A really good question. Hope you can find someone in your area who will know for sure.
We have grown blueberries for over 40 years in NC zone 7B and we have tried both NHB and SHB with poor results. In my state NHB grow well in the mountain area. SHB do well in the costal area, but traditional NHB have been grown in perfect “blueberry soils” in costal area too for a very long time. Rabbiteye do great here in the Piedmont region. SHB are sluggish ( I have 300) -Oneil, Starr, Emerald and Legacy, even with advice and help from the research folks and plant breeders. O’Neal was predicted to do well in the piedmont portion of NC when I was released but it failed and is no longer recommended. Other SHB are not recommended and Legacy is listed as a “Maybe”. I have had better luck with it but it’s only about a week ahead of Premier. 3 Legacy plants do not produce as much fruit 1 Premier. Many Blueberry connoisseurs complain about the larger seeds and tougher skin on Rabbiteye compared to HB.
With my RE varieties… one reason I included tiffblue was on the UT ext site they say that tiffblue has an extended bloom time… covering early mid and late… so it should pollinate all other RE types. 2 of my 10 are tiffblue… and both have been very productive nice sized flavorful berries.
I read that SHB is a cross of NHB and RE.
What I am wondering is… if I have 5 diff types of RE… (mentioned earlier) 30 or so total…
Could I plant one Blueray in there… (as a test) and it would get the pollen it needs ?
Would a NHB blueray benefit from the pollen from that collection of RE ?
Or would O’Neal SHB and Blueray NHB benefit each other pollen wise ?
I’m not sure about cross pollination between SHB and NHB. We don’t have any NHB at the moment, but from what we have seen, bee pollination is the limiting factor on early ripening SHB blueberries since they often bloom when honeybees are sluggish.
One of our best-tasting varieties. Enjoy the sweet goodness of fresh blueberries from your own plants — even during the dog days of summer. Requires mulch in winter. Introduced in 1987. Heat-tolerant. Ripens in June. Self-pollinating, but will yield larger crops if pollinated with another Southern Highbush like Misty.
And the first user review…
My wife and I own and manage a small organic blueberry operation out of which we retail fresh blueberries in season through a local farmers market. Among the cultivars that we market (Duke, Bluecrop, Bluegold, Jersey, Chandler, O’Neal, and Reveille), our customers consistently ask for O’Neal blueberries because of their superior taste.
And Blueray…
Extra-large berries with extra-sweet taste! This abundant, mid-season producer will give you buckets of delicious, aromatic, light-blue berries that won’t crack. Pink blooms in spring. Scarlet foliage in fall. Also an ideal pollinator for most other varieties. Introduced in 1941. Cold-hardy. Ripens in July. Self-pollinating. And they include this… you may still want to plant pollinating partners to increase the size of your crops, but with self-pollinating varieties doing so is optional. You’ll get fruit with only one plant!
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I guess if I was going to try either one of those (in my mix of Rabbiteyes) I might have to get another SHB or NHB variety to go with it for ideal pollination.
The only Southern highbush I have a lot of experience with is Sunshine Blue. It is likely self fertile, but if not, then Northern Highbush certainly do pollinate it. As it’s been the only SHB I’ve had in various locations and it always has a crop. In 2019 it was my best producer…but that isn’t the case other years.
Bumble or orchard bees are better than honeybees.
But, typically, there is always a partial crop on Highbush plants, pollination or not. Partial crop being the point to note.
Rabbiteye…generally assume they are NOT self fertile unless you have more than one source saying one particular cultivar is self fertile.
NHB is not going to Pollinate the Rabbiteyes.
Unsure if SHB does any pollinating of Rabbiteyes.
I don’t see why Blueray won’t do OK in Tennessee.
It is a very large and productive NHB plant.
Being self fertile, you’ll still get a higher percent of total blooms to produce a berry and those that do produce a berry are going to be slightly larger berries if all the seeds inside the fruit are developed (from superior pollination).
I found the article above… which is a bit over my head… but seems to be saying that if you mix RE and SHB… may give you bad results… well below is what they said…
I may just keep my planting… all RE. very happy with what I have now - I just need MORE of them.
Good to know…but I’d want some ‘peer review’ and second opinions on the test. (Just as I’d want more than one blind clinical trial before taking pills or vaccines).
I grow Legacy in north Alabama. I believe it is a northern highbush. It produces very well. The other 2 I grow are Oneal and Carteret. These 3 have the best flavor of those that I have tried.
Thanks @JImIn7a — northern AL and southern TN… we are practically neighbors.
If it works for you it should for me… but I wonder about planting RE and SHB in the same area after reading that last article.
Do you grow any Mulberries ? that have done well for you ?
I am thinking about adding Silk Hope and Gerardi Mulberry here…
There is a strudledog member that I have seen on youtube and he really likes his Gerardi… I think he is in North GA.
PS… I am hooked on foraging for hickory nuts… and have the day off today. Got to get outside a while and search for Shag Trees and nuts. I will check on this thread again later today.
It’s pretty normal to have frost damage and reduced yield on SHB in my area. Some varieties bloom with the peaches. I have noticed that some frost helps reduce thinning on the Peaches without impacting the yield but the same frost really slims the harvest on SHB. It’s been a good while since we had a 100% harvest on them and we may remove some unless they improve
I believe the bumblebee hive may have doubled the Rabbiteye yields but its hard to tell how much it helped the SHB because of frost damage the past 3 years.
@blueberrythrill
Typically my “collection” is in containers…and I do have one or two Sunshine Blue in 1.5 gallon containers currently.
But, I’ve utilized Sunshine Blue for about a decade for “edible landscaping” for paying clients. And those plantings have often been in 6.5 pH soils here in the Bluegrass, and there has been frost damage a time or two–
however, only 2020 (as we had between 18 and 22 degrees on three separate occasions during and after bloom) did most of the crop get lost to damage. The Sunshine Blue flowers seem to be frost resistant…and even freeze resistant down to maybe 25. They fruit heavily, but that makes for berries average size or a little smaller. {Plant height 3 feet, blueish leaves, pink blooms}
(Typically I’ll use a little sulphur and compost at planting time and give a big pinch of acidic fertilizer in late winter.)
I’ll say Sunshine Blue is a good home variety for those that have trouble growing Blueberries. So is Blueray, a NHB.
My first trial of Sunshine Blue several years back, every listing said zones 7 to 9.
But, I didn’t listen, and found it does fine in zone 6. (Plants survived -19 but didn’t produce that summer).
Besides planting for others, much of my experience is ancetdotal over having grown a few trials over past 20+ years. I still have a lot to learn to be a commercial grower I suspect.
{Incidentally, unless they can be machine harvested, I don’t think I’d recommend Sunshine Blue for commercial plantings…smaller size and ripening over 3 weeks. But I would the Blueray}
I have Cara’s Choice, Sweetcrisp, Indigo Crisp, Sunshine Blue and Misty. I think everything except Cara’s is a SHB, correct? If so, either the Cara’s self-pollinates or it is pollinated by the SHB bushes.
Pretty sure you’re correct. I just bought one gallon sized Emerald and Regal SHB. Misty isn’t too winter hardy in KY. Sunshine Blue I like. The others I don’t have personal experience with.
A large commercial grower in middle Tennessee told me that Blueray is the only NHB that they have tried that does great here. Seems to handle the heat just fine. Everything else they grow are SHB and Rabbiteyes.
Rabbiteyes, SHB and NHB will all cross pollinate, provided the bloom periods overlap. Rabbiteyes are hexaploid and others are tetraploid, but that doesn’t matter as far as cross pollination goes. The main issue is that many of the SHB are a bit too early to overlap well with NHB.
H…mmmm…
I thought this warm weather was nice for outdoor chores…
but this afternoon I found 3 Premier (Rabbiteye) and 1 Blue Ridge (NHB)
that popped into bloom today!!
Not good. Probably no crop on those next year. Now I’m concerned about the currants…maybe need to harvest the CUTTINGS I intend to take immediately and refrigerate them before the buds come on out and get frozen. Two more days this summer weather, then snow possible on Sunday.
Do honeybees pollinate blueberries? I have bee hives in my yard but never see honeybees on my blueberries. Mine seem to be pollinated by a variety of small native bees and big bumblebees too. I think there is plenty of other stuff blooming that time of year that my honeybees prefer.
