Oh Yum, you lucky guy!
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Blueberries look great! Do you plan to allow the Tiffblue rootstock to produce suckers? That way part of the bush would be O’Neil and the other part would be Tiffblue? Something like that in my area would produce fruit from late May until late July - 8 weeks of fruit from just one bush.
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I might change my mind later but I want this bush to be all Oneal.
I really like the O’Neil fruit but in my area SHB are hard to grow, especially O’Neil.
O’neil on top of a Rabbiteye that is easy to grow is a very interesting idea.
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Yesterday I picked the remaining ripe Oneal berries and removed the bird netting. Next to ripen is Pink Lemonade.
I’m still not sure what the long term prospects are for grafting Oneal but I did pick about 1/2 gallon of very early berries. This bush is in a location that blooms extra early resulting in some weather related loss. I have another one started in a different location that bloomed a little later and had no weather loss.
I’ve not been able to succeed with domesticated blueberries here in interior Alaska. Some of the half-highs survive the winters, but always look sick and eventually decline and die after a season or three, even though they’re planted adjacent to thriving populations of wild Vaccinium uliginosum. I’m wondering if there isn’t some kind of mycorrhizial association that’s incompatible with the cultivated germplasm that’s responsible for the success of the natives. This year I obtained cuttings from the USDA repository of a couple of corymbosum/uliginosum hybrids, and have field grafted them to healthy local plants to see if that will make them productive. Hopefully they’ll take, and then we’ll see what happens.
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You just need to give it a try. Good luck. Bill
Are there any exceptions? In other words, have you found any SHB or NHB types that do a lot better for you, anywhere close to as well as rabbiteyes?
As of now my overall favorite blueberry is Millennia SH. I like it for several reasons. Blooms slightly later than the others but ripens earlier than most RE’s. It ripens/sweet with less hang time. It has been good as a stand along bush without grafting but I’m sure grafting it on Tifblue would be good as well.
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I have only tried a few varieties of SHB so there may be exceptions. Also many new varieties have been introduced recently but as a general rule SHB are a lot more difficult to grow in the Piedmont than RE.
Legacy is normally classified as a SHB but it grows well, just like a RE. I have found both Emerald and Starr to be easier to grow than O’neil. I have never tried any NHB but a large grower grower in the Pilot Mountain area told me his NHB did not do well but I’m not sure which varieties he tested.
My SHB are spaced 3 feet apart rather than 6 like the RE, but 2 SHB produce less fruit than 1 RE plant.
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This is just an update on grafting and covering my Oneal blueberry bush. This is my first go at using this type bird protection. Looks like a pretty decent crop of early ripening berries.
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Wow, that’s a huge plant now, congrats on your results. Not taking a chance with the birds, I see! I understand though. When will they be ripe, about a month?
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There is about four turning today. Last year they started ripening about May 15. The bird net is one that I found in the camping section at Walmart.
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Is it mosquito netting?
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I guerilla grafted highbush blueberry onto one of our native Oregon huckleberries, Vaccinium ovatum. I was in a rush and didn’t label varieties, but I believe var. ‘Elliott’ was the one that took. Still alive 3 years later, but not thriving, probably because it’s in the shade.
I did this mostly out of curiosity, but also because V. ovatum is far more drought-tolerant than corymbosum (much deeper rooted).
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I’m pretty sure it is mosquito netting. I really like the ease that it went on and also when I lifted for picking. Looks like it could be used for several years.
My rootstock used was Tifblue which is also drought tolerant and vigorous.
Auburn, your grafts look great–that Tifblue seems to be really working.
I took a farm tour led by a USDA researcher who is (was?) grafting standard commercial highbush varieties on farkleberry/sparkleberry (V. arboreum rootstock). The idea was to get a single-stemmed plant that could tolerate broader pH ranges and would behave better for mechanical harvesting. The health and vigor of the individual grafted plants in the plots varied wildly, apparently related mostly to the genetic variation among seedlings. Last I heard, they had identified a few exceptional seedlings and were working on propagating those.
We have a huge blueberry crop here in Oregon, but because of the low humidity and up to 5 months without much rainfall, the amount of water we have to use on blueberry fields is staggering. The recommendation is up to 15,000 gallons per day on 1 acre of blueberries in July. Hopefully they’ll keep researching improved rootstock options.
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