'Suziblue': A New Early Season Southern Highbush Blueberry Cultivar

Summary

A new southern highbush blueberry variety named 'Suziblue' has been developed for the commercial blueberry industry. This new variety has high quality fruit, and ripens early season. The new variety should offer improvement over existing varieties for Georgia's blueberry growers.

Situation

Georgia's blueberry growers are expanding production of southern highbush blueberries in order to achieve early market windows and higher prices. To date, most of the highbush blueberries grown in Georgia are Florida varieties, with the earliest ripening varieties being harvested in late April and early May. Georgia growers are in great need of highbush blueberries adapted to their growing region, and early ripening varieties are preferred.

Response

The University of Georgia Blueberry Breeding Program has accelerated development of blueberry varieties in the past 10 years to facilitate industry demands for new varieties. To achieve this, more than 2000 new blueberry selections are produced and screened annually, and elite selections are then planted at multiple locations in Georgia including on-farm grower sites. The interaction with growers allows their input during the variety development process.

Impact

After several years of testing, the new blueberry variety 'Suziblue' was released in 2009. It is an early season southern highbush with large fruit. Berries are medium to light blue in color, and have a small, dry picking scar, and very good firmness. Suziblue berries ripen in late April to early May in south Georgia, and in mid-May in middle Georgia. Plants are vigorous with a semi-spreading bush habit. Suziblue flowers early and would likely benefit from frost protection to improve cropping. Suziblue yield has been equal to or greater than the industry standards Rebel, Star and O'Neal in Georgia trials. Suziblue plants are self-fertile to a degree, but should be planted with other southern highbush blueberry cultivars with a similar time of flowering for cross-pollination. Suziblue is new, so planting on a trial basis is recommended. Several propagators obtained licenses to propagate Suziblue upon its release, and these nurseries are trying to rapidly build the supply of plants for commercial blueberry growers. A list of licensed propagators of Suziblue can be found at the Georgia Seed Development Commission web site at http://www.gsdc.com/.

State Issue

Agricultural Profitability and Sustainability

Details

• Year: 2009
• Geographic Scope: Multi-State/Regional
• County: Spalding
• Program Areas:
  • Agriculture & Natural Resources