Some blueberry variety talk mainly Sweetcrisp and Springhigh my favorites

I’ve grown or tasted a lot of blueberry varieties mostly SHB but some NHB. My two favorites by far are Sweetcrisp and Springhigh.

Sweetcrisp name says it all. I’ve tested them at 18 brix which for a blueberry is very high. 10-13 is more common. Think highest I’ve measured on anything else is 14. But haven’t measured that much because it’s so hard to get enough juice. That said the outstanding characteristic of SC is the texture. When you try them you’ll know what I mean. Downsides are modest yield, need for pollination, and wild hard to train bush. But the fruit is worth all the effort.

Springhigh isn’t firm but has the best flavor of any I’ve tried by a good margin. Berries are big, easy to pick, and good, not great, yield. Emerald yields way more than SH but to my taste isn’t anywhere nearly as good flavor and it needs pollination. The bush of SH is upright and very easy to train. Plant is also self fertile no need for bees and another variety. This would be a very good variety for a first time grower only wanting one plant.

Both were available at Just Fruits and Exotics and FHN yesterday. Maybe FHN has learned their leason otherwise might want to stick to JF&E.

2 Likes

My local nursery had both of those varieties for sale (and as nice older plants) but we have no chill here so they are a sales bait if I ever saw one. Sigh…

Hi Fruitnut,
I am so glad to see your post on these blueberries.
I plan to order two blueberry plants from FHN a few weeks from now when weather cools a bit. I had Emerald and Jewel in mind as I understand these are supposed to cross pollinate each other. Sweetcrisp was on my list but it’s unfortunately out of stock
I already have O’neal planted this year in the bed where I plan to put 2 more blueberry plants.
Now that I see your experience on Springhigh, I’m tempted to order this instead of Jewel.
Have you grown Jewel? If so, what’s your opinion on this one?
In your climate, does Emerald bloom around the same time as Springhigh? I’m concerned about the pollination issue.

I’ve grown Jewel and Emerald many yrs. Both are very productive but average quality at best. They all bloom over a long period and close enough together for pollination. Having bees has been an issue for me.

I would wait until FHN restocks and order a spring high and sweetcrisp, and maybe even a sunshine blue in a container. It is good flavored and only grows about 3 to 4 feet. It would also extend the harvest. As long as you stay with southern highbush they should all pollinate each other. They bloom too early for rabbiteye blueberries.

A lot of people have received mislabled plants from FHN. I’d stick with JF&E.

I agree but Z9gardener lives in California and if I am correct JF&E does not ship to California. It looks like JF&E will have Sweetcrisp and Indigocrisp.

Ah, yes. You’re right. There might not be many hurdles to growing fruit in Growers’ Paradise, but legally obtaining plant materials from out of state is one of them.

Hi Fruitnut,
Thanks for the info.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Garybeaumont,
You’re right that JF&E does not ship to California. That’s one of the reasons that I decided to go with FHN.
Well, I’ll see if I have the patience to wait for FHN to restock, or maybe I’ll place another order when Sweet Crisp is available.

Wow, that is big news, referring to Indigocrisp. I didn’t think anyone would be selling those to the public. That’s the one I want to try.

My Sweetcrisp’s put out a fair amount of fruit this year and the Springhigh(hopefully-FHN plant) is still young.
That is interesting about Indigocrisp.I remember bamboo rabbit posting.I wonder if he has them yet?Does JF&E sell to every state? Brady

I just found the answer about JF&E shipping.Not to California, Hawaii or Alaska.

I decided to prune my plant heavy in the spring. I’m in MI, so it is not the ideal location for sweetcrisp. I had some dieback, which was my fault. I figured out I need to get these plants back out of the garage in March. It becomes too warm in the garage and they come out of dormancy too early.
Anyway the plant grew a ton. I had a mixed year with blueberries. i lost a plant, one is not growing much, and the other 5 are doing really well.
The sweetcrisp seems to have weak stems, It may need a few years to develop into a bigger plant. I have Southmoon to pollinate.

My top 5 this season: Jewel, Sweetcrsip, Darrow, Legacy, Jersey. I ordered a Springhigh from RealFlora this spring on member recommendations, It is growing surprisingly well.

This season I alternated my fertilizer regime, with holy tone and diluted mir-acid. I am very satisfied with the results.

If you don’t mind, did the dieback have anything to do with over or underwatering? I had a branch do this on my Sunshine Blue but I was watering at most once a week in a container at the time so perhaps it was stressed.

Well the dieback was from the plant coming out of dormancy to face freezing weather. So the dieback was from freezing. Next March while still freezing it’s coming out. Sweetcrisp can take freezing fine, just not -16 which we hit one day last winter. The cold here for me has long term effects. The Great Lakes are well below average temp. Lake Superior reaches 55F it’s 47F and the peak was weeks ago, only colder from now on. If this cold keeps up Lake Superior will have ice year round.
Here is my Sweetcrisp right now, it is getting dark, so flash was needed. I find it grows rather weak laterals, even in full sun. At least in this environment. I’m hoping with age it will produce better canes.

That’s Sweetcrisp all right. Lanky and gangly. The only solution is tipping but probably not now. I’m hoping mine will quit growing so it can set fruit buds. The fruit buds are usually at the last 4-6 leaf nodes.

What is FHN?

Florida Hill Nursery

Indigocrisp looks like a much better plant! The early fruiting may not work well here though. Still I’m going to try it anyway. I may use it for breeding something that will work here.
http://hos.ufl.edu/sites/default/files/faculty/jwolmstead/publications/Indigocrisp%20Southern%20Highbush%20Blueberry.pdf

I have a question.Has anyone ordered Sweetcrisp from Florida Hill Nursery and received a true plant?So far,to my understanding,that hasn’t happened. Brady