Blueberry Cultivar Development at The University of Georgia

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Performance of Field Grown Southern Highbush Selections at GriffinAll of the southern highbush plants growing in Griffin are 7 years old or less. While thetest site is not considered very suitable for southern highbush production, we have beenable to successfully grow many of our selections in the red Piedmont soil with pine barkmulch and irrigation. Table 2 lists data for several of the highbush selections in Griffin.Most of these were evaluated at Alapaha as well. Selections that demonstratedoutstanding plant vigor at the Griffin site included TH-828B, TH-888, TH-923, TH-931,TH-948, TH-953, TH-1007, and TH-1010. Four of these selections also had very goodplant vigor at Alapaha, suggesting a wide range of soil adaptation. ‘Camellia’, a recentUGA release, also had very good plant vigor in Griffin as it did at Alapaha.Berry size of ‘Emerald’ and ‘Camellia’ were largest among the standard cultivars inGriffin during 2010. Several newer selections also had very large berry size. Theseincluded 02-69, TH-895, TH-898, TH-920, TH-931, TH-940, TH-949, TH-953, TH-1008,and TH-1010. Interestingly, all of these selections also had large berry size at theAlapaha test site, suggesting the selections have a good tendency for sizing of fruitacross environments. These large fruited selections will be used in the breedingprogram for improving overall berry size and quality of the germplasm.In Griffin during 2010, berry firmness was measured for several southern highbushselections using a FirmTech II firmness tester. This instrument basically records theforce (g) required to deflect or compress berries a certain amount (measured in mm).The higher the units (g/mm), the more firm berries are. The standard instrumentsettings were 50 g minimum and 250 g maximum force. Table 3 depicts firmnessvalues at harvest (first 25% of ripe fruit) for several cultivars and selections, along withaverage berry weights of samples. The selections TH-828B, TH-896, TH-921, TH-934,TH-977, and TH-1003 all had firmness values of 200 or greater which is consideredvery firm. Again, berry size measurements indicate some very large fruited selections,with TH-895, TH-931, TH-948, and TH-953 all exceeding a 3.0 g per berry average fruitweight.While flavor is subjective, we are trying to consider this more in our evaluations.‘Palmetto’ has become the flavor standard in our program. The selections TH-888, TH-905, TH-919, and TH-953 were all rated to have very good flavor in Griffin. This addedbenefit could make these selections desirable as cultivars if they hold up to continuedtesting.-4-
Table 2. Ratings of some fruit and plant characteristics of field grown southernhighbush blueberry cultivars and selections from Griffin during 2010.Selection orVarietyDate of50%FloweringDate of50%RipeningBerrySizeBerryScarBerryColorBerryFirmnessBerryFlavorCropLoadPlantvigorCamellia 5-Apr 31-May 9.0 7.0 8.5 7.0 8.0 7.0 10.0Emerald 22-Mar 30-May 8.8 7.0 8.0 7.8 6.8 5.0 6.0Palmetto 30-Mar 23-May 7.0 6.8 6.5 7.5 8.8 7.5 9.0Rebel 30-Mar 20-May 7.3 7.3 7.3 7.3 6.0 8.0 6.5Star 2-Apr 24-May 7.5 7.0 7.5 7.0 7.0 8.5 9.5Suziblue 31-Mar 19-May 8.0 7.3 7.0 7.0 7.5 9.0 8.002-69 6-Apr 28-May 8.8 8.0 8.0 8.0 7.3 6.0 8.0TH-819 27-Mar 16-May 7.0 7.5 7.5 7.0 7.0 7.0 6.0TH-828B 2-Apr 26-May 8.5 7.3 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 9.0TH-888 6-Apr 23-May 8.0 6.5 8.0 7.0 9.3 6.0 8.5TH-889 2-Apr 30-May 8.3 8.5 9.5 7.5 8.0 7.0 8.0TH-895 6-Apr 6-Jun 9.0 8.0 8.0 7.0 7.5 5.0 8.0TH-898 3-Apr 9-Jun 9.0 7.3 8.5 8.3 8.3 5.5 8.0TH-905 30-Mar 26-May 8.0 7.5 8.5 8.8 8.5 5.5 8.0TH-906 30-Mar 28-May 7.5 7.0 8.0 7.0 8.0 6.5 8.0TH-917 3-Apr 2-Jun 8.0 7.0 8.0 8.3 8.0 6.0 8.0TH-919 3-Apr 25-May 7.5 6.8 7.8 7.3 8.5 5.0 8.0TH-920 4-Apr 29-May 9.0 7.0 9.0 7.0 7.3 6.0 7.0TH-921 2-Apr 27-May 8.0 7.5 8.5 7.0 8.0 5.0 8.0TH-923 7-Apr 27-May 8.5 7.3 7.5 6.5 8.0 6.0 9.0TH-931 4-Apr 5-Jun 9.0 8.0 9.5 7.3 8.0 6.5 8.5TH-934 6-Apr 5-Jun 8.0 8.0 8.5 7.8 7.5 5.0 7.8TH-940 3-Apr 1-Jun 8.8 7.3 8.5 8.3 7.5 7.0 8.0TH-944 27-Mar 15-May 8.3 7.0 6.8 6.8 7.5 5.5 7.0TH-948 4-Apr 23-May 9.3 7.5 8.0 8.0 8.0 6.0 10.0TH-953 29-Mar 24-May 9.3 6.8 7.0 7.5 8.5 6.0 8.5TH-1007 30-Mar 25-May 8.5 7.3 7.0 7.5 7.5 5.0 8.5TH-1008 28-Mar 27-May 9.0 8.3 8.5 7.5 7.3 5.0 7.5TH-1010 2-Apr 21-May 9.0 8.0 8.5 7.5 6.5 7.0 9.0-5-
Page 1 and 2: Blueberry Cultivar Development at T
Page 3: Table 1. Ratings of some fruit and
Page 7 and 8: Performance of Rabbiteye Selections
Page 9 and 10: Table 4. Ratings of some fruit and
Page 11 and 12: Table 5. Ratings of some fruit and
Page 13 and 14: Goals of The UGA Blueberry Cultivar

Blueberry Cultivar Development at The University of Georgia

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