FRUIT DEVELOPMENT PERIOD OF SEVERAL RABBITEYE BLUEBERRY CULTIVARS

Flowering and ripening times were recorded for the rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium ashei Reade) cultivars Austin, Brightwell, Climax, Premier, and Tifblue, along with the newer releases Alapaha and Ochlockonee over several years at two locations in Georgia.
Nearby weather stations were utilized to record temperatures for calculating chill hours and heat units (HU) during each of the years.
These data were used to calculate fruit development period (FDP) for the different cultivars as a function of real time (days) and thermal time (HU). Depending on cultivar and chill hours at a location, flowering time varied as much as 24 days from year to year.
Overall, ‘Climax’ was the earliest flowering, followed by ‘Premier’. ‘Ochlockonee’ was the latest to flower among the cultivars.
Average FDP for the cultivars were: Alapaha 75.3 days; Austin 81.7 days; Premier 82.3 days; Climax 84.4 days; Brightwell 87.4 days; Tifblue 92.2 days; Ochlockonee 93.9 days.
The shortened fruit development period of ‘Alapaha’ resulted in a ripening time similar to ‘Climax’ and ‘Premier’, even though flowering time of ‘Alapaha’ was 7 to 10 days later.
Using HU instead of days generally reduced the coefficient of variation associated with FDP. The mean absolute difference between observed and predicted time to ripening was improved for all cultivars when HU were used.
These data should be useful in estimating how these blueberry cultivars will perform under diverse environments.

VIII International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture

D.S. NeSmith

Vaccinium ashei Reade, flowering time, ripening time, heat units, ripening interval

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.715.19