rooted blueberry plants, tub for mixing planting media, three-gallon measuring bucket, spade or shovel, five gallon water bucket; quantities of sphagnum peat moss and shredded pine bark mulch.

Planting tags are pre-placed on the side of the bed border at 5 feet intervals and identify the planned location of the blueberry plant. The planting tag indicates the specific cultivar.
Use shovel to dig hole about 18"' in diameter and 10" deep which will remove about 1.25 cubic feet of dirt or a little over 9 gallons. (1 gallon = 0.134 cubic feet) (If rocks are recovered, pile them on the row middles so they can be picked up after the planting is completed.)
Mix beside the hole on the ground...
- 0.67 cubic feet of peat moss: 5 gallons
- 0.67 cubic feet of shredded pine bark mulch: 5 gallons
- 0.67 cubic feet of soil: 5 gallons
Put a shovel full of the mix in the bottom of the hole and add water (5-6 gallons depending on the dryness of the soil). The peat moss absorbs a lot of water. Add about 0.5 cup of Holly Tone (acid organic fertilizer) to the bottom of the hole.
Set plant in hole and fill about 3/4ths full with planting soil mix; add another 0.5 cup of Holly Tone.
Fill the hole with the planting soil mix and firm the soil with your feet making sure that no air pockets are present in the hole. Using the remaining soil-amendment mix, create a small shoulder-berm on the down-hill side of the plant.
Add more water around the plant, making sure that the soil/peat moss mix is completely wet.
Cover bed crown with 3-4 " of shredded pine bark mulch at a 1.5' radius around each plant (4-6 gallons of mulch).

Note: We found it more practical to first mix the peat moss and shredded pine bark together at a 1:1 ratio by simply alternately shoveling in these two ingredients in a small trailer. Then using the garden tractor we pull the trailer with the mixed soil amendments beside the site where the hole will be dug. As the dirt from the hole is removed and placed on the down-ward side of the hole, we alternately add a shovel full of soil amendment to each shovel full of dirt. We aim to mix this at about a 1:2 ratio, dirt:soil amendment. A scoop shovel of soil amendments (peat moss-shredded pine bark) is approximately 2.5 gallons. We apply a total of about 4 scoopfuls to each planting hole site.

After a section of blueberries are planted, fill in the bare areas between plants with 3-4" of shredded pine bark mulch. Row width should be about 3 feet.

Using the above method, we can readily plant a blueberry plant in 5 minutes including the watering time. Unfortunately the element of fatigue prevents us from keeping up this pace for a prolonged time, i.e. hours! However, if the soil amendments are all premixed, it is possible to average about 10 plants an hour over a prolonged period of time..

Watering Planted Blueberry Plant

Watering the hole prior to planting a blueberry plant.

Final Planting Design -- December 2009

Organic Plants

Row

Lgh

Sq Ft

Com-post

Culti-var

237

Hors Man

A (14)

Duke #01, A

Duke #02, A

Duke #03, A

Duke #04, A

Duke #05, A

Duke #06, A

Duke #07, A

Duke #08, A

Duke #09, A

Duke #10, A

Duke #11, A

Duke #12, A

Duke #13, A

Duke #14, A

225

Hors Man

B (14)

BlCp #01, B

BlCp #02, B

BlCp #03, B

BlCp #04, B

BlCp #05, B

BlCp #06, B

BlCp #07, B

BlCp #08, B

BlCp #09, B

BlCp #10, B

BlCp #11, B

BlCp #12, B

BlCp #13, B

BlCp #14, B

222

Hors Man

C (13)

Jery #01, C

Jery #02, C

Jery #03, C

Jery #04, C

Jery #05, C

Jery #06, C

Jery #07, C

Jery #08, C

Jery #09, C

Jery #10, C

Jery #11, C

Jery #12, C

Jery #13, C

213

Hors Man

D(7) / E(6)

Chan #01, D

Chan #02, D

Chan #03, D

Chan #04, D

BlGd #01, D

BlGd #02, D

BlGd #03, D

BlGd #04, D

BlGd #05, D

BlGd #06, D

Chan #05, D

Chan #06, D

Chan #07, D

207

Shep Manu

A (13)

Duke #15, E

Duke #16, E

Duke #17, E

Duke #18, E

Duke #19, E

Duke #20, E

Duke #21, E

Duke #22, E

Duke #23, E

Duke #24, E

Duke #25, E

Duke #26, E

Duke #27, E

198

Shep Manu

B (12)

BlCp #15, F

BlCp #16, F

BlCp #17, F

BlCp #18, F

BlCp #19, F

BlCp #20, F

BlCp #21, F

BlCp #22, F

BlCp #23, F

BlCp #24, F

BlCp #25, F

BlCp #26, F

195

Shep Manu

C (11)

Jery #14, G

Jery #15, G

Jery #16, G

Jery #17, G

Jery #18, G

Jery #19 G

Jery #20, G

Jery #21, G

Jery #22, G

Jery #23, G

Jery #24, G

186

Shep Manu

D(6) / E(5)

Chan #08, H

Chan #09, H

Chan #10, H

BlGd #07, H

BlGd #08, H

BlGd, #09, H

BlGd #10, H

BlGd #11, H

Chan #11, H

Chan #12, H

Chan #13, H

180

Pine Stra

A(6) / B(6)

Duke #28, I

Duke #29, I

Duke #30, I

Duke #31, I

Duke #32, I

Duke #33, I

BlCp #27, I

BlCp #28, I

BlCp #29, I

BlCp #30, I

BlCp #31, I

BlCp #42, I

177

Pine Stra

C(6) / D (5)

Jery #25, J

Jery #26, J

Jery #27, J

Jery #28, J

Jery #29, J

Jery #30, J

Chan #14, J

Chan #15, J

Chan #16, J

Chan #17, J

Chan #18, J

174

Plan Choi

A (6) / B (5)

Duke #34, K

Duke #35, K

Duke #36, K

Duke #37, K

Duke #38, K

Duke #39, K

BlCp #32, K

BlCp #33, K

BlCp #34, K

BlCp #35, K

BlCp #36, K

156

Plan Choi

C (10) / A (1)

Jery #31, L

Jery #32, L

Jery #33, L

Jery #34, L

Jery #35, L

Jery #36, L

Jery #37, L

Jery #38, L

Jery #39, L

Jery #40, L

Duke #43, L*

132

Plan Choi

D (7) / B (2)

Chan #19, M

Chan #20, M

Chan #21, M

Chan #22, M

Chan #23, M

Chan #24, M

Chan #25, M

BlCp #43, M

BlCp #44, M

Plan Choi

E (5)

BlGd #12, N

BlGd #13, N

BlGd #14, N

BlGd #15, N

BlGd #16, N

Tot

862

2586

160

Traditional Plants (not organic)

Row	Lgh	Sq Ft	Com-post	Culti-var
A'*	12	36	Hors Manu	A (3)	Duke #40, A'	Duke #41, A'	Duke #42 A'
B'	20	60	Hors Manu	B (5)	BlCp #37, B'	BlCp #38, B'	BlCp #39, B'	BlCp #40, B'	BlCp #41, B'
C'	22	66	Hors Manu	C (5)	Jery #41, C'	Jery #42, C'	Jery #43, C'	Jery #44, C'	Jery #45, C'
D'	24	72	Hors Manu	D (3) / E (3)	Chan #26, D'	Chan #27, D'	Chan #28, D'	BlGd #17, D'	BlGd #18, D'	BlGd #19, D'
Tot	78	234		19

KEYS to Tables Above

Cultivar Codes

Cultivar Name	Cultivar Letter	Cultivar Abb.	Season	Mature Plant Size	Berry size / quality	Organic Plot: Plants	Traditional Plot: Plants	Total Plants	Plant Source Nursery
Duke	A	Duke	Early	4-6'	med-lg / good	40	3	43	Finch's
Blue Crop	B	BlCp	Early /Mid	4-6'	large	39	5	44	Finch's
Jersey	C	Jery	Late	6-8'	med / fair	40	5	45	Finch's
Chandler	D	Chan	Mid/ Late	5-6'	large	25	3	28	Miller's
Bluegold	E	BlGd	Mid	4-5'	prod / good	16	3	19	Miller's
					Tot.	160	19	179

Compost Codes

Hors Manu = Horse Manure & Sawdust compost
Shep Manu = Sheep Manure & Hay/Straw compost
Pine Stra = Pine Straw/Needle compost
Plan Choi = Planter's Choice mulch

Bed Border Codes

Height of Bed Border

11.5 inches

5.5 inches

4 inches

No border

2010 Cultivar Plantings: Modified Design

March 2010 Planting

Since several of the rows were not filled with plants, I decided to sample a couple of new cultivars -- Reveille and O'Neal -- and plant them in March, 2010. These were about two-year old potted plants, which I purchased from Lowe's.

Raveille is a middle-season Northern Highbush cultivar that is characterized as producing a medium berry size with very good taste. O'Neal is an early season Southern Highbush cultivar that is characterized as producing large and sweet berries.

The two Reveille bushes were planted at the end of Row C--organic horse manure treated soil; the two O'Neal bushes were planted at the end of Row G--organic sheep manure treated soil. For this planting, I dug planting holes in the middle of the rows and planted the bushes in a mix of peat moss and shredded pine bark mulch.

December 2010

I still had some row ends that were empty and "needed" blueberry bushes to fill them out. So in the fall I tried a new supplier, Heartland Nursery (KY) and ordered 3 year-old gallon container bushes: (8) Duke; (8) Jersey and (8) Chandler. Also due to some of the plant stress -- defoliation issues -- that I experienced in some plants, I removed several to send to a plant pathology. Consequently I needed to replace those plants. We planted some of these plants on 12/31/10 and then "stored" the rest by planting them in a pile of shredded pine bark mulch. Next spring we may replace a few more stressed plants depending on how these plants survived the overwinter and how well they leaf out and grow in the spring months.

Organic Plots: December 2010

Horse Manure

Duke #01 A

Duke #02, A

Duke #03, A

Duke #04, A

Duke #05, A

Duke #06, A

Duke #07, A

Duke #08, A

Duke #09, A

Duke #10, A

Duke #11, A

Duke #12, A

Duke #13, A

Duke #14, A

2010** Duke #301 A

2010** Duke #302 A

Horse Manure

BluCrp #01, B

BluCrp #02, B

BluCrp #03, B

BluCrp #04, B

BluCrp #05, B

BluCrp #06, B

BluCrp #07, B

BluCrp #08, B

BluCrp #09, B

BluCrp #10, B

BluCrp #11, B

BluCrp #12, B

BluCrp #13, B

BluCrp #14, B

2010** Duke #303 B

Horse Manure

Jersey #01, C

Jersey #02, C

Jersey #03, C

Jersey #04, C

Jersey #05, C

Jersey #06, C

Jersey #07, C

Jersey #08, C

Jersey #09, C

Jersey #10, C

Jersey #11, C

Jersey #12, C

Jersey #13, C

2010* Rev #1, C

2010* Rev #2, C

Horse Manure

Chand #01, D

Chand #02, D

Chand #03, D

Chand #04, D

BluGd #01, D

BluGd #02, D

BluGd #03, D

BluGd #04, D

BluGd #05, D

BluGd #06, D

Chand #05, D

Chand #06, D

Chand #07, D

2010** Chan dler #201 D

Sheep Manure

Duke #15 E

Duke #16 E

Duke #17 E

Duke #18 E

Duke #19 E

Duke #20 E

Duke #21, E

Duke #22, E

2010** Duke #304 E

Duke #24, E

Duke #25, E

Duke #26, E

Duke #27, E

2010** Duke #305 E

Sheep Manure

BluCrp #15, F

BluCrp #16, F

BluCrp #17, F

BluCrp #18, F

BluCrp #19, F

BluCrp #20, F

BluCrp #21, F

BluCrp #22, F

BluCrp #23, F

BluCrp #24, F

BluCrp #25, F

BluCrp #26, F

2010** Jersey #101 F

Sheep Manure

2010** Jersey #102, G

Jersey #15, G

2010** Jersey #103, G

Jersey #17, G

Jersey #18, G

Jersey #19, G

Jersey #20, G

Jersey #21, G

Jersey #22, G

Jersey #23, G

Jersey #24, G

2010* O' Neal #1, G

2010* O' Neal #2, G

Sheep Manure

Chand #08, H

Chand #09, H

Chand #10, H

BluGd #07, H

BluGd #08, H

BluGd #09, H

BluGd #10, H

BluGd #11, H

Chand #11, H

Chand #12, H

Chand #13, H

2010** Chand #202 H

2010** Chand #203 H

Pine Straw

Duke #28, I

Duke #29, I

Duke #30, I

Duke #31, I

Duke #32, I

Duke #33, I

BluCrp #27, I

BluCrp #28, I

BluCrp #29, I

BluCrp #30, I

BluCrp #31, I

BluCrp #42, I

Pine Straw

Jersey #25, J

Jersey #26, J

2010** Jersey #104, J

Jersey #28, J

Jersey #29, J

Jersey #30, J

Chand #14, J

Chand #15, J

Chand #16, J

Chand #17, J

Chand #18, J

2010** Chand #204 J

Plant Choice

Duke #34, K

Duke #35, K

Duke #36, K

Duke #37, K

Duke #38, K

Duke #39, K

BluCrp #32, K

BluCrp #33, K

BluCrp #34, K

BluCrp #35, K

BluCrp #36, K

2010** Chand #205 K

Plant Choice

Jersey #31, L

Jersey #32, L

Jersey #33, L

Jersey #34, L

Jersey #35, L

Jersey #36, L

Jersey #37, L

Jersey #38, L

Jersey #39, L

Jersey #40, L

Duke #43, L^

^Sm plt; few roots

Plant Choice

Chand #19, M

Chand #20, M

Chand #21, M

Chand #22, M

Chand #23, M

Chand #24, M

Chand #25, M

BluCrp #43, M

BluCrp #44, M

Plant Choice

BluGd #12, N

BluGd #13, N

BluGd #14, N

BluGd #15, N

BluGd #16, N

2010** Chand #206N

Conventional Plot: December 2010

Horse manure	Horse manure	Horse manure	Horse manure	Soil Treatment
D	C	B	A	Row
Chan #26, D
Chan #27, D	Jersey #41, C	BluCrp #37, B
Chan #28, D	Jersey #42, C	BluCrp #38, B
BluGd #17, D	Jersey #43, C	BluCrp #39, B	Duke #40, A
BluGd #18, D	Jersey #44, C	BluCrp #40, B	Duke #41, A
BluGd #19, D	Jersey #45, C	BluCrp #41, B	Duke #42, A

Plant Growth Data 2010

Growth Parameters Compared with Soil Treatments

PlantHeightvsSoilCompost2010

PlantGrowthBushinessvsSoilTreatment_2010

PlantGrowthAveStalkDiavsCompostTreat_2010

PlantGrowthVolCylindervsSoilTreat_2010

Growth Parameters Compared with Cultivar Types

IntercultivarMeanHeight_2010

IntercultivarPrimStalkDia_2010

IntercultivarBushiness_2010

IntercultivarPlantCylinderVol_2010

Plant Growth Data - 2011

Selected Plant Vigor Parameters.

One measure of early plant productivity is the vigor or health of the plant. This past year we determined a variety of direct plant growth measurements including plant height, stalk thickness, plant cylinder volume (a three-dimensional quantification of plant size) and a relative value called bushiness. Bushiness was calculated by multiplying the number of primary plant stalks by the number of primary branches from a plant stock by the primary stalk height. These values were analyzed based on variations in compost soil treatments and cultivar differences. The Pine needle and Planters Choice compost treatments had the greatest plant heights, the largest stalk diameters (see Figure 8), greatest plant volumes and bushiness (see Figure 9) over the horse and sheep manure treatments.

PlantVigor_HeigthStalkThickness_2011

PlantVigor_VolumeBushiness_2011

In assessing differences in plant vigor by comparing results from the five cultivars, Blue crop bushes were significantly taller than any of the other cultivars (Figure 10), while the Chandler bushes had the greatest amount of bushiness (Figure 11).

PlantVigor_Heigth