Cross pollination of blueberry bushes

14 years ago

After listening/reading to Lee Reich on Mike McGrath's You Bet Your Garden talk about using blueberry bushes as edible landscaping I decided to look into planting 3 Elliot blueberry bushes. Looking into it more I discovered another variety is needed for ideal fruit development via cross pollination.

I have a few questions about the cross pollination.

1. How close do they have to be? (I have a quarter acre)

2. Do you need a 1:1 ratio? Due to their size I was planning on planting 3 Elliot bushes adjacent to my garage because of their ornamental properties and was thinking of plant 1 plant of another variety in a less visible location. Is the 1 plant enough? Or do I need 3 plants of another variety adjacent to these 3 bushes to achieve the cross pollination benefit?

Thanks in advance for anyone's input!

Featured Answer

ga_karen

14 years ago

Just be aware that with having different varieties that produce at different times...they also bloom at different times & may not cross pollinate. I have wild ones that I dug out of our woods & tame ones I bought (no idea of variety) but my wild ones are already setting berries by the time the tame ones bloom.

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Comments (10)

mudflapper
14 years ago
You will get berries regardless of weather you have another variety or not! but, you will get MORE berries with another pollinator close by, Why plant just three late berries , when you could plant one early, one mid, and one late variety, plants should be about 5-6 ft apart, you do not need a one on one ratio, but I would at least put the other one in the middle of the other two.
homertherat
14 years ago
muddflapper is correct. You will get more and larger berries if you have a pollinator. I think you would be better to have an early, middle, and late producer so you don't have one huge crop all at once towards the end of the season. Why not have a steady supply of berries all season long?
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Most (all?) species of blueberries are theoretically capable of cross pollinating any other species. In practice, though, they need to have overlapping blooming times. "Southern highbush" isn't a separate species - genetically, it's mostly northern highbush crossed with one or more southern species of blueberries such as V. darrowi in order to adapt the highbush blueberry to southern climates. An interesting side-effect of the hybridizing process resulted in berries that are less tart than their pure-bred northern cousins. Consequently, southern highbush have been cross-bred with northern varieties in order to produce specimens that are well adapted to the middle climate zones, to improve the flavor, etc. Ozark blue is a complex hybrid produced by crossing a southern highbush (itself a hybrid) with a northern highbush; this results in lower percentage of its genes being "southern" than with a typical southern highbush. It's well adapted to the southern edge of northern highbush range. Legacy blueberry is the same concept - it's a cross of Elizabeth, one of the very best tasting northern varieties with a small amount of southern genes. Legacy, due to its very long blooming time, is recommended to pollinate late blooming rabbiteyes such as Desoto or Columbus. It also works well for most middle to late blooming northern highbush or southern highbush. I hope that helps.
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With the size of your yard, several blueberry varieties, and having lots of plants to attract bees, pollination won't be a problem. It appears that we are in the same temp zone. I agree with Noogy in that Elliot and possible even the Reka, might get winter kill on stems during "low snowfall" winters. This past winter, we had very little snowfall cover in northern MN. Only 2 of my 33 blueberry bushes had less than a 50% dieback on their above ground growth because of this. I stopped fertilizing by the end of June to prevent new growth late in the season as well, and the plants could harden off. Blue Crop was hit the worst with about 85% dieback on both new and some old growth. St Cloud, Chippewa, Polaris, and Friendship all had about 50% dieback. Mostly on their new growth. The 2 bushes with less than 10% dieback are older, low growing, bushes that I gifted and don't know the varieties unfortunately. Both have very large berry sets this year. I think that all of these varieties are more winter hardy than Elliot or Reka. I know that my sour cherry trees and bushes prefer fairly dry roots going into winter. My blueberry bushes had moist, but not wet roots during the fall and when the ground froze. Should they have had even more water? They are all heavily mulched with 3 to 4 " of pine needles.
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kookoo2
12 years ago
I am reviving this thread because I have a question - what is the maximum distance I can plant to still get the benefit of cross-pollinization? I ask because our current landscape plans include three bushes, but one is about 20 feet away from the other two. Will the bees still help pollinate the one that is farther away, or is it on its own there? Also - regarding the early/late question - I assumed different ripening meant different bloom time, and thus, no benefit from later or earlier-fruiting bushes. Should I have at least two for each part of the season (or at least some overlap, like one early, one early-mid and one mid)?
Bradybb WA-Zone8
12 years ago
koodles,
Twenty feet away should be fine.
Here is a link to a pdf bloom chart for some popular Blueberries,that might be helpful. Brady

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberry Bloom Chart
homey_bird
12 years ago
I do not mean to negate the previous comment; but I recall my nurseryman tell me that within 10 ft is optimal for blueberries.

That said, bees are known to travel across yards -- so it's not necessary to fuss over the distance -- I think you'll be fine with 20 ft.

Just my 2c.
ikea_gw
12 years ago
Do you think the distance recommendation is more targeted at commercial growers that often truck in bees for pollination? With the way our bees (bumble and other native bees) fly around the the garden makes me think that 20 ft will not be a problem at all.
Shelley Smith
12 years ago
I have a related question. Last summer I planted two BlueCrop and one Duke. The Duke died due to the drought/heat. Will my remaining two BlueCrop pollinate each other, or do I need a different variety that blooms around the same time?

Also, since I'm switching to southern highbush hoping they will grow better in my climate, can a southern highbush pollinate a northern highbush?

Thanks!

Shelley
Bradybb WA-Zone8
12 years ago
Hi Shelley,
The Bluecrops will fruit,but need a different Northern Highbush for better production and a Southern needs another Southern.
ErikC
9 years ago
I like spuddiesel's idea of planting three Elliot's for the landscaping value; I have a hedgerow of eleven northerns with two Elliott's, two Bluecrop, two Reka, Duke, Blueray, Earliblue, Ozark and Spartan - my Elliot's really stand out as the most attractive of the bunch with their almost golden-green foliage. That said, as others have commented, a second cultivar is needed for good cross-pollenation. I'd recommend a middle ripening cultivar with high landscape value such as Toro or Bluecrop; if you have room, add a Reka for an early ripening variety - mine are still rather small, but by reputation they are have outstanding. landscape value. Chandler would closely match the size/shape and landscape value of an Elliot, which can be one of the bigger cultivars and would be a good pollenation partner - the drawback would be in having a lot of late-ripening varieties. In a garden setting, the rule of thumb is one wants a mix of early, middle and late varieties to maximize the number of weeks you'll have fresh berries.

Cross pollination of blueberry bushes

ga_karen

Comments (10)

mudflapper

homertherat

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