EVALUATION OF A GERMPLASM COLLECTION OF HIGHBUSH BLUEBERRY (VACCINIUM CORYMBOSUM L.) IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Highbush blueberry is a prospective fruit for marginal agricultural areas and protected areas such as national parks and surroundings of water resources.
The highbush blueberry genebank was established at the Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology (RBIP), Holovousy in 1996. Holovousy has an annual temperature of 8.14°C and a precipitation of 654.7 mm.
Since its establishment, new accessions have continuously supplemented this collection.
The collection (3 plants representing each cultivar) was planted at an altitude of 320 m with a spacing of 3 x 1.5 m.
Weed-free strips are maintained under the bushes with herbicide applications.
Regularly cut grass is established between the rows.
We report here, the evaluation of economically important characters in 29 highbush blueberry cultivars carried out in the years 2003 to 2007. ‘Weymouth’ and ‘Gila’ started flowering very early while ‘Bluetta’ and ‘Jersey’ started flowering late. ‘Brigitta Blue’ had the longest flowering period of 39 days.
In contrast, ‘Bluetta’ and ‘Earliblue’ flowered for only 25 days.
The highest fruit sets were obtained with ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Rancocas’, ‘Burlington’ and ‘Bluetta’. ‘Sunrise’, ‘Earliblue’ and ‘Bluejay’ had an unsatisfactory fruit set.
The earliest ripening cultivars were ‘Duke’ (25-Jun), ‘Weymouth’ (28-Jun), ‘Earliblue’ (3-Jul) and ‘Northland’ (3-Jul), while ‘Elliott’ (31-Jul) and ‘Brigitta Blue’ (2-Aug) ripened the latest.
The difference in the beginning of ripening between the earliest and latest cultivars was 38 days.
Fruits of cultivars ‘Brigitta Blue’ and ‘Elliott’ continued ripening for more than 2 months.
While ‘Nelson’ and ‘Spartan’ ranked the highest in flavor, ‘November’ ranked lowest.
One hundred fruit of ‘Brigitta Blue’, ‘Duke’, ‘Croatan’, ‘Spartan’ and ‘Elliott’ weighed, on average, more than 170 g.
Early ripening cultivars ‘Duke’ and ‘Spartan’, medium ripening cultivars ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Toro’ and late ripening cultivars ‘Brigitta Blue’ and ‘Elliott’ were recommended for growing in the Czech Republic.

IX International Vaccinium Symposium

F. Paprstein, J. Ludvikova, J. Sedlak

fruit, germplasm, cultivars, economic characters, vegetative characters

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.810.9