Highbush Blueberries“High bush blueberry” is the name given to cover the taller species of shrub by Vaccinium species that are grown mainly for their fruit crops and it includes the northern highbush rabbiteye and southern highbush blueberries.
The latter are relatively recent hybrid introductions that should not be confused with selections of northern highbush suitable for some of the warmer climate areas of the southern states and that are occasionally called southern highbush blueberries.
As the name implies, highbush blueberries are borne on bushes taller than the lowbush blueberries.
Their cultivars are grown in all the commercial and garden planted blueberry fields or plots around the world where climate and soil conditions are suitable.
There are cultivars that suits climates where winters are long and cold, cultivars that suit much warmer, subtropical regions and others, of course, that suit areas in between these two extremes.
Suitably basically boils down to the “chilling requirements” of the different blueberry groups.
Blueberries require a period of winter dormancy or rest before they will break dormancy and come into growth.
The number of accumulated hours of chilling varies considerably from species to species and cultivar to cultivar.
It is common for plants to receive their requirements met by mid winter but normal winter temperatures keep the plants dormant until spring.
Sometimes bud may start to develop of there are several days of temperatures over 46 degree F on winter which makes them vulnerable when normal winter temperature resume.
Highbush Blueberries
