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Home > Blueberries > Variety Descriptions > Rabbiteye Varieties

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Rabbiteye Varieties

Rabbiteye – Vaccinium ashei

With firmer berries and thicker skin, the Rabbiteye variety is a hardy plant which can tolerate a multitude of climate conditions unlike the Northern and Southern Highbush. The Rabbiteye is a low chill, late season variety that requires 450-600 chill hours. The name 'Rabbiteye' comes from the resemblance of the ripening pink berries to a rabbit's eyes.

Variety Selection Checklist

  • Is your location frost free
  • Does your location experience between 450-600 chill hours

Brightwell*

Bush Vigorous, upright bush. Excellent bush shape.
Fruit Large fruit with reasonable flavour and good scar but has gritty texture and tough skin. Fruits with Premier several weeks earlier than Tifblue. Berries tend to have a gritty texture.
Notes Plant with Premier.

Premier*

Bush Moderate vigour.
Fruit Medium/ large fruit with excellent colour, taste and scar.
Notes One of the best eating rabbiteye blueberries. Plant with Britewell.

Powder Blue*

Bush Moderate vigour.
Fruit Small/medium light blue fruit. Very similar in looks to Tifblue but slightly smaller.
Notes Plant with Tifblue.

Tifblue*

Bush Bushy upright vigorous growth.
Fruit Medium/large light blue fruit.
Notes Released in America in 1955. Still widly grown and accepted as the benchmark for all rabbiteye varieties. Plant with Powderblue.

T 102*

Bush Vigorous spreading bush.
Yield Very heavy yields.
Fruit Large firm fruit, good flavour. Berry is dark and somewhat flat with very big calyx. Can split after heavy rain. Ripens a week or so after Tifblue.

Centurion*

Bush Nice shaped bush showing moderate vigour.
Yield Good yields
Fruit Medium sized, tasty, well displayed berries. The fruit is not as gritty as some rabbiteye but is inclined to be a little dark in colour

Maru *

Bush Bushes are upright with berries well exposed.
Area Not recommended for cooler disticts.
Fruit Berries are dark with a gritty texture and obvious calyx scar. Extremely late cropper with large very typical rabbiteye fruit.

Rahi *

Bush Vigorous, upright growth habit.
Market Most notable feature is the keeping ability of fruit with good retention of fresh market quality after 4-6 weeks storage.
Fruit A moderate cropper with outstanding fruit quality. Loose clusters of firm, very light blue fruit. Berries are prone to splitting after heavy rain.

* The observations made about these plants, have been made at Moondarra in Gippsland, Victoria. Different climatic conditions and soil could show different results. Please use this information as a guide only.

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