RESULTS OF TESTING HIGHBUSH BLUEBERRY CULTIVARS IN THE NETHERLANDS

In March 1998, two-year old plants of 17 Highbush Blueberry cultivars were planted at the Experimental Station in Horst.
The cultivars ‘Earliblue’, ‘Blueray’, ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Coville’ and ‘Elliott’ were planted as reference cultivars.
The new tested cultivars were ‘Nui’, ‘Puru’, ‘Reka’, ‘Sunrise’, ‘PBBB’, ‘Nelson’, ‘Toro’, ‘Sierra’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Bluegold’, ‘Caroline Blue’ and ‘Brigitta Blue’. Some of the cultivars were already planted in a demonstration field at the Experimental Station. As a result of this trial the cultivars ‘Reka’, ‘Chandler’ and ‘Brigitta Blue’ are recommended for commercial plantings in the open field.
In this trial the bushes of ‘Reka’ were productive and the berries had a good shelf life. ‘Chandler’ (No. 139) was very productive and the average fruit size was very large. ‘Brigitta Blue’ was also very productive and the berries kept very well in storage.
The cultivars ‘Caroline Blue’, ‘Toro’, ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Nelson’ are less suitable for commercial plantings.
Although the fruit quality of ‘Elliott’ is less than other cultivars, it is still recommended because of the late ripening harvest.
Maybe stored berries of ‘Brigitta Blue’ can beat the fresh berries of ‘Elliott’ because of the better fruit quality and shelf life for the fresh market.
The other cultivars are not recommended because of poor production (‘Earliblue’, ‘Nui’, ‘PBBB’, ‘Sierra’ and ‘Bluegold’), small fruit size (‘Coville’) or poor shelf life (‘Puru’, ‘Blueray’). For advancing the harvest period in a Greenhouse or plastic Tunnel ‘Nui’ has proven in practice to be a recommendable cultivar.
This was not tested in this trial.

VIII International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture

J.J.M. Bal, J. Balkhoven, G. Peppelman

cultivars, production, fruit size, fruit quality, firmness, storage, shelf life

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.715.23