With the nice weather I decided to redo my blueberry cage so no bird could ever get in again. And now I’m thinking of planting a new row of large easy to pick Blueberry bushes. Does anybody have an opinion on my choices from Stark? Chandler, Patriot, Duke, Herbert, and Blueray. The ten bushes I have are miscellaneous ones a purchased and are fine just want some big tasty ones to pick in the future.
John,
Although I don’t have them anymore, I like Chandler. The berries were big and tasted good. I had Patriots, Duke and Blueray, berries were smaller but they had more tartness in them. I know many like it, I surely don’t.
When I pick blueberries at Tougas Farm, they have a few outstanding varieties that taste fabulously delicious. Unfortunately, I never asked for the names. Can you call them and ask what they grow?
I would include at least one Elliot to extend the season. You can also consider Berkely and Bonus if you really want size. I don’t know of Herbert or Chandler but Berkely and Bonus are later than Duke and Patriot. Blueray is not as large as either.
I bought a Chandler bush a few years back and it’s supposed to be the largest Blueberry, well it was tagged wrong because it ended up being very tiny berries and I believe a low bush variety. I later yanked it out for some apple trees that needed the space. Maybe they have the names on their website, I’ll look.
I’ll look for them, never thought about extending seasons for Blueberries. To me they were all the same until mine started cropping and saw the differences.
The real Chandler ripens for quite a few weeks. Good for backyard gardeners like us as we do not need to eat them all at once.
I took a short cut and bought them from Bigelow Nursery in Northboro. They have a lot of interesting varieties. If you can’t find the varieties you want at the Cape, you should take a trip to Bigelow.
Where are you located, John?
Got my start with northern highbush types, but rabbiteyes and southern highbush types are so much more productive here (though I’m not sure they’ll reliably go much farther north), that I will probably never bother planting a NHB variety again.
Northblue and Bluecrop are good.
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Cape Cod Massachusetts zone 6 ish. Good soil for Blueberry bushes.