THE PRESENT STATUS OF BLUEBERRY WORK AND WILD VACCINIUM SPECIES IN JAPAN

The introduction of improved blueberry plants into Japan was in 1952 and thereafter.

The rabbiteye blueberry grows well in the volcanic ash soil prevailing in the Kanto-district, which includes the Tokyo area.
During those 10 years, we studied pollination, propagation and performance observation of the rabbiteye blueberry.
Since 1973, we have been attempting grafting renewal of rabbiteye blueberry bushes with highbush blueberries and have been getting better results with highbush on rabbiteye blueberry rootstocks.
In quartz sand culture, the rabbiteye blueberry is revealing better growth with ammonium nitrate -N than with NH₄-N and with NO₃-N.

In Nagano-ken, there will be some commercial plantings of highbush blueberries in the near future, as the growers there have much rotted sawdust available for mulching and mixing into the soil (see attached figures and explanation).

Among the 16 species of Vaccinium native to Japan, V. uliginosum and V. vitis idaea are gathered from the wild and processed.
Children like to eat the fresh ripe berries of V. bracteatum and V. oldhamii, the latter expected to be the rootstock for cultivars.

Symposium on Vaccinium Culture in Europe

H. Iwagaki, T. Tamada, S. Ishikawa, H. Koike

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1977.61.41