Rabbiteye blueberry hybrids that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) program has bred for northern adaptation are combinations of 6x V. ashei Reade, 6x V. constablaei Gray, 4x V. corymbosum L., and 2x V. darrowii Camp germplasm at the hexaploid level and are generally composed of 50% or greater V. ashei (rabbiteye) germplasm. Four northern-adapted rabbiteye (NRE) selections (US 1043, US 1045, US 1056, US 1057), four rabbiteye standards (‘Brightwell’, ‘Climax’, ‘Tifblue’, ‘Woodard’), two rabbiteye × V. constablaei derivatives (‘Little Giant’, ‘Snowflake’), and two highbush standards (‘Duke’, ‘Bluecrop’) were pollinated under greenhouse conditions with either self-pollen or a multicultivar, bulk-pollen mixture (appropriate to ploidy level and species) to determine the relative requirements for cross-pollination among NRE selections. Fruit set, berry weight, and seed set were subsequently evaluated. The results suggest that NRE selections, in general, exhibit cross-pollination needs intermediate to the parent types such that: rabbiteye > northern rabbiteye > highbush (i.e., rabbiteye has the lowest self-fertility and the greatest need for cross-pollination). Considerable variation existed among the NRE selections tested, which suggests that it might be possible to select clones with good levels of self-fertility, potentially equivalent to that of highbush blueberry.
'Cara's Choice' Blueberry
