Hey everyone, as I have done before, I like to review unusual fruits/cultivars that I couldn’t find much information about online before growing them myself. This time its on Reka blueberries. I have been growing mine in a 25 gallon grow bag with a 50/50 mix of peat moss and pine bark. My bush was purchased in a 1 gallon pot and this is my third growing season with it.
Pros:
Very rapid growing bush
Upright grower (even with heavy netting pushing it down along with a heavy crop of berries)
Very early producing, this year it ripened around the same time as Spartan
Overall very productive, smaller berries but had quite an impressive number of berries for its age
Online it mentions they are semi self fertile, I definitely agree with this. I did not notice a single flower that didn’t grow into a blueberry, the same cannot be said for my other varieties that were flowering at the same time
Firm berries, small scar
Extremely cold hardy. I am in zone 5, quite a bit of my spartan blueberry had freeze damage and my jersey blueberry actually died this past season, my Reka didn’t skip a beat.
Cons:
Needs a bit of pruning, more so than many of my other varieties, it produces side branches all over the place that cross each other and often go into the middle of the plant. Easy fix but should be mentioned.
Flavor. Not a single family member nor myself would ever go to this bush if they’re looking for a great tasting blueberry. I personally don’t find anything “wrong” with it but its certainly nothing special. Some family members note a weird aftertaste. They mentioned that while the aftertaste wouldn’t stop them from eating the berries, its not necessarily pleasant.
Small to medium berry, but still a good yield due to a large number of them
All in all, if you want an extremely cold hardy, productive, carefree and early blueberry go for Reka, just don’t expect to win any awards on taste.
Id say medium size is fair, it could also be because I was mostly comparing the berry to blueray which is a pretty large berry. In addition, its still a relatively young bush and pollination this year was a bit spottier than usual so maybe its self-fertile properties kicked in and just produced smaller berries rather than dropping them. I’ll definitely update my progress with them next year. Do you really enjoy the flavor of yours?
This is very helpful and I think there is just way too much info out there saying various cultivars are great, when maybe the flavor isn’t so good. I’m curious if you could list your other cultivars in order of flavor - best to worst. I’d be interested to know what other varieties you have that are better than Reka, etc.
I don’t grow Reka, but definitely have at least one variety that is now large and pretty productive but with a fairly meh flavor -Indigo crisp. Probably a reason you never hear much about that one anymore.
Im growing Reka, Toro, Hanna’s Choice, Cara’s Choice, Draper, Elliot and Ka-Bluey in the ground. I have most of the others in pots… like Northland etc.
That Ka-Bluey that looked dead that i sent u pics of…woke up after a month and is doing great.
Highest hopes for Draper and Cara’s Choice… they will likely be my favorites.
I got a Draper through the Hartmann’s buy this year and will be interested to see how it tastes.
Hannah’s Choice is excellent as well, although I give Cara’s the edge. I gave a neighbor, who already had 5 or 6 varieties of blueberries, a small Cara’s Choice. He got a small crop this year and the whole family agreed they were much better than any of the others. He wanted to rip out all his other bushes (I don’t know the varieties) and put in all Cara’s. Unfortunately, I had to give him the bad news that he might not be able to find any since people don’t really sell them anymore. Did you find a good source that you think is selling the real Cara’s?
No i bought mine from a guy that propagates his. He bought his from a nursery back when they sold them… i think Drew bought his from the same nursery years ago.
I am pretty confident that i could propagate them and sell them on Ebay and nobody would buy them because nobody talks about them, theres no youtube videos, and no talk on social media… so obviously they arent worth growing. Right?
The guy that i bought them from posted them on social medias for sale and nobody bought them either. He gave up trying to sell them a few years ago… i luckily found the old post and contacted him.
Likely someone down the road will change the name of them and do well with them. Maybe ‘Worlds Best’… nobody will ever figure it out because nobody knows Cara’s Choice…
FYI i have 4 extra Cara’s they are 3 yr olds and bearing in the pots. If u are interested for your neighbor. I may sell them for the right price…otherwise im probably going to keep them and use them for cuttings plants.
Thats how I feel which is what prompted me to write this cultivar up. Currently I only have three varieties that have fruited, Reka, Spartan and Blueray. My jersey passed away this past winter and I never tasted the fruit.
Spartan and Blueray are both very good (although not the best I have ever tasted) in regards to flavor. My spartan has a little extra something to the flavor that I really enjoy but the case can be made for either of them. I currently have an Aurora and Chandler I am hopeful I will get a small crop next year and will also be adding on a few other cultivars this fall. I’ll certainly write up my opinions as I taste them.
I got mine from https://restoringeden.co/. Very healthy plant, I was happy with my purchase. But it also sounds like our forum member @JohannsGarden sells them on their nursery site as well.
Its unpopular because its not for sale. People dont want to talk or like anything that is unfamiliar. Kind of like marbles… if u dont have any marbles then playing marbles is stupid.
The only Reka plants I ever bought I sold to someone for their blueberry patch in their backyard. But, being a New Zealand cultivar, it’s not readily available in USA.
Toro, another from NZ, is a great landscape plant and much more available…I bought some this spring. Haven’t sampled enough berries to have a good opinion or bad of them so far as taste. But a nice plant.
I grow Reka, Legacy, Duke, Northblue, Bluecrop and Elliot (first season fruiting). Reka, Legacy and Northblue are in large half barrels. I also find it fast, relatively upright and among the early producers. Most think its taste is just okay, maybe better than Duke both a far cry from Legacy or even Northblue. Except to say that I don’t find the berries to be so small I think my short experience otherwise mirrors your comments.
I’m chalking it up to it being a relatively young bush and poor pollination. In either case, given its earliness and ease of care, I’ll likely be holding onto it at least until my newer varieties reach maturity.
Is legacy your favorite for flavor? Is it a really weepy bush as I have read online?
The commercial nursery world (including seed sellers) is a brutal marketplace for varieties that don’t get much attention or marketing push. Both Cara (and her sister Hannah) are known for great taste by those who have had them but are generally reported as having a lower yield than cultivars like Blueray, Bluecrop, Duke, etc. So I believe what happened is U-pick growers, commercial growers, etc. weren’t interested in them and therefore propagators weren’t interested in them and if nobody is propagating them in numbers, big sellers like Starks, Gurneys, etc. aren’t going to buy them from propagators and/or won’t contract to order them grown for them since there is no demand. So they slip away into obscurity, traded by some collectors, but becoming harder and harder to find. Someday, someone like Gurneys may release it under a new hyperbolic name and sell it to the masses, but until then it will remain almost impossible to find.
It is interesting to see grassroots interest for some things pick up and then nurseries notice and start adding varieties. For instance, a few years ago Stark offered 4 or 5 types of pawpaws and just Yates and Prok for American persimmons. With increased interest by home growers in both of these fruits, Starks now has 10 varieties of pawpaws and 7 varieties of American persimmons, plus one hybrid. A few years ago, I wonder if anybody at Starks had even heard of I-94 American persimmon (it certainly has a terrible name for marketing), but now they’re selling it.
So maybe Cara will get her day in the sun sometime. I think when mine are fruiting next year I’ll do a YouTube video and call it, “The world’s best-tasting blueberry and you’ve never heard of it.” Perfect click bait.
I think the same way but i have learned… that Ford Vs. Chevy has no end… its an impossible argument.
Nobody watches or wants the new persimmons from videos of the Ukrainian hybrids…until they are available for sale its just some guy that has something that you cant get.
I have offered new varieties of blackberries and raspberries for FREE… i think i got one like and 1 private message that will likely not work out.
Im growing 3 heirloom tomatoes that i believe are not in the market… zero interest.
I grow one heirloom garlic that is for sure worth growing…not even 1 like.
I offered a peach that has 200 years of history… zero interest.
If i sold these things on Ebay for $50 each they would be very good and desirable… and shortly talked about on here. Shortly after that they would make it to social media… lots of selfies and likes to be had from someone growing something unique.
Strange thing being interested in uncommon varieties…but thats how it works. In this group especially. Growing non known things gets no traction or interest.
I grow and collect many many more things than i talk about because its a waste of space and time to do so… its hard to have a conversation with yourself.
Cara’s Choice is a one man band kind of blueberry to grow… i think u will see that until your neighbor gets thiers going…then u will both know that its a fine choice.
Thank you for the write ups @zendog and @krismoriah, it’s unfortunate that great cultivars are left in the dust for very little actual reason. If either of you two ever have any Cara plants or cuttings available please let me know. You’ve definitely interested me!
@Adamsmasherz Of the ones we gave grown and tasted Legacy is certainly preferred. I would not say that the bushes have been weepy. Without a whole field of various bushes to compare to I would even call them medium upright, acknowledging that the younger one hasn’t really had time to become weepy.
