Best two northern blueberries to grow

[Joe]

I got a popup to sign up for Pinetree’s email list and it said I’d get 15% off if I did. I waited 15 minutes and the email’s not here yet. I’m not waiting, if it comes in I can post it here. Gonna just get one Hannah’s and plant it alongside the Earliblue (which should be a few days earlier).

2 Spartans from Indiana Berry will replace the 2 Patriots, the Hannah’s Choice will replace the Reka. I want to move the Patriots to another place but I don’t think I’ll keep the Reka at all. Too much “vigor”!

[dimitri_7a]

With these prices I can’t justify not getting a strawberry “collection”. If my wife doesn’t kill me this year, she’ll be extremely pleased with me the following year.

LOL. This was exactly my thinking when I decided to order some raspberries without her approval. She was pretty angry about it but this year I got permission to expand the row with some blackberries and raspberries so she can’t be that upset. My only hope is that they are mature enough this year to have a good yield and justify my decision.

[Joe]

Well, I made the mistake of telling her and she had the expected reaction. After I ordered just the one variety she told me I could get the collection. Now I need to call Indiana Berry!

[Drew51]

At first my wife had some objections, but after over 5 years of harvest, she is 100% on board now. I don’t even ask her anymore. I order modestly every year anyway.

[northwoodswis4]

Also does anybody have any experience with or opinions of
Rubel, Chipewa, Hardyblue, Northblue, or Northsky?

I have Chippewa, North Blue, Northsky, and a whole bunch of other kinds. To tell the truth, I don’t find a notable difference in flavor in most of them. St. Cloud and Polaris seem a bit sweeter, and Razz is good. The main difference I find is size of bush and size of berry, plus hardiness. My four or five Kablueys have only born a handful of berries in about ten years. The Chandler gets large berries, but only after very mild winters. Many years it has gotten nothing. Dukes have been pretty sparse, too, as have also the Jerseys. A Spartan and a Nelson got stunted by cold the first year (they arrived leafed out from a southern grower the day we were leaving for a trip), and it took them about ten years before they ever got a berry. I like the Northsky, North Blue, and Chippewa as good as any. Very dependable varieties. It helps to shovel snow over the bushes, but this winter the ground has been nearly bare here near St. Paul, MN. I’ve never heard of a variety called Prairie Berry. I thought that was a term for Haskaps.

[Drew51]

Very dependable varieties.

I’m looking for exactly that as at my cottage conditions are tough, Right near the North Channel of the St. Clair river, conditions change quickly and it is the same zone as my house but with the winds off the frozen water, it’s a challenge to grow anything. not just that, it seems fruit plants all struggle there. growing quite smaller than they do here. I love my location in the city for this zone. Thanks for the response, helps a lot.
Zone 4a sounds like it is brutal for most. I’m in 6a/5b . I now remember you going over your results before, thanks for refreshing my memory. All of the ones you have problems with that I have do very well here. Pink Popcorn is rated to 4, or 3? It might be worth trying. I think I mentioned that last time we talked about blueberries? It’s doing very well here so far. The berries are kinda chewy, very strange. I still like it. All of mine fruited a little the 2nd year. My zone must be about perfect for blueberries, just wish my soil was!
Prairie Berry seems to be a cultivar only offered by Burpee, must be new or renamed. They usually do not do that. .

[hambone]

Is your Reka tart? if yes, is it bad tart or good tart?

[Sue-MiUPz3]

I have: Northland (3) (8-12 yrs) - My favorite. Smaller berries but prolific and very good flavor, long harvest period, ripe when blue. Wide growing plant, very hardy, good producer of new shoots.
Duke (8 yrs) - Nice larger berries, sweet, ripe when blue, earliest (though they all are not that far apart). More upright grower. Little to no winterkill. My next favorite to NL.
Chippewa (3 yrs) - Similar to Duke I think but it’s young so not a lot of history. Berries are darker than all the others, good flavor. Had a little tip winterkill (could be due to being young). Looks like it will be an upright grower.
Blueray (12 yrs) - had a rough start (poor plant) so took awhile but now it is a good producer, fruit med-lg good sweet flavor, pretty pink when immature, somewhat later crop, a little tip winterkill, tallest of my plants.
Patriot (2) (12 yrs) - healthy plts but slow to put out new shoots, 2nd to ripen after Duke, largest berries with good flavor IF fully ripe which is hard to see and have to wait after blue for some days. Light winterkill. I’m considering replacing these just because of the “when are they ripe” issue. (so I’m following this discussion with interest!)
Bluecrop (8 yrs) - very poor plant to begin & took a long time to get over its beginnings so probably not a good test, plus it’s in the lightest soil of the plot. Fruit is good but more winterkill than others. I keep saying I’ll replace it but hate to give up on this trooper.
I find the differences overall aren’t that great and change year to year as far as who’s first or last to fruit, flavor, size of plants. Our season is roughly 3rd wk of July to 3rd wk Aug. Winterkill has been minor, just tips except for BC so I’d say the rest are pretty hardy. I like the variety. Thjankfully we’re in blueberry country with ‘blueberry happy’ soil. Nice to have something that grows well here! Sue

[Drew51]

Wow Sue good success for zone 3! Thanks so much for the reviews! hey i would avoid the Choice plants (Hannah and Cara) because descriptions say best in Northeast with a zone range of 5-8. I should be OK, and Cara’s never has dieback for me and it’s in a pot out all winter. You could try but taking a chance.

Interesting about the varying taste, this comes up a lot. Some of mine vary, but some are very consistent in flavor. Liberty, Legacy etc. Again really good info!
Wow what a short season you have Holy Moly!

I also grow honeyberries the best so far is Aurora. They are tart even slightly astringent (Aurora is not astringent). I have a number of others that should be sweeter that are young yet. And plan to buy more. I like blueberries better, honeyberries are better to cook with than blueberries for me. Maybe I will stick with honeyberries to cook with and not my blueberries! Aurora has a rich flavor, but I bet future and more recent cultivars are even better.

[moose71]

i have northblue and northsky. i like both berries. northblue is a little bigger berry but the snow keeps breaking the branches on me so i can’t atest to productivity. northsky gets a lot less damage. both are better tasting than patriot.

[moose71]

i have indigo treat , indigo gem and aurora. for fresh eating aurora is the best! ill use the other 2 for jams. hopefully next year ill have enough to makes some.

[hambone]

Is anyone growing rabbiteyes in Maryland, Delaware, D.C., Northern Va?

[itheweatherman]

I will.

[itheweatherman]

I couldn’t find a patent in Cara’s choice, but I found out its parentage

[Drew51]

Yeah many universities sometimes do not seek patents, it depends. This was a creation with many contributors. Mark Ehlenfelt helped release many cultivars that he helped breed, or continued other people’s work, or just made it possible to release. Sweetheart, Raz, Pink Lemonade , Legacy, and many more.
Like Raz existed but was never released, Mark made it happen. He is retired from this work now. His work and the work of a guy (forgot his name, he is most famous for Red Haven peach) at MSU, put a lot out there. MSU released about 10 cultivars Northland, Liberty, many more too. Not Spartan though which is funny. My alma mater btw.

Thanks brother, i owe you!

[Drew51]

I don’t have much room to grow plants so it can become crowed at times. Here is my raised bed system with 6 blueberry plants in there, somewhere. A free bed between plants I rotate between pepper or tomatoes one year, and garlic the next. Photo taken today.

I have rebar in the ground so in the growing season I put together (and take apart) one inch PVC and throw nets over it. The tomatoes are blocking too much light so in the future will be planted elsewhere and I will rotate the open bed with garlic and cauliflower/broccoli
Quite the contrast!

[moose71]

i thought my yard was crowded! good job managing it!

[Drew51]

Now I have a lot and I’m moving some of it to the lot, but it is a place I only go to on the weekends, so it will not always be ideal there. Trying to use low maintenance plants only although two peach trees are already there. I decided to use it as test ground for seed grown crossed fruit too.
My yard again.

[moose71]

do you find you have more pest/ disease pressure at your home lot compared to at your cabin? with our rainy cold springs, molds and fungal diseases would run rampant here if my property would look like yours. i have all my stuff planted in rows that are about 10ft. apart. it helps the air circulate in there and nothing shades my other plants out.

[Drew51]

do you find you have more pest/ disease pressure at your home lot compared to at your cabin?

No, just different pests. It’s very damp at the cottage, so better spacing is required. The plants in the city have a full southern exposure. That certainly helps. I think in 7 years I had 2 fruits with brown rot, I just don’t see it. I do spray all the same, probably why I don’t see it.
What I’m seeing is good things like a lot of beneficial insects, seems more and more come in yearly. I used to have problems with aphids and Japanese beetles, The yard now is full of lady bugs, and dragon flies. Humming birds now too. I spread actual chitin eating bacteria and crab shells to attract them, all around the yard. Last year I think i saw 7 Japanese beetles, when 700 was the norm. Also chitin is a major component of cell walls of fungi.
Some of the organic methods work with time. Humming birds like to eat small insects like SWD, they can eat up to 90/day. It took years to get them here. they are all over my cottage though. Still not seeing a lot of them here.