Climate Change Impacting New Jersey’s Blueberry Production

[PINEY WARDEN]

Features Denny Doyle In New Lisbon

How climate change could impact New Jersey's blueberry production

While the growing season for New Jersey blueberries is over for the year, in the coming months the bushes and berries will be reliant on winter and cold temperatures. As NBC10 First Alert Weather meteorologist Bill Henley explains, climate change could be putting the state’s production in peril.

www.nbcphiladelphia.com

 

[Spung-Man]

Tough choices in a changing world. How does everyone feel about hybridization between Southern and Northern highbush blueberries, which respectively require 150 vs. 1200 chill hours?

On a lark I planted a Sunshine Blue Blueberry (Vaccinium X ‘Sunshine Blue,’—male is probably Sharpblue or Avonblue). This is an ornamental variety of Southern highbush with blue-green leaves an showy pinkish white flowers. Sunshine Blue’s supposedly hardy to zone 5 and bears fruit in mid–late September, way beyond our traditional season. The photo below was taken on September 23, 2017. This is the first year it didn’t fruit (drought, late freeze?), hence the old photo. The plant survives like a champ in a rough low-care corner behind the garden.

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S-M