Blueberry estimated harvest from seven new cultivars: Fruit and anthocyanins

Abstract

This study compares the yields, weights and anthocyanin contents of fruit from a group of seven new cultivars released from the New Zealand blueberry breeding programme and selected for the longest possible combined harvest season. The measured factors were primarily influenced by cultivar, and seasonal variations had relatively minor effects. The late-ripening cultivars ‘Velluto Blue’ and ‘Centra Blue’ had the highest fruit yields, anthocyanin contents and estimated total anthocyanin harvestable from a given area. ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Sky Blue’ had the largest fruit sizes. The early-ripening cultivars ‘Blue Bayou’, ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Sunset Blue’ had the lowest anthocyanin contents. The yield, fruit size and total anthocyanin content results obtained from any single year were highly correlated with the average of the three years, which makes pursuing the evaluation for these traits from a single year and at an early stage of plant development a practical proposition.