Is By Jan
Suszkiw January 4, 2008
Combining tenacity with taste, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Poplarville, Miss., have
bred three new blueberry cultivars that can take the heat of growing in the
South while offering high yields of plump, phytonutrient-rich fruit.
Dixieblue, Gupton and DeSoto are the latest offerings from a blueberry
breeding program begun in 1971 at the
Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville, Miss.
With the exception of the so-called rabbiteye varieties, locally grown
blueberries were nonexistent in Mississippi 30 years ago, primarily because of
that Gulf Coast state's heat, humidity, abundant insects and occasional
late-spring freezes. But when Hurricane Camille wiped out the region's tung oil
industry in 1969, ARS researchers went to work developing blueberries as a
viable alternative crop.
Thirteen blueberry cultivars and 2,500 acres later, the ARS
Poplarville lab is busier than ever furnishing Mississippi's burgeoning
blueberry industry with heat-tolerant plants whose fruit embodies the flavor,
firmness and shelf life that consumers and processors desire.
Take Gupton, for example. In storage tests conducted by ARS
Marshall, the cultivar's berries remained plump and juicy for more than 30
days under normal refrigeration.
DeSoto, a new rabbiteye variety developed by ARS plant geneticist
Stringer, has potential to extend the Gulf Coast rabbiteye season by up to
three weeks. In Mississippi, this usually ends around the first week of July,
according to Stringer. DeSoto's berries also don't suffer from splitting, which
bursts open the fruit after it becomes waterlogged, such as from an afternoon
Dixieblue, a highbush cultivar, yields light-blue, medium-sized
berries with a slightly flattened shape. Besides breeding and storage tests,
the Poplarville team's research includes determining the best time to harvest
berries for optimal flavor and elevated levels of antioxidants, especially
anthocyanins and phenolics.
more about this research in the January 2008 issue of Agricultural
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.