I’m afraid I am 13 years late but I can say a little about those varieties. First, is that I would never trade a rabbiteye for a southern, and I have both. Rabbiteyes produce more, are more resistant to extreme climate conditions, diseases and accept fertilization better than southerns. Rabbiteyes can take drought and lack of nutrients better than southerns, also will adapt to different soils better than southerns. In no way southerns are better than rabbiteyes, the only thing southerns are "better" is the thin skin on fruits, because I dont even consider the seeds thing, blueberry seeds are already very small in rabbiteyes. Now, for the varieties. I dont have all, but I have some, Woodard is a must, simply, because is an awesome pollinator, it flowers so heavily and I'm sure its flowers have some smell on it because it attracts bees like no other. Climax is a heavy producer and the fruit does taste good and sweet when ripe, it will be gritty if you harvest too early, leave it hanging on the bush a few days after it turns blue. Briteblue is a beast, what it has in compact size, it doubles in production, big fruits, will tolerate Ph on the 6 range better than other varieties, fruits are more on the tart side, good for recipes. Delite will not blow your mind with production like Briteblue, but it is the most tasty among rabbiteyes, simply delicious. The ones that I dont have but heard good things are Powderblue and Premier. Southerns I have: Emerald, good fruits, a litte bland on taste, but big and beautiful, less feeble than other southerns. Biloxi, it only lives to one mission: produces in no chill conditions, the rest is a nightmare. Will go into shock with Ph a little over 5, get spotted with more than two rains, the growth is just desordenated, it grows too much and that is why its roots can never keep up with its metabolism, because it overgrows, it will require lots, lots lots, lots of nitrogen, but it cant take salts! So you go for organic matter, but it is slow release so you won't be able to keep its needs, how growers in Peru and Mexico deal with that? They prune the whole plant to the ground level every year, that is crazy! Yes the fruits can be delicious, but only a few because most will be tart due to its bad root system, the size of the fruit can vary a lot in the same crop and the crop is small. The few that are good are really delicious. Misty, also overproduces, in the case, too much flowers, so much that it wont have enough leaf to support and some advise to clip some flowers, the bush is just stupid to the point it does not know how much energy it should spend on flowering and growing, the plant is prone to fungus infection, the fruits are delicious, I give it that, the most sweet after Delite.

Blewb: Agree that PH is not the problem, since high PH usually results in yellowing, not purpling leaves. And I also doubt it is an insect problem. It sounds to me more like one of the fungal diseases than can affect blueberry plants. If so, it is not likely to go away spontaneously, and it may spread to your other plants if they are in close proximity. The standard recipe for treating fungal infections is to take out and destroy the affected canes, then treat with an effective fungicide. That is an unusual story about the dieback and regeneration of this plant from the roots. Any blueberry plants that have died back for me have ended up dead as a doornail. I think I would write off the plant if many of the leaves are infected. A new plant might be a lot easier to deal with and cheaper in the long run than trying to treat the one that is ill. You talk of the possibility of taking the plants to college. Are these plants portable in the sense that they are in containers, or are they in the ground? Do a search for "blueberry diseases" and you can find various sites that describe them, some with illustrations. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Very nice looking Rabbiteyes! Rabbiteyes are very sensitive to fertilizers, expecially when young. I only use organinc ferts on Rabbiteyes for that reason. Its hard to burn them with organics and they dont need much in the way of fert anyways. I would go ahead and prune the plants now to remove the affected leafs and my experience with Rabbiteyes is they will get very long and whippy branches if not cut back a couple times a year. Your fruit will be in the dirt next season if not. Plus it slows them down alittle bit, strengthens there branches and produces more shoots at every cut so more fruit next season. I try to tip the branches every 8 to 10 inches or so and will cut the bull shoots at about 4ft. They can get out of reach in a hurry if not prunned. I stop tipping around Aug so they can produce there fruit buds on the remaining new growth. Great looking plants though;)

Stac5455, just a suggestion, I would stay 500 ft. away from FHN as they have been questionable in their credibility of supplying the blueberry varieties they claim to be. Many of us have been burnt with FHN's blueberry varieties. Despite reading online comments about FHN, I have purchased blueberry plants from them yet the plants already show different growth habit characteristics than what they are supposed to look like. I have yet to wait for the real fruits to determine if they sold me what it was supposed to be. It is really painful way to find out it is a different variety than what you had purchased only after several years. Plus they have not responded my questions concerning the plants I received. Just Fruits and Exotics has been highly recommended by many blueberry experts. I have contacted JF&E recently, they are going to have many blueberry varieties available for the fall (most likely in October). You might want to contact them to see if they will have Spring High available in the fall.