Performance of blueberry cultivars under mild winter conditions

• Main Authors: José Gilberto Sousa Medeiros, Claudine Maria De Bona, Francine Lorena Cuquel, Luiz Antonio Biasi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2017-08-01
• Series: Ciência Rural
• Subjects: Vaccinium spp; small fruits; chilling hours; postharvest
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-84782017000900403&lng=en&tlng=en

ABSTRACT: Evaluation of yield performance is important to find the most adapted blueberry cultivars in a particular region. This research aimed to evaluate the flowering and hasvesting periods, the production per plant, and fruit quality of eight rabbiteye blueberry cultivars (Aliceblue, Bluebelle, Bluegem, Briteblue, Climax, Delite, Powderblue, and Woodard) and two highbush blueberries (Georgiagem and O’Neal), in mild winter conditions in Pinhais-PR. Flowering and harvesting periods, production, berry weight, size, pH, soluble solids, titratable acidity, ratio and color of the fruits were evaluated in the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 growing seasons, when the plants had two and three years old, respectively. Cultivars flowered from August to September, and harvest was concentrated in November and December. Berry weight, size, pH, soluble solids and acidity varied among the cultivars. The average ratios of 14.97 and 13.39 for each crop proved that the cultivars have good fruit quality. There was little variation in fruit color in the two years evaluated. Blueberry cultivars showed the staining characteristics and physical and chemical attributes of quality compatible to blueberry from other traditional regions. Under mild winter conditions, young plants of rabbiteye blueberry cultivars, Climax, Delite, Bluegem and Powderblue, are the most productive, while the highbusch cultivars bear few fruits.