GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Blueberries: Mason-Dixon

Eigenvector · 15-07-2007, 02:41 AM posted to rec.gardens

Persephone wrote in message
news

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:40:48 -0700, wrote:

On Jul 13, 10:21 pm, "Wuensch, Karl L." wrote:
Why are blueberries grown in the South bland while those grown in
the
North are tart and tasty? Different cultivars or different climate? I
live
in North Carolina but will not plant blueberries because I have never
tasted
a blueberry grown south of New Jersey that tastes good. I have had a
few
huckleberries from North Carolina and they were great.

Karl,

The blueberries grown here in Florida are yummy! You might want to
have your soil tested. Plants grown in the proper soil and are
getting enough nutrients/sunlight/water should be bearing tasty
fruit.

Patrick

Blueberries supposedly need winter chill. I always wanted to grow
them, but for years, there was no variety that would do well, say, in
So.Calif. Eventually, I understand, a variety was developed, but I had
lost interest, so never tried it.

Would be interesting to hear from a food scientist what it is that
makes Northern berries so much tastier.

I devour them by the bushel when they come in from Canada
and Oregon. Starting to come in from S.America too.

Persephone

I don't know why, but I do know that the small amount I consume at high
altitude in the Northern Cascades are infinitely better than the ones I get
in the store - or even the ones I get from the Blueberry farms that dot
Bellevue/Seattle.

Note I said small amount - plants above 5,000 feet have enough trouble
without having to worry about humans eating all their offspring.