12-3-2018

Blueberry Conference 2018

Varieties development
Horst 07 March 2018
Andrea Pergher, Fall Creek

Fall Creek

– Founded In 1978
– Family-owned
– 125+ hectares of
nursery in
production
– 35+ million blueberry
plants produced per
year globally
– 500 team members
world-wide

The Brazelton Family Fall Creek’s Spain Nursery

Seville, Spain

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Variety Insights

RECENT RELEASES

ESTABLISHED VARIETIES

Varieties overview Blue Ribbon™

Yesterday Today tomorrow Key Qualities Unknowns & Concerns
 Excellent flavor & firmness  Spreading growth habit will
 Start pick slightly before benefit from trellis
Draper™ season (mid-early),  Cold hardiness & adaptation to
extended harvest window Northern European growing
 High yielding areas
 Extended harvest season: begin
1 week after Duke and finish 1
Early Bluetta Earliblue Duke Duke, Blue Ribbon week after Draper
Patriot
Mid Bluecrop Berkeley Draper Top Shelf, Valor

Late Elliott Lateblue Liberty, Aurora Cargo, Last Call

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Blue Ribbon Clockwork

Top Shelf™
Key Qualities
 Jumbo-size, excellent flavor
 Mid-season
 Vigorous vase-shaped plant
 Easy to growth, easy pruning
 Vigorous, fast to establish
 Extremely high efficiency in
picking per hour
Unknowns & Concerns
 Cold hardiness & adaptation to
Northern European growing
areas
 Off-color berries (red) in early
picks especially in cold years
 Some sensitivity to diseases,
similar to Draper™
 Sensitive to Silver leave
 Sensitive to Botriospheria

Clockwork

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Top Shelf Valor

Valor

Valor ‘ZF08-070’
Key Qualities Unknowns & Concerns
 Workhorse variety – excellent  Flavor & firmness are average
vigor & yield, upright & easy to  May not perform well in
prune extended shipping with
 Mid-season controlled atmosphere
 Good cold-hardiness & drought  Hard to release leaves in young
tolerant stage
 Uniform, large fruit size, great
IQF berry
 Excellent self-compatibility,
recommended for block
plantings

4

Calypso
Key Qualities
 Mid - Late season
 Large berries with excellent
appearance
 Easier to prune & grow than
Liberty
 Vigorous, high yielding & cold
hardy
Cargo™
Key Qualities
 High yielding & vigorous
 Late season (Liberty)
 Narrow crown, firm fruit
 Easy to growth, very upright
 Extremely firm, very long shelf
life in CA. Fruit quality improve
after storage
12-3-2018
(Michigan State University)
Unknowns & Concerns
 Fruit quality – texture may be
mealy & flavor can be tart
 It looks more mid than late
Cargo
Cargo
Unknowns & Concerns
 Heavy cropper – needs
aggressive pruning to balance
fruit load
 Breakage at crown during fall
wind storms
 Early flowering, need attention
to put bees on time
 Sometimes poor fruit set
 Fruit is tart if harvested too
early.
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Last Call™
Key Qualities
 High yielding & vigorous
 Very late season (Elliott)
 Flavor preferred over Elliott or
Aurora
 Firmer & larger than Elliott,
lighter blue than Aurora
Unknowns & Concerns
 Shrivel & cracking may occur
after heat and late summer
rains
 Heavy fruiting needs aggressive
pruning to balance crop load
 Very vigorous plants difficult to
balance growth with young
plants
 Fruit could be very tart if picked
too early
 First big fruits has a big corolla

Last Call

Variety R&D Data

Last Call

BERRY
REQUIREMENT IN
THE NEW
1) Firmness
MARKET
2) Flavor
3) Shelf life
4) Yields
5) Size
6) Constant quality

Last Call

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Yield 2017 5 years old plants Berry size 2017

20-30% of Duke yield

and 10% of draper
yield lost to birds

Cooler trials after 21 days Berry firmness 2017

Berry weight 2017 Harvesting & Varieties: Benelux

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Harvesting & Varieties: Germany

Harvesting & Varieties: Poland

Questions?

Outlook new varieties

Eat Your Blueberries!
Today Tomorrow Reason to believe

Duke Duke

Draper Top Shelf Much stronger plant, very big size, firm easy harvest

Bluecrop Valor Bigger size, firmer fruit, productive and easy to grow

Liberty Cargo Best shelf life, firmer & medium large berries

Aurora Last Call Vigorous & upright, quality of the fruit & nice color

Layout #13: Photo with Bullets

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Thank you!