BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Blueberries can flourish in the Corn Belt and upper Midwest with the proper care and varietal selection, according to a Michigan State University Extension educator.

“There is no one single blueberry variety I recommend,” said MSU berry expert Mark Longstroth, speaking to attendees of the 2021 Illinois Specialty Crops Conference. “All varieties have their advantages and disadvantages.”

Longstroth recommends novice commercial producers begin by planting a few different varieties of blueberries that produce fruit at different times. This extends the harvest season and provides fresh berries for a longer period, while helping growers identify which varieties work best in their soil. “You really want a constant stream of large, colorful berries to satisfy customer demand, so you will really need three to five or more varieties that you can plant in different rows,” he said. 

Blueberry varieties grown with success in Michigan and elsewhere in the upper Midwest include Rubel, Jersey, Blue Crop, Blueray, Bluejay, Elliot and Duke. Newer hardy varieties include Legacy and Liberty, among many more.  

“What you really want is a good volume, high quality fruit with a long harvest season —June, July and August. You want mid or early-mid, (and) late season varieties that fill in the spaces. I really think that you should interplant them, either planting separate rows of one variety right next to the other or putting a bush of a different variety every 12th bush that blooms and harvests at the same time. This is because bees like to buzz up and down the rows and they can visit a different blueberry bush as they fly around,” Longstoth advised. 

Producers should plan to harvest two or three rows of blueberries at a time through the season. In southwest Michigan, the blueberry harvest may last into September, while northern counties may still be picking late varieties such as Elliot in early October, the extension educator noted. 

“For the early season Duke is the best variety. It’s got really high yields, it’s attractive fruit, and doesn’t taste too bad. It blooms late so it has a tendency to avoid late frosts,” Longstroth said, before switching gears to mid-season varieties. 

“Blue Crop is the top in-season variety; it’s got high yields year after year, produces attractive and firm fruit and is adaptable to many sites. It’s also easy to establish and for the grower to maintain. It’s a little tart, but not so much as Elliot. It’s (problem) is that it doesn’t store for very long and you wouldn’t want to ship it,” he said, adding that the variety might be best suited for the u-pick market. 

Jersey is an older, established mid-to-late season variety that has proven to be very reliable, Longstroth continued. At eight to ten feet tall Jersey is one of the larger blueberry bushes, necessitating a separation of as much as twelve feet from other plants. He is not so fond of Elliot, however, likening the taste of its fruit to unsweetened Kool-Aid. 

Longstroth highly recommends Legacy, a USDA variety developed in 1995 that provides large, firm fruit, good yield potential and suitable hardiness against the weather. He also touts Blue Gold, Nelson and Liberty, an in-season hybrid developed at MSU that marries the flavor of better varieties to the yield and storability of Elliot.

During his webinar presentation Longstroth warned producers that blight can be a common issue with blueberries (especially early planted varieties) that can impact fruit quality and production. Some varieties can be plagued by certain wasp and other insect species, depending on climate and plant variety. In addition blueberry bushes are dependent on pollinators, making the establishment of a honeybee or bumblebee colony (2 or 3 hives per acre) near plant rows advisable, he said.

“You also must really manage the pruning of (plant) shutes. Take out that older, less productive wood. You want big shutes with big leaves that are going to feed that fruit. The best production comes from two to three year-old shutes,” said Longstroth. “For young bushes, I really think you strip all the flower buds off for the first three years. Take off anything that is low to the ground to encourage a bright grow. 

“Open up the canopy to increase flower bud initiation and make it easier for customers to pick as well as to limit the amount of disease and make it easier to apply insecticide and fungicide into the bush. Try to maintain a good balance of leaf area.” 

The commercial blueberry industry in the U.S. dates back to the early 1900s when National Geographic magazine published a how-to article on blueberry production. A New Jersey woman, Elizabeth White, offered wild blueberry starts to the USDA, which began to develop and improve varieties for commercial production. Blueberry production began in earnest in Michigan in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but the fruit remained a niche crop until the 1970s. 

Hybrids introduced to the market allowed for more variety and extended the harvest season to nearly 2.5 months, paving the way for commercial success. Today’s blueberry hybrids represent around the fifth generation of genetic improvements to several related species of blueberries, according to Longstroth.

There are 787 farms growing blueberries (all varieties) on 22,959 acres in Michigan, according to the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture. “Our average yield (for the Jersey variety) here in Michigan is about 5,000 pounds, with Blue Crop we’ll do about 6,000 to 8,000 pounds and Elliot will typically do about 2,000 pounds,” Longstroth reported.

Blueberry producing states in Farm World’s readership area include Tennessee (576 producers/485 acres), Ohio (407/410), Kentucky (376/349), Indiana (171/684) and Illinois (147/206). Georgia is the state that boasts the most blueberry producers with 1,076 farmers growing berries on 18,361 acres, just edging out Florida (1,055/7,147) and Oregon (1,022/12,245). In total there are 15,933 U.S. farms producing blueberries on 153,258 acres, according to the ag census. 

More information about blueberry varieties and production from Longstroth and the MSU “Blueberry Team” is available at www.canr.msu.edu.