SEEDLING SELECTION OF ‘SOUTHMOON’ BLUEBERRY

Seedling selections of Vaccinium corymbosum hybrid ‘Southmoon’ blueberry have been studied at Nanjing Botanical Garden (Jiangsu Province) since 2002. By the end of 2005, 170 plants were selected for further study.
Depending on phenology, plant vigor, flower morphological characters, fruit quality, productive potentiality and leaf anatomical structure related to hardiness, the overall economic traits were evaluated for two years.
Twenty-four promising plants were selected for further evaluation.
Their fruit development period was 50 to 70 d.
Plant A71 was early ripening 10 d earlier than ‘Southmoon’ in 2007. Plants A51, A120 and A131 possess late flowering and early ripening traits.
Large fruit, high soluble solids content and good taste were shown in plants A7, A28, A60, A66, A119 and A131. The fruit weight of A66 was 1.74 g in 2007, while ‘Southmoon’ was 1.52 g.
Plant A98 fruits had the least seeds, averaging only 11 per berry.
The high fruit quality and high yield of several plants indicate that at least some of the seedlings could be used for selecting new commercial cultivars adapted to the ecological conditions in South China.

IX International Vaccinium Symposium

De-qiao Zhang, Hong Yu, Yan-qin Jiang, Chuan-yong Wang

phenology, fruit quality, productive potentiality, selection, southern highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.810.4