ABSTRACT
Most Florida blueberry growers want their plants to flower in early February and ripen fruit during April and early May. This requires low-chill varieties with a short bloom-to-ripe interval. Most of the sugar that goes into the fruit is manufactured by the leaves during the period of berry development. Thus, production of high yields of high-quality berries early in the season requires that the plants have an abundance of healthy leaves during most of the fruit development period. Theoretically, this can be accomplished either by carrying the previous year’s leaves through the winter and spring to ripen the spring crop or by obtaining a strong flush of new growth at the time of flowering in the spring. In eastern Australia, near sea level at latitude 30°S, Gary Wright and Ridley Bell (personal communication) have selected southern highbush clones that mature a medium to heavy crop of high-quality fruit in early spring on plants that produce few or no new leaves until after harvest is complete. After harvest, the plants are pruned to initiate new shoot growth, which remains healthy through the fall, winter, and following spring.
