i put in my razz and a north blue at the same time in the same bed. both were equal size but the north blue has a doz. berries on it. they say the razz tastes a little like a raspberry. anxoius to try it.
How was your Spartan?
Itās early, has big berries, Decent yield (need more time here though to see yields of a mature plant) grows very vigorously, and most import the taste is excellent. Fairly firm berries too. It is becoming one of my favorites. Nothing to criticize. Caraās Choice has the richest flavor. But it is very slow growing, not a big plant when mature. It has low yields. Iām still keeping it, but it is far from ideal. Spartan berries also sweeten up very fast. Whereas Legacy has all the pluses of Spartan too, but the berries need to hang much longer to be fully ripe, and itās hard to tell the difference between those that turned blue 3 weeks ago and those that turned blue 3 days ago. You certainly can when you taste them! Maybe when more established ripening will be more uniform.
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I donāt like having to let berries hang before getting to be fully ripe, and thatās a reason Iām thinking of removing the Patriot berries from the patch. Sounds like Spartan wins in that regard.
In addition to getting Spartan Iām thinking about getting Toro (which I know you grow and like) and Hannahās Choice. The Toro might be a good one to replace the Berkeley with. Doesnāt it have a quickish ripening window? Best to get most picking over with before getting too deep into August when SWD is out of control. The literature out there says Hannahās Choice can have 20 to 30% more sugar than other early varieties. The yield is reported as on the low side but not as low as with Caraās Choice. Most importantly, you can actually purchase Hannahās Choice from reputable nurseries whereas with Caraās Choice you have ā¦ an option to let Burpee send you an email notification if they ever have any in stock.
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My original plant died and I replaced it, and Iām not liking the berries as much for some reason. They seemed a lot sweeter on the first plant. So Iām changing my mind for now on Toro. See how it does this year.
LOL! I got a Ka-Bluey from a friend. I heard the berries are kinda soft, Toroās are for sure soft.
Ka-Bluey fruited a bit 2nd leaf, and I thought it was very good, Iām liking it so far. Everything else I have is OK, not great. Chandler seems to get better with age. The berries were top rate last year, but production was poor for how big it is. Itās a monster! I heard pruning it hard to stimulate new canes must be done, so I have been doing that and I did get some new canes. Also it has the same problem with uneven ripening, it seemed to be less last year, and of course monster berries. Itās worth keeping for me. So is Legacy even with itās faults.
Liberty produces tons and tonās. It needs to be thinned to improve flavor though. The more it produces the less sugar each berry has. Best to thin. Iām keeping all of them anyway.
What I want now is a more wild flavor blueberry for cooking. These sweet fresh eating berries are not good cooked. Iām looking at Northland as it is a great producer yet has the wild flavor. others have the flavor but are poor producers or berries are small. Still I need a couple others for pollination. Looking at the Maine blueberries (probably not low and sprawling a different beast, might not work here, low production too) Also Rubel (microberries) Chipewa, Hardyblue, Northblue, and Northsky, These plants will be on a new lot I have so I need about three of them. 35 miles away from my other blueberries 
At my cottage.
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LOL. Maybe Iāll pass on the Toro and just keep the Berkeley. Iām kind of put off by the āmild flavorā that itās described as having. Havenāt had any berries from it yet. That, and itās said to be later than Bluecrop which might mean it gets too much SWD pressure. If I can find out exactly when Hannahās Choice ripens with relation to Earliblue, that might make my little plan easier. Take out 2 Patriots and 1 Earliblue, and replace with 1 or 2 Hannahās Choice and 1 or 2 Spartans.
I keep hearing Northlandās got the great wild blueberry flavor. Itās also reported to reliably produce 20+ pounds of berries. Canāt you cross pollinate that one with a NHB? I want to be able to make some good quality blueberry wine. I think what Iād need is some acid in the berries but also a higher brix.
Yes, it is a NHB with the wild genes bred in. Much like Legacy really is both NHB and SHB or something inbetween. The distinctions become blurred. SHB was made from northerns, but the low chill makes them not a good choice for here.Blueberries cultivars these day all have very complex lineages. I have tried some SHB and they just want to jump out of dormancy way early, not a good choice for northern sites. . I was thinking the patch would be all for cooking. So i was trying to decide what others would blend well for cooking. Iām not putting it intill 2020 anyway as I need to prep the site. Plus I have other plants, mostly trees I am putting and I will have busted my budget for the year. Iām buying serviceberries, hazelnuts, black currants and honeyberries. Some will come from my garden here, most I need to buy.
I was looking into making fruit wines, and probably will eventually.
Hannaās Choice sounds like a good choice even with the low production. Caraās is not early for me. Iām going to try and air layer the plant, if it works you can have it.
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By simply following the recipe in the Winemakerās Recipe Handbook I was able to make some of the best sweet wine out of my grandparentās blueberries. I would back-sweeten 5 gallons with only 1 tube of grape juice concentrate. The recipe called for 1 tube of that PER GALLON, but this was plenty. Using grocery store berries it really isnāt the same. You really have to do the 1 tube per gallon. I donāt bother with hydrometer readings and never have, I have to imagine the Original Gravity of the wine made with my grandparentās berries was much higher.
Following the same bookās recipes we made one 5 gallon batch of elderberry wine using berries from all over town. It actually made a full bodied, balanced wine. If I recall correctly, no back-sweetening was done for that batch of wine. Objectively speaking, that was probably the best wine Iāve ever made but I still would take the sweeter blueberry wine over that.
Thanks for the offer on the Caraās. Google tells me it was released in 2000, so it must be coming off patent soon if it hasnāt already.
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Yes it is, if it was even patented? Patents are for 20 years.
On wine I can figure out the specific gravity using the brix of the wine. I have a refractometer.
You donāt need to measure the specific gravity directly. I have a conversion chart in the book I have on wine making. So I have looked into it a little.
I couldnāt find a patent of Caraās Choice in a quick Google search, but that doesnāt mean there isnāt one. Itās not being sold anywhere. Itās got to be essentially useless for big growers and even U-Pick due to the low yield and maybe also due to its reported fussiness with the site itās planted in.
I hadnāt thought of using a refractometer to measure gravity in brewing. Another reason to get one.
I know itās hard, we should ask @itheweatherman to look for us. He seems to have a knack for such things. Ulises could you please do a search for me for a Caraās Choice blueberry patent?
I would agree. It was always directed at the home market. The name may have a trademark, which means we can clone it. We just canāt sell it as Caraās Choice without permission (paying them), why at times nurseries make up new names.
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Morally, I donāt see the issue with propagating a variety thatās patented for personal/backyard use. And I donāt see any issue with sharing it with other backyard growers if no one is even selling it.
On the topic of Hannahās Choice. Check out the table here. It has 20% higher brix than Duke, 10% higher than bluecrop and its average yield per plant is only modestly behind Bluecrop. Weymouth and Chanticleer had yields that were significantly lower than Hannahās Choice. The flavor is described as sweet with āpleasant peach overtonesā. Itās said to be superior in size, firmness and soluble solids (brix) when compared to the other varieties in the trial. I think this answers my question about whether it ripens with Earliblue. It looks like it usually ripens with Duke, which is several days after Earliblue.
Damn, I didnāt want to add this one, but looks like I have too. I will put it on the lot with Northland. I have over a year to decide what Iām going to put there. I donāt want to do it this year for reasons mentioned. Besides the fact my cottage is on an island with no mainland access and no car ferry. Cars are not allowed. I have haul all the soil for an acidic raised bed by hand.And Iām not young! Our native soil is not acidic. How I grow my in ground blueberries. Works just fine!
Spartan on the left, Chandler on the right. Behind Spartan in the photo is Legacy.
Legacy
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Spartan in a raised bed! The online descriptions all say it does poorly when not in ideal/native sites. Iām in the native range with acidic soil but Iām not sure if itās exactly what blueberries need. Here, blueberries grow near swamps!
I think Iām definitely getting 1 or 2 Spartans now. I might remove the Reka. It throws up way too many shoots. Iāve seen how this works out in the long run in my grandfatherās patch. The one with too many shoots eventually gets ahead of you and youāre left with a big bush loaded with tiny, hard to pick berries unless you heavily prune every year. The opposite problem was on the other side. Slightly spreading but not a lot of shoots, and not a lot of berries. I remember thinking that berry was very good, though. From the descriptions I have read my moneyās on that being Elizabeth.
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I also grow in containers. All are in root pouches, 20 and 25 gallon.
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Well, you guys got me inspired to place an order 4 yr old plants of: Earliblue (if not available then Duke), Spartan and Elliot. This in addition to my existing 2-4 year old Patriot, Sweetheart and Chandler should hopefully cover all my blueberry needs.
Earliblue has been one of the cultivars Aldi sells every spring. They also have Berkeley and some of the more ātypicalā cultivars such as Bluecrop.
I actually wound up at Indiana Berry to order the Spartan blueberry and wandered into the strawberry section. I can either get 25 Earliglo and 25 Jewel for $33 combined or pay $4 more and get those two plus 25 each of two more cultivars when purchased in a ācollectionā. With these prices I canāt justify not getting a strawberry ācollectionā. If my wife doesnāt kill me this year, sheāll be extremely pleased with me the following year.
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I have a Hannahās Choice and like the fruit.The plant develops a tall,somewhat statuesque shape.
Hereās a picture.bb
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Wow that looks nice! I definitely need to add it.
Hereās the Spartan today, itās grown well, itās going on 3rd leaf this spring, how did that happen? Man time flies! Spartan is in the foreground. hard to tell scale. My chandler is in the background and it is 6 feet tall.
Here is my Caraās Choice. Again hard to tell scale. I need to start putting objects in the photos. Taken today.
So who sells Hannah besides Burpee?
Also does anybody have any experience with or opinions of
Rubel, Chipewa, Hardyblue, Northblue, or Northsky?
What about Prairie Berry?
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Hartmannās sells it but only to wholesale customers. Iām eyeing this place:
I guess Iāll just buy it today.
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