Hey y’all,
I’m looking to get some blueberries, I’m thinking 4 different varieties for my home garden. I’m reading through a lot of the nursery catalogues and the descriptions don’t do much to set each individual variety apart beyond average ripening date, besides for extra special categories like titan with its’ exceptionally large fruit. I guess im wondering what the most reliably productive and tasty blueberries are for my area in the central NC piedmont.
Thanks everyone!
One that is a little special and should be in anyones rabbiteye collection is Tifblue.
I have 2 of them.
What makes them special is their extended bloom period… they bloom some early mid and late season… and will pollinate with just about any other rabbiteye.
They are good producers of med size berries with nice flavor. I have one 7 ft tall 6 ft wide with hundreds and hundreds of berries on. Cant wait until they get ripe.
Here are some good rabbiteye options in addition to tifblue
Powderblue - midseason, fair flavor but extreme production and vigour
Brightwell - midseason, sweet, for fresh eating
Premiere - early, very vigourous, berries ripen all at once
Legacy - earliest by 1-2 weeks, starting late May potentially, can be hit by late frost, a southern highbush but old-school and low maintenance more like rabbiteyes, cut out if soil is questionable
Vernon - early, large berries, blooms late to avoid frosts but still ripens early
Are all of these good pairings with tifblue as far as pollination? I’ve heard having three different varieties for whatever reason is important for blueberries.
Edit : just saw the description on the first post that they easily pollinate others due to extended bloom. Interesting!
Thanks guys!
I’m in eastern NC so my climate is marginally warmer and my soil is sandy loam rather than the devil’s dirt. So the comparison won’t be perfect, but it should be kinda close. I do amend with a lot of woody matter regardless. My plants only went in ground last fall and weren’t very big, but here are my Spring notes so far.
Rabbiteye:
Pink lemonade
Not many berries set this year. Will need to evaluate more next year.
Brightwell
Good set of large berries.
Powder Blue
Ok fruit set. Plant seems a bit ragged and lanky.
Onslow
Good fruit set and good spring flush.
Premier
Good fruit set. Plant is a bit lanky.
Southern Highbush:
Sunshine and Emerald
Small plants, too early to tell.
O’Neal
Poor fruit set. The bush looks pretty thin still.
New Hanover
Decent fruit set and good size berries. Dense growth so far.
I’ll try to remember to do a follow-up with tasting notes and more info about vigor and such as time goes by. And pictures too. Edited to fix SH listed as Rabbiteye.
I wonder how Krewer and Titan taste? Both are supposed to be large berries and cross pollination partners. Almost bought them recently.
My impression is that rabbiteye are inferior in taste to SHB. I wonder if that’s changing?
Wow, thats a great amount of varieties. Please keep updating as the season continues! Having a little sand is only beneficial I think, there is a fine balance haha. I used to live in South Florida and it was like growing in the beach, absolutely awful, so clay feels great to grow in, never have to water, lol. The best is somewhere in-between, luckily I’m not in pure clay, it’s somewhere in between I believe.
Every variety has both good and bad points which have to be considered. Read about these and find out what problems to expect.
Vernon, Titan, Krewer, and Brightwell would be my choices if planting rabbiteye varieties. Tifblue is an older variety which I’ve had for 40 years. IMO, larger and better flavored varieties should be considered. Brightwell has a very good sweet blueberry flavor. It combines healthy low maintenance plants with good production.
If you want to look into northern or southern highbush, check out Blueray, O’Neal, Cara’s Choice, and Kabluey. I planted a Kabluey this spring. So far, it appears to be viable in my climate.
Id love to hear more about the rabbiteye vs southern highbush discussion. I’m mainly looking for the best combination of flavor and productivity
Check Finch Blueberry nursery, shipping through the end of May. https://www.finchblueberrynursery.com/
That’s great! I didn’t realize they ship. What are shipping costs for them usually?
Do due diligence. Call and order some plants. Of rabbiteye they sell, Columbus, Premier, Yadkin, and Brightwell are possibilities for your location. Onslow might help stretch your season with later maturity. Ison’s has several larger fruited varieties but are no longer shipping.
Yadkin is the sweetest Rabbiteye I’ve tasted.
We have grown Blueberries in the NC Piedmont for a many years. Rabbiteye blueberries do great. SHB are marginal in my location.
We like Premier, Columbus and Power Blue. All NCSU varieties. Early. mid and mid late.
Vernon from UGA has potential. We have 100 and will decide if we want to plant more after this season. It’s early, large and sweet, but it has not done as well as Premier so far. The Blueberry PHD likes Onslow too, but it’s too late for us. Centurian is older variety that almost as late as Onslow, We have some leftover from 1985, but have not planted any more. Very unique flavor but dark blue, medium size berries.
Overall, we prefer the NCSU varieties over the UGA varieties. Some of the UGA varieties have a tendency to split when it rains a lot.
Great insight!!! Thank you so much!
Have you tried any of the other NCSU varieties? I wish I could find a list of them all somewhere but can’t find anything like that.
When you say unique flavor on centurion, how would you describe that?
Have you tried titan, brightwell, bluebelle, or yadkin?
I believe our areas are very similar, however we are lower elevation than you, maybe 350 feet.
I’m at about 800 feet. Finch Nursery in Bailey has a pretty good description of varieties. Bill Cline has also published several reports that examined varieties and I believe UGA has too. Here is Finch: https://www.finchblueberrynursery.com/rabbiteye-type
Hard to describe Centurion flavor. “Earthy” is the best I can do. Some customers prefer it and wait until the end of our season in order to get it.
We tested a few Titan and Brightwell but not Bluebelle or Yadkin.
IRA is another NCSU variety I hear about but have not tested it.
Titan was huge but had a split problem. Brightwell fruit was smaller and the taste was not impressive.
What is y’all’s setup like? Do you run supplemental irrigation? I guess it makes sense most.fruots that are large specimen deal with splitting issues. Thanks again for the info!
Also I wanted to ask. Is it better to have multiple varieties in the same ripening period for pollination purposes? Or would it be fine if I got one of each early/mid/late?
Blooming and ripening times don’t necessarily match up, a late bloomer might not be late to ripen as well.
For a backyard grower, I don’t see any reason not to just get one plant of a bunch of different varieties. Commercial growers need consistency and need to be able to work with a known quantity. A backyard grower benefits from a long harvest window with lots of peaks and valleys, for example, and can stand to lose all plants of a particular variety to disease or other issues (all one or two plants of that variety) while a commercial grower can’t afford that kind of loss.
I have heard several here over the last few years brag on yadkin… when I add more will be including a few.
