Good morning goys, it’s been a while since I’ve been here. I’ve purchased to beautiful burlap blueberry bushes last year, about 5’ tall. My only gripe, is the label only states “high bush” .is there a way to determine which high bush it is? I was thinking the ripeness date would get me in the ballpark. But it’s annoying not knowing exactly what I got.
Might B&B be the name of a variety? We can’t grow high bush ones here in the North, so I am not familiar with them. To be honest, I’ve not noticed much difference in taste in most varieties. When you buy the ripe berries in stores in the little cartons, they seldom list the variety, whereas with apples they generally say what varieties they are, since apples vary so much. If your bush is healthy and productive, don’t worry about it.
I was assuming B&B was the supplier name (such as Bushel and Berry). I tried to do a search on Bushel and Berry stock based on the information in the tag, but I’m not coming up with anything.
B&B refers to ‘balled & burlapped’…not a variety nor a company.
If you did have a company name, then the bar codes might possibly lead to an ID.
Bloom time and pictures of berries may enable you to eliminate some cultivars, but probably odds against being for certain based on appearance or bloom time.
Again, some varieties could be ruled out, but positive ID difficult based on observation.
B&b might just refer to it being ball and burlap.
Yes, b&b are burlap and ball reference. And, I reached out to the nursery to contact the supplier, and that ended up being a dead end as well. I really appreciate all the feedback.
I’ve got this chart
here and it’ll help me narrow it down to about five varieties. I can post some pictures when the blueberries ripe.
Thank you for all the feedback
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why cant you grow highbush there? i have patriot, northland, northsky and Chippewa. here. i need to build some cages for mine as the snow prunes off branches as it melts in the spring.
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I think those you list are crosses with high bush, known as half highs. I do grow all of those varieties here.
We had record snow depths this winter, so I hope mine are okay. The heavy snow this past weekend did quite a number on trees in the area. I’ve not been out to my rural orchard since October, so curious what I will find. Had a very poor blueberry crop last year.
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patriot is a full highbush at 5ft. tall and hardy to z3 . was developed in Maine. most highbush are z4 hardy and up. is it the damage from snow that stops you from growing them? i have a wild highbush that has small dark purple fruit i got from a friend’s mother in central New Hampshire. her bushes are 10ft. and absolutely loaded with fruit. looking forward to that one producing a bigger crop. very sweet wild blueberry flavor like a wild lowbush.
seeing how much my romance cherry branches are stretched out right now, its going to be a bad damage year. still over 3ft. on the ground with another 8in. coming weds. night.
I have a number of Patriots. I’ve just never heard them called high bush. Maybe I am confusing it with Southern Highbush. I’ve never heard of Northern Highbush, but maybe it is a question of regional nomenclature. I have nearly every variety listed as hardy here in 4a, but some don’t produce well. I’ve probably got over a hundred bushes, so hoping for a good crop. We cut a few trees last fall, so I hope that helps. I also plan to relocate some once the snow melts and ground thaws.
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Good chart…but the first item I’m going to vigorously disagree on is BlueGold does not produce over a 28 day span…more like 10 days.
generally highbush are 4 ft tall and bigger. mediums like Chippewa are 2’-4’. lowbush are under 2’. central Maine has alot of wild highbush and the whole state has wild lowbush. blueberries are big money in eastern Maine. i worked the barrens for 3 weeks the 1st fall back home from the Army. made about a grand a week but very hard on the back until you get used to it. because the barrens are uneven, they are still picked by hand by migrant workers and the local native Americans that live nearby.
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We definitely can grow highbush in northern Wisconsin. Mine are in Mercer, zone 4a.
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Blueberry, I see you are from Kentucky; perhaps the chart was prepared from dates applicable to the Pacific Northwest, where the seasons progress more slowly than in the central US. I grew up in Missouri, and the spring season was much shorter than here in the Pacific Northwest.
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I grow Northland, Bonus, and Patriot.
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my fav. for flavor is Chippewa. its very cold hardy and the berries have that wild lowbush flavor. just put in 2 more near my honeyberries. pretty productive for a half high. Patriot is my most productive but not as good as Chippewa.
How would you describe the flavor of the chippiwa blueberry
its sweet like a wild lowbush blueberry with a little tang to offset the sweet. also a darker berry. im averaging 10-13lbs off 3 year old bushes which is better than my northsky which is another half high that gets about 7-9lbs off the same age bushes.