To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] blueberries for neutral soil
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 10:03:37 -0600
I remember reading an article a couple of years ago about a breeding program
in Florida in which V. arboreum was crossed to highbush blueberry. A few
hybrids were obtained and were back-crossed to highbush to try to get better
fruit with some of the soil tolerance of the farkleberry (also called
sparkleberry). I don't know if this project is still continuing or not and I
can't seem to locate the article now. If successful, you can bet any plants
released will be very low chill types, so I would not get too excited about
these for northern growers.