Blueberry Plants – Chilling Specifications for Blueberry Production


After the blueberry harvest the blueberry bushes start off to build the following seasons fruit buds. They then start off getting ready for the cold winter weather. If cold ailments do not arrive abruptly the pants will go into dormancy and with minor to be worried about. All blueberries types call for about a sure quantity of several hours of chilling. Above freezing temperatures but below about forty five F are needed by the blueberry vegetation to fulfill their chilling requirements. In the drop the temperatures will be awesome sufficient so the vegetation can start off to accumulate needed chilling several hours. The blueberry plant will not develop fruit the following period if the chilling have to have is not accomplished. Long durations of below freezing weather only delays the finishing of dormancy but does not increase to the chilling requirements. After the vegetation chilling have to have is accomplished the vegetation will start off development when the ailments for development turn out to be ideal. It is for this cause that blueberry vegetation may be equipped to be grown indoors for the reason that of their requirement for chilling several hours.

Chilling hour requirements

Every person who is interested in expanding their very own fruit will inevitably be confronted with the difficulty of chill models (CU). This is particularly the scenario when expanding blueberry vegetation in the south. Chill several hours are the several hours gathered where temperatures are involving 32 levels F to forty five levels F. Some other fruits this kind of as Peaches and Apples that have advanced in colder climates have chill requirements.

The total of cold temperature the plant needs to continue usual development in the spring subsequent the winter period is typically referred to as the plant’s chilling requirement. Unique blueberry vegetation range commonly in their requirement. Blueberry producers have to have to consider into account the blueberry vegetation chilling requirements when they pick out them for planting.

The chill time is total of cold temperature demanded to fulfill the chilling time demanded by a blueberry plant ascertain the spot in which they can be planted. Temperatures involving around 35 to forty five levels F provide most of the chilling needed by blueberry vegetation. The most effective chilling temperature is forty five levels F. Temperatures below 32 levels F increase minor or very little to the chilling needs getting gained by the plant

Relying on the selection, blueberry vegetation have to have involving a hundred and fifty and two,000 several hours of publicity to temperatures from 35 [levels] F to forty five [levels] F are needed to fulfill the vegetation chilling requirement and for development resumption and bud-break in the spring. Chill time does not accumulate at below freezing temperatures. This means that temperatures below freezing to not rely toward needed chilling several hours.

Chilling requirements for some Southern Blueberries.

Southern highbush types are blueberry vegetation that expand from zones six through 10. They call for much fewer chill several hours some other types. Some have to have only a hundred and fifty to 200 chill several hours to develop fruit. This means you can expand blueberries in the southern United States.

Some southern blueberry bush types and their chilling requirements are detailed in buy of growing times for chilling below.

Sunshine blue a hundred and fifty several hours chilling time

Jewel 200 several hours Chill time requirement

Sharpblue 200 several hours Chill time requirement

MISTY 250 several hours Chill time requirement

Emerald 250 several hours chilling several hours requirement This is exceptional choice for the warmer locations, for the reason that the Southern Highbush vegetation only call for 250 chilling several hours to develop history-placing quantities of extremely big blueberries.

O’Neal 400 several hours Chill time requirement

Jubilee five hundred chilling time requirement

Ozarkblue 800 several hours Chilling time requirement

Of the Southern Highbush, as observed in the earlier mentioned checklist, Sunshine Blue Blueberry vegetation are the least demanding in phrases of chilling requirements. You have to have a least of a hundred and fifty Chill Hours to expand one.

Sunshine Blue has a good deal of fantastic features. Sunshine Blue is a semi-dwarf, with really incredibly hot pink bouquets that improve to white in spring. It yields big crops of delectable blueberries. It can tolerate higher pH soils superior than lots of other blueberries and it is self-pollinating. The chilling requirement of a hundred and fifty several hours is decrease than any other blueberry plant generating it ideal for Southern climates, but it is also astonishingly cold-hardy and tends to make a terrific addition to gardens and patios all the way up to Chicago.

Rabbiteye Varieties

Rabbiteye blueberries are native to the southern United States. They have been in industrial cultivation for over a hundred years and in new years superior types have been created. The Tifblue Blueberry bush was a breakthrough in hybridizing rabbiteye blueberry vegetation. The hybridized rabbiteye cultivars initiated the rise of the remarkable rabbiteye blueberry industrial trade. This has resulted in a remarkable agricultural development in blueberry output that is reshaping the financial state of the South. The rabbiteye blueberries have chilling hour requirement from 350 to seven hundred several hours. Rabbiteyes flower previously but ripen later on than southern types. The shelf lifestyle of harvested rabbiteye blueberries is excellent and typically superior than highbush blueberries.

Some of the well-known rabbiteye blueberry bush types and their chilling requirements detailed in buy of growing times for chilling are detailed below.

BRIGHTWELL. 350-400 chill several hours requirement.

Climax – 450 – five hundred chill several hours requirement.

Leading 550 chill several hours requirement.

TIFBLUE 550-600 chill several hours requirement.

POWDERBLUE 550-650 chill several hours requirement.

Northern types

Northern large bush types have to have a big total (typically 800-one,000) of chill several hours to develop blueberries. These blueberry vegetation are that expand in zone 3 through zone seven.

If a blueberry bush does not get the required quantity of chill several hours it may and generally will expand fantastic but will not make any blueberries.


Leave a Reply