ABSTRACT
The lowbush blueberry (Vctccinium angustifolium Ait.) is a perennial shrub that is commercially produced in Maine (USA), and the Atlantic Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) and Eastern Quebec in Canada. The plant grows well in Nova Scotia’s acidic Podzolic soils with a reported optimum growth in the pH range of 4 to 5.5 (Hall et al., 1979). The blueberry is unique because it occurs naturally in forests and abandoned farmlands (Hall et al., 1964), exhibits large genetic variability (Vander Kloet, 1978), and is managed by regular pruning back to ground level, usually every second year (Hall et al., 1979). Pruning forces the lowbush blueberry into a biennial production cycle in which new and vigorous vegetative stems grow and initiate flower buds in the first (sprout) year, followed by flowering, pollination and fruit development in the second (crop) year. Selective herbicides and chemical fertilizers are typically applied in the spring of the sprout year. The fruit is harvested in late summer of the crop year. The cycle is repeated over the next two growing seasons.
