Blueberries for South Florida Zone 9b - Green Thumb Sunday

Green Thumb Sunday

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There is a class of blueberries (southern highbush) that thrive in warm cilmates. I have three of these varieties: a gulf coast, sharp, and misty. Northern highbushes require over 1,000 chill hours. Southern highbush varities require as little as 150 chill hours. I don't know that we'll get 150 chill hours this year, but I'll go for it.

I bought the 3 gallon bushes at a garden show and was told I need more than one variety so they pollinate. Now I realize this was the vendor's way of getting $20 as opposed to $10.

Today, nearly all of the blueberries harvested in April and early May in the northern hemisphere and during October and early November in the southern hemisphere trace their ancestry back to a Florida lowbush blueberry found in Winter Haven in the 40's.

I would love to be a purist and not support nor grow anything genetically engineered or cross bred, but I'd be fooling myself if I thought this was feasible. Oh well. The small misty cuttings still don't have roots, but have begun to burst with foliage. I sat on a waiting list for a year before I received them from the national germplasm repository.

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