Rabbiteye Blueberry Varieties: the Southern Table

Rabbiteye is the blueberry that belongs in the Southeast. It is a different species from the highbush of the North, native to Georgia, Alabama and Florida, and it carries the traits that climate demands: it shrugs off summer heat and drought, tolerates soil that is not quite as acid as highbush insists on, lives for decades, and grows into a ten-foot shrub that yields by the gallon. The trade is that it ripens later, in June and July rather than May, and the berries are tart until they have been fully blue for several days.

The rule that decides the harvest is in the self-fertile column: every one of these 9 reads No. Rabbiteyes are self-unfruitful, so a single bush flowers and sets almost nothing; plant two different rabbiteye varieties with overlapping bloom, and Tifblue with Powderblue or Climax with Premier are the classic pairs. Most of the newer names, Titan, Vernon, Ochlockonee and Alapaha, are University of Georgia releases bred for larger fruit or a later bloom that dodges frost. Sorted by chill requirement; Brightwell at about 400 hours reaches furthest into Florida.