@ncdabbler @blueberrythrill @Fusion_power, @zendog, any BB grower:
Proposed lineup for a MD 8A food bank. How can I cut the list down?
O’Neal; Vernon; Krewer; Legacy; Blueray; Brightwell; Ozark Blue; Titan; Yadkin; Ochlockonee.
Those all look like good choices to me, though I don’t have any personal experience with Vernon, Legacy, Blueray, or Ozark Blue.
Rabbiteyes have been the easiest for me to grow here in central NC, but I’m always glad to have those early O’Neal berries ripening a couple of weeks before the earliest rabbiteyes. Ochlockonee is a late rabbiteye and extends your season on the late end. I haven’t grown Ocklockonee as long as my others, but so far it does seem like an improvement on other later rabbiteyes like Tifblue or Onslow in terms of flavor.
If I were to strike any from your list (based only on the ones I grow), it would be Brightwell. My Brightwell bushes are less vigorous and less productive than my other rabbiteyes. Brightwell berry size is comparable to Yadkin, but I like the flavor of Yadkin better. Krewer and Titan are much bigger and very sweet.
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Thank you, really helpful. I was wondering if Titan’s only plus was size, but happy to find out no. The only one on my list I’ve grown (30 years ago) was Blueray, that I loved, was my fav by a mile. U of MD is high on Brightwell, so hard to get a read on taste.
Premier gets singled out on internet for excellent taste- do I need it? Hope my list has pollination for everything.
U of MD isn’t wrong - Brightwell tastes great and has been just fine for me. But you were asking for opinions on what to cut from your list, and from my personal experience it comes in last compared to the other rabbiteyes you mentioned. 
I like Premier because it’s my earliest rabbiteye and starts ripening just as O’Neal is finishing up. The flavor is great, but I would put it on par with Brightwell and behind Yadkin. The ripening times of all the rabbiteyes I grow overlap quite a bit. Most of my other rabbiteyes are right behind Premier - you’re only getting about a week or so of earlier peak production by growing it, so that might not be enough to justify adding it to your list when you’re trying to shorten it. I think I’ve read that Vernon ripens about the same time as Premier.
For pollination, the only non-rabbiteyes I grow are Reka and O’Neal, but they aren’t close together, and I suspect the rabbiteyes can pollinate them as well. They both seem very productive. Not sure if you might benefit from another late rabbiteye to pollinate Ocklockonee (I have Tifblue and Onslow that are both late rabbiteyes), but I think all the rabbiteyes overlap in flowering to some degree.
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Has something taken the place of Tifblue that was a standby for so long.
I think Ocklockonee is a Tifblue replacement, but a little later ripening on average. I doubt you’d have any problem getting pollination of Ocklockonee if you’re growing “midseason” rabbiteyes like Brightwell, Yadkin, Krewer, Titan, etc… Powderblue is the other later rabbiteye that seems to be widely grown, but I don’t have any personal experience with it and I think it’s been around a while.
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Another southern highbush to consider might be jubilee. I don’t have it, but was reading a lot a while ago and it seems loved. Planning on getting it next year along with some others as I anticipate my days of northern are limited.
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U of MD had Rabbiteye trials in Southern Maryland that experienced no winter losses of dormant RE even down to zero degrees. I guess a cold snap after they start waking up could damage them, dunno if could kill outright. Am cautious here as am recommending plants for a community food plot, not for my own experimentation.
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Given you are recommending plants for a community plot and won’t necessarily be managing it day to day yourself, I’d suggest considering just getting one type (southern, northern or RE) and only a 2-3 varieties. This makes it easier to manage as well as easier to identify issues since plants of the same variety should react the same to pH, etc. Growing different species that react differently to different conditions is just more difficult. I haven’t seen any pollination issue when I’ve just had a few varieties in the past, so I don’t think having just a few varieties would be an issue on that front.
Having fewer varieties, ideally with consolidated ripening times, would make the picking easier as well, since growing is one thing, but people might get bored picking the blueberries week in and week out, so from a management perspective I’d think 2-4 weeks of ripe berries would be easier to manage than all summer long, unless they have very dedicated volunteers. Also, I’d avoid medium/small berries or varieties that ripen over a long period of time (fewer ripe berries per bush at any one time), since both traits make them more work to harvest.
My suggestion would be to pick BlueRay, which you have grown and know, plus one or 2 other productive northern highbush types, if you think they would do okay there. I’m in 7B (Arlington) and in a bit of a heat island which keeps temps a bit warmer at night than some 7B locations and my northern highbush types are very happy here.
For an earlier crop (before too much SWD pressure) maybe Spartan and BlueRay would be a good pair - good growers, good taste, early, good size and productive.
If you just start with a few varieties in a shorter ripening window, you can always add more if the team running the garden is successful without stressing them out to do it all with a bunch of varieties right away… just my $.02
There may be reasons RE would be better there, so if others in your area suggest those, then maybe 2-3 RE varieties would be better. I’ve been very happy with the northern highbush and they’ve grown well for me, so haven’t seen a need to try RE types.
Edited to add: If you go with rabbiteyes my advice of 2-3 varieties might not be correct, since that is my experience with both southern highbush and northern highbush, but RE types might have different pollination needs.
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@zendog I appreciate your thoughts on what would be practical for a community plot. I hadn’t thought of how an extended season could be a drawback rather than a benefit in that context. My impression is that rabbiteyes are less particular about soil pH than other types of blueberries, but they do get rather large when left to their own devices. I prune them each year to keep them around 6-7ft where we can easily pick the berries. Without significant pruning they would probably get at least several feet taller than that. Having extra pruning to do might be an issue for a community plot for the same reason that a longer harvest season might be a drawback…
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Excellent points, thanks, I agree. I found an old Houzz post where a veteran berry grower in the South described two friends of his who ran a huge rabbiteye farm but whose private garden was just two varieties highbush: Blueray and Ozark Blue. I don’t know Ozark Blue, do you?. Blueray is a slam dunk for me, always has been after growing 13 different highbush decades ago. Duke and Legacy get mentions as stars; O’Neal fussy grower.
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My Z7 central MD blueberry growing for the last 20 years suggests that O’Neal is the perfect choice. Mine are massive bushes that produce incredibly tasty berries while being super productive. My sweetcrips are also great, but much smaller and less productive. I removed my super early varieties over the years partly because they weren’t as tasty but also because I got sick and tired of picking blueberries every other day. It’s an odd complaint to be sure but I don’t have much help at home and it becomes work after a while.
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One of my friends is growing O’Neal and Chandler in half wine barrels and the plants seem to be enjoying it. She has to battle squirrels and birds tho.
She lives up the street from me in Moco MD
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Thanks Mike. O’Neal for some reason has a “hard to grow” reputation some places on internet. Is it fairly rugged, robust for you?
I don’t know Ozark Blue either although I just read a bit about it and it sounds like a good variety. It is a souther highbush I believe.
I think as long as you pick a variety in the desired ripening range and it is a good producer, that can be considered a success. Anything they provide will be at least as good, and most likely much better, than any blueberries they’ve had before, so pairing the best production with the great taste and production of BlueRay should work. For instance I really like Cara’s Choice, but it is clearly out produced by BlueRay, so, while great for me, for a food bank I think it is better to select one that produces more to feed more people.
I hope you keep us updated on the project’s progress.
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@hambone you weren’t asking me about O’Neal, and I’ve mentioned it elsewhere on this forum, but here in central NC my highbush blueberries have really struggled right beside rabbiteyes that have thrived in the same soil amended with organic matter and mounded, with sulfur added to lower the pH. They barely survived until I grafted O’Neal and Reka to Tifblue - then they became very productive. But it does involve more work to remove competing suckers. And I expect to have to regraft them once these canes start to decline.
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Thanks. So O’Neal struggled on its own roots before you grafted it on something else? That’s a vote for rabbiteye.
To clarify, I never grew O’Neal on its own roots in my yard, but Reka on its own roots never fruited and barely grew at all for a couple years under the same conditions that rabbiteyes thrived. Then I got scionwood of O’Neal and grafted both O’Neal and Reka to established Tifblue (rabbiteye) bushes. They both took off and were productive. So I don’t have enough personal experience growing highbush blueberries, but blueberrythrill is close to me and has said they haven’t done very well for him on a much larger scale and over a longer period of time. It might be that I just haven’t gotten the pH low enough for highbush blueberries, but rabbiteyes are more adaptable to a wider range of soil conditions. The only reason I bother growing grafted O’Neal and Reka is to have an earlier harvest.
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It’s the most robust plant of the 7 varieties I’ve grown. I would have given that title to Blueray but my one Blueray died on me last year. Healthy one year, dead the next while growing in the middle of a patch of blueberries. Very strange.
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