Favorite blueberries for Maryland (7b)?

General Fruit Growing
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Hi all! I started lurking here a few weeks ago, soaking in all the great advice. I posted this over in reddit last week as well but am hoping for some more expertise and suggestions here!

I live in Maryland, just outside of DC (zone 7b). I have a maybe 15-20 foot long garden bed that I’d like to put blueberries in. I’ve been meaning to put plants in for years, but I now have a toddler who will literally eat a pint of blueberries in a single sitting if given the opportunity, so it seems like an opportune time to get them planted.

I’d like around 5 bushes to extend the season (including an early, mid, and late season). Since my area seems to be right in the crosshairs of hardiness areas for Northern highbush, southern highbush, and rabbiteye, I figure I’ll try at least one of each to see what grows best.

My priorities are flavor and quantity. I tend to prefer the concentrated flavors of the wild berries I grew up picking in the woods in Minnesota. I do also like sweet berries, there just has to be flavor there. Nothing bland or watery. I don’t care too much about berry size or even firmness, as long as they are flavorful.

I made a spreadsheet, of course. The italicized ones are also recommended by the UMD extension service, for reference.

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I know lots of varieties are self-fertile (or somewhat), but having a pollinator will increase yields. My understanding is that northern and southern highbush can cross pollinate each other, but rabbiteye needs another rabbiteye?

I’m leaning toward O’Neal (early season), Sunshine blue, Bluecrop, or Reka (mid season), Legacy (late season), and NorthSky (I know I’m at the top end of the range, but it mentioned tasting like wild blueberries and its small, so I’ll throw it in regardless and see what happens). For rabbiteye, I was looking at brightwell (early/mid).

I assume I’d need a second rabbiteye for pollination? Krewer was suggested as a tasty one, along with Tifblue, Premier, Climax, and Vernon.

Given my location (7b, humid, drought), space, and desire for flavor/quantity, are there any other options to consider? Any I should cross off the list?

I’m both excited and overwhelmed by the amount of choices, and wish I had a way to try them all!

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Pink Lemonade has done great here west of DC. The name matches the taste.

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Here in the North Carolina piedmont (8a), rabbiteyes have been the most productive for me. My favorite for flavor is Yadkin. I think the seasons in your spreadsheet are not all on the same scale (i.e., they are only in relation to the other blueberries of the same type - SHB, NHB and Rabbiteye - not in comparison to all of the varieties on your list). I grow O’Neal and Reka grafted on to Tifblue (and they are both a few weeks earlier than my earliest Rabbiteyes). They overlap in ripening. I’ve had great initial impressions of Krewer and Titan - large sweet fruit and productive.

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@zendog is nearby… maybe he will chime in.

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I’m just outside of DC (on the good side though!). I can’t call on my many years of experience, but a few years back I ordered a variety pack from nourse. They are are Northern highbush and all have done reasonably well here. I didn’t do much research and they were a ‘why not’ addon at the last minute.

According to Nourse:

Patriot (Early Season)
Blueray (Early Mid Season)
Jersey (Late Season)

They do give a good spread across the season and generally make tasty blueberries. I don’t have enough blueberry depth to really compare them to many other varieties though.

I kept them in pots for a year then after realizing our red clay is rather acidic, I moved them in ground in a decent, but not great spot (morning into early afternoon sun only). They have dug in nicely and made a bunch of berries last year. I didn’t get enough consistent eating (kids beat me to most of them) to make definitive judgement on any variety, but enjoyed what I ate.

The main problem around here is the birds. You’ll have to seriously protect them if you expect to eat any of them. They blue up well before their taste hits peak and the cat birds and mocking birds are relentless. The first year that I netted I think I caught at least 6 cat birds. The kids found a couple that were caught up so I freed them and those are some angry and ungrateful birds. The rest i found pieces of while removing the net. The following year I bought tighter netting (think onion bag consistency) and I didn’t have to deal with extracting any birds.

I’ve considered adding a rabbit eye (likely pink lemonade) but would need to figure out where the heck to put it.

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Oh that’s a good point re: the seasons. I didn’t realize it was in relation to the same type. (I also never thought about grafting blueberries…learn something new every day!)

I’ve seen Yadkin come up frequently as a favorite for flavor. I think it didn’t make my initial list since I didn’t see it offered at my go-to seed/plant shops, but I’m very interested in it if I can find it. It may be my new front-runner for a rabbiteye.

Do rabbiteye need a pollinator? Can they cross with NHB or SHB?

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Great intel! I love the idea that I can (hopefully) throw some in our clay soil and whatever I grow will be relatively tasty!

Do you leave the bird nets on all season? Or just put on once berries are imminent? I’ve been happily in denial about sharing with birds, but this is making me realize I should come up with some sort of solution. Like a netting hoop house down the garden bed maybe? Hardware cloth cages?

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Yes, blueberries are easy to graft, but since they sucker you do have to remove competing stems from the plants you’ve grafted to maintain the grafted varieties. Grafting would give you a way to trial a wider range of blueberry varieties in a limited space, but I grafted O’Neal and Reka to help these varieties grow more vigorously and get blueberries a few weeks earlier than my earliest rabbiteyes (Premier and Climax). My impression is that rabbiteyes are less fussy about soil pH than other blueberries. My unamended soil is 5.5 pH, and I added a lot of composted leaves and wood chips and sulfur (which I continue to add every few years) to prepare my blueberry beds. When I planted NHB and SHB on their own roots, the plants survived but didn’t thrive. Right next to them, the rabbiteyes were so healthy and productive. I got the idea of grafting them from @cousinfloyd who shared O’Neal and Reka scionwood with me along with Yadkin root suckers. I’m not sure about pollination needs since I grow about 35 bushes and 11 different varieties (9 rabbiteyes + O’Neal and Reka). The fact that so many blueberry varieties are crosses between different species makes me think they can pollinate each other as long as they are flowering at the same time. I also grow Brightwell - it’s not as vigorous as most rabbiteyes and the fruit are small but tasty. The fruit quality and flavor of rabbiteyes depends a lot on keeping your plants healthy with adequate moisture during dry spells and less on the particular variety. The most significant difference between most of my rabbiteyes is in terms of when they ripen, not flavor. I don’t water my blueberries in the summer (too many plants for that), but I have noticed that the later varieties that ripen during hotter weather taste better when we’ve had more consistent rain. Usually there’s a dry spell in July, and the quality drops off significantly. If I were starting over, I would grow a lot more Krewer, Titan and Yadkin. Krewer and Titan are newer varieties, and big blueberries aren’t always better because they can split in the rain, but these are definitely an improvement in terms of flavor on the older rabbiteye varieties I grow.

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I’m in Zone 6B/7A with limited direct experience, so I have a shotgun style answer for you.
The best blueberries I’ve tasted in ground were at Edible Landscaping up at Afton, VA, which is probably closer to your zone than mine. Those were Reka. I have a couple plants, buthtey are small. if they’ve produced berries, something lse found them before I did.
The best I’ve tasted on my own property were a two-fer on one plant. Blueberry Buckle, which is a smaller berry of mixed parentage. I bought the first plant because is had a reversion/sport/second plant coming out at the base., and both were fruiting. The official plant was a dark berry about the size of a June pea. I did not let the birs get a shot at them. The basal plant, which I could tell was either planted in the same plug or sprouting from at or below ground level, had berries that were smaller than the ball on a hat pin. I identified it as one of the parents of the BB, but don’t recall it now. It would take a blue million of these to make a meal of, but I gave it my best shot with what the plant would produce.
All that said, I have never had a bad blueberry. From the grocery store to the field, I’m willing to toss every variety I’ve encountered into my mouth by the handfull. If it grows on your property, give it the conditions it needs to grow well and you cannot go wrong. I suspect how you treat them makes the biggest difference in final taste as blueberries are ultimately a surface plant. The giant random high-bush natives along the Blue Ridge Parkway are growing on top of bare rock with basically only the mulch they produce themselves to feed them. It’s a wonder they haven’t learned to fly in all the wind as loosely as they are moored.
I prefer the shorter bushes as my property is not huge and I want a diversity. My neighbor inherited about a half dozen of some highbush variety that are taller than my house. They produce bushels of dime-sized berries that the waxwings will break into any enclosure to compete for. I get to enjoy a lot of those every year, but they are still “just blueberries” to the extent I can compare to the above named varieties.

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I concur with this - a happy blueberry plant gives better tasting fruit, and the varieties that have the most potential to taste good might not if they aren’t getting enough sun, water, or nutrients.

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Rabbiteyes can get quite tall. I prune mine every year to about 6 ft so I can easily pick them, but they’ll get out of reach if you let them. Brightwell is a less vigorous rabbiteye in my experience and rarely requires any significant pruning to keep them within 6ft, but that might be influenced by where I have them in my blueberry patch in the drier end of the bed.

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I only net them when the berries get close to ripe. the past couple of years Ive just reused the 3/4" PVC pipes from my early season veggie low tunnel and clip the netting onto the pipes and then hold the bottom down with whatever I have laying around.

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Chandler and Bonus are both good Northern Highbush varieties with large berries. They’ve done well given their circumstances in SE PA.

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This is absolutely mind blowing to me. My entire blueberry experience revolves around crawling around on rocky points in northern Minnesota, looking for delicious little low-bush wild blueberries. My brain just can’t quite comprehend picking blueberries off of a veritable tree!

This is reassuring, and seems to be the lesson to take away from all of this!!

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Well, I decided enough research, time to dive in with reckless abandon!

I ended up with:

  • Legacy
  • Blueray
  • Reka
  • O’Neal
  • Krewer
  • NorthSky (just for my own curiosity)

Unfortunately I’m still looking for a Yadkin! I saw Finch nurseries have them, but require a $75 minimum order. Other places seem to be sold out (Edible Landscaping), or want to charge $75 for shipping (I don’t even remember which one that was). So if anyone has a Yadkin source, I’m all ears!

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Clockwork is the upgraded Reka if you can find it.

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If Maryland is anything like Washington state in terms of weather, i would look into the upgraded versions of everything.

Blue ribbon = upgraded toro (one of my favorite but can get mushy and not as early ripening)

Top shelf = upgraded draper. Draper isn’t a sweet as Sweetcrisp but it sure is as crispy

Clockwork = upgraded reka

That’s all i can think of from the top of my head cause that’s all that’s newly sitting in my front yard :sweat_smile: i made a thread on berry lineage and I’ve been posting all i can find/ think of to search on there

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Maryland has … Bipolar weather, where you can have all 4 seasons in 1 week sometime (30 on Monday and 90 on Friday). We also have very hot and humid summers. So it might be 97 outside, but with 70% humidity, with a “feels like” 108. But we also can get single digit during the winter. It’s crazy :rofl:

Just to give you an idea of our winter / summer range

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:face_in_clouds: well dam. I learned something new today. The movies always told me it was grey and cloudy like here in washington during our big wet period

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You’ll love Blueray, an old variety, my FAV.

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