Frederick V. Coville and the History of North American Highbush Blueberry Culture

Abstract

November 15, 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Dr. Frederick V. Coville's, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 193, Experiments in Blueberry Culture. Prior to these studies, most attempts to move plants from the wild and maintain them in managed culture had been unsuccessful. In the short span of time from 1906 to 1910, Coville determined that blueberries required a moist but not wet soil with low pH, had a low nutrient requirement, and required winter chilling. He developed propagation procedures by cuttings, grafting, and budding. In 1909, he recognized that self-sterility could be an issue after few seeds and no plants resulted from selfing ‘Brooks’, an otherwise outstanding wild plant found near Greenfield, N.H. Elizabeth C. White, a commercial cranberry grower in Whitesbog, N.J., contacted Dr. Coville after reading Experiments in Blueberry Culture and offered encouragement and assistance. Cooperation in selecting wild breeding material, growing of seedlings, and cultivar selection continued for the next 26 years. In 1920, ‘Pioneer’ was the first cultivar released from their breeding effort, however, ‘Rubel’, a selection from the wild that is still grown today, was released in 1912. A total of 15 cultivars were released before Coville's death in 1937. Another 14 of his crosses were released after his death. These 29 cultivars still accounted for 75% of the commercial U.S. acreage in 1992. This early cultural work and variety development provided the basis for commercial plantings in New Jersey. Interest spread to other states with the first planting in Michigan in 1924, North Carolina in 1928, and Washington in the 1930s. By 1949, there were 1,082 ha (2,674 acres) in New Jersey, 701 ha (1,731 acres) in Michigan, 230 ha (568 acres) in North Carolina, and 84 ha (207 acres) in Washington, according to the U.S. Bureau of Census. Evaluation of rabbiteye (V. ashei) wild selections was begun in Georgia in 1939 followed by controlled crosses and the first releases, ‘Callaway’ and ‘Coastal’ in 1950 and ‘Tifblue’ and ‘Homebell’ in 1960. Development of highbush type bushes for warm climates was begun in Florida in 1948. The wild blueberry species V. darrowi was used as a parent to provide the low chilling requirement, while attempting to maintain the desirable fruiting characteristics of the northern highbush cultivars developed by Dr. Coville. The first of these cultivars, referred to as “southern highbush,” ‘Sharpeblue’ and ‘Floridablue’ were released in 1976. More recently, crosses of highbush and lowbush (V. angustifolium) have given bushes of reduced stature (“half-highs”) that are protected by snow cover. The first of these cultivars were released in Michigan, ‘Northland’, 1968 and Minnesota, ‘Northblue’ and ‘Northsky’, 1983. Could Fredrick Coville have envisioned an industry of 25,500 ha (63,000 acres) that returned over $500 million to growers in the U.S. in 2009?