Southern Highbush

Abundance is a  vigorous, high-yielding variety.  Fruit large and firm with good color, flavor, and scar.  Begins ripening a few days after Star.  Easy to pollinate.

Camellia  has highly favorable attributes, especially fruit color, size and plant vigor. Similar to other early season southern highbush varieties, Camellia will have chill hour requirements in the range of 400 to 450 hours

Emerald is a vigorous, high-yielding plant.  Along with 'Jewel', it is one of the main varieties being planted in central Florida for early harvest.  Berries are large and have good shipping qualities. 

Farthing is vigorous and survives well in commercial fields.  It is a vigorous but not a tall-growing plant.  It has the somewhat squat bush structure of 'Windsor', but with more branchiness.  The leaves are unusually dark-green in color.  The plant makes numerous flower buds and flowers very heavily

Jewel a very popular in central Florida for planting with Emerald.  Produces a high yield of large, round berries that have good packing and shipping qualities.

Legacy are vigorous, grow upright and are productive. Its berries are of medium size and firm, but are superior in scar and flavor. The outstanding characteristics of LEGACY are good yields of high-quality fruit ripening in late midseason.

Palmeto is a vigorous variety with a spreading bush habit and narrow crowns. Requires 350-450 chill units. Plants are self-fertile, but should be interplanted for cross-pollination to increase pollination, yield, quality and size.

Primadonna 'Primadonna' ripens about 7 days before 'Star'.  It produces large, high-quality berries on a vigorous, upright bush.  In Florida, 'Primadonna' requires careful pruning to induce spring leafing.

Rebel is an early ripening highbush and has better berry size, plant vigor and is earlier than Star. It has a chill hour unit requirement of 400-450 hours. It has highly favorable size, scar and vigor.

Southern Belle 'Southern Belle' has a very large, firm berry with excellent packing and shipping qualities.  It starts to ripen a week after 'Star'.  'Southern Belle' requires well-drained soil.

Star flowers late and ripens early.  The bush is strong, upright, survives well, and is easy to prune.  The berry is large, firm, has a good picking scar, and is excellent for long-distance shipping.  'Star' can be harvested rapidly because the berries are in loose clusters and ripen during a short period.  Flavor and color are good.  One of the most popular varieties in Florida and Georgia.

Sweet Crisp is a highly vigorous bush with excellent field survival.  Its berries are unusually firm, crisp, and sweet.  The berries are medium to large, medium dark, with excellent scar and remarkable firmness.

Windsor is vigorous, with stout stems and a semi-spreading growth habit

Meadowlark™ ‘FL01-173’are very early-ripening and have an upright growth habit. The plant of Meadowlark™ ‘FL01-173’ is vase-shaped with stout, upright stems, and a smaller plant stature. Meadowlark™ ‘FL01-173’ has a superior ability to leaf strongly during flowering. Plants of Meadowlark™ ‘FL01-173’ have high yield potential and survive medium to well in field conditions, although plants may be susceptible to blueberry bud mites.

SUZIBLUE has a better berry firmness, berry size, and overall superior cropping than Star. When compared to Rebel, Suziblue typically had larger berry size and better overall flavor. Suziblue also has a high degree of plant vigor, berry weight of Suziblue has been larger than Star, averaging 2.2 to 2.8 grams per berry compared to 1.5 to 2.2 grams per berry for Star. Suziblue flavor is noticeably sweeter than Rebel, which has a mild to bland flavor. The new variety has a similar chill hour requirement to that of other early season southern highbush, in the range of 400 hours or less.

Kestrel™ 'FL02-40' ripen very early, and berries remain sweet even as hues of blues emerge. Flowers of Kestrel™ 'FL02-40' open around January 30, and berries ripen around April 22. Berries of Kestrel™ 'FL02-40' average 2.40 grams. The berry quality of Kestrel™ 'FL02-40' is excellent, as the plant produces berries that are plump, firm, and aromatic. Kestrel™ 'FL02-40' produces medium loose berry clusters with very low berry detachment force.
 

Rabbit Eye

Alapaha are vigorous, upright with quite narrow crowns, flower relatively late, and produce consistently high yields. Its berries are medium in size and have excellent firmness, color and flavor. It is recommended that ‘Alapaha’ be planted with other rabbiteye blueberry cultivars with similar time of bloom. The outstanding characteristics of ‘Alapaha’ include late flowering with early ripening and vigorous plants that produce high yields of excellent quality fruit.

Austin is a new early-season rabbiteye cultivar that appears to grow well where 'Climax' is adapted.

Brightwell berries are medium in size, have small dry stem scars, and have good flavor and color. Plants are vigorous and upright and can be mechanically harvested with good weather conditions. Brightwell is partially self-fertile.

Ochlockonee is a late ripening rabbiteye with superior berry size. The berries are also high quality with excellent berry scar, color, firmness. The plant is also very vigorous and should be planted with other rabbiteyes that bloom at the same time, such as Brightwell and Powderblue

Powder Blue berries are medium in size, are very light blue in color, have a small, dry stem scar, and have average firmness and flavor. Bush is upright and spreading and may be mechanically harvested.

Premier bushes are upright in growth habit and vigorous. The fruit is medium-large to large with good color, stem scar and flavor. It is recommended for planting on fresh market farms that can be picked by hand or very regularly with mechanical harvesters. If the fruit is not picked frequently it may be too soft for the fresh market.

Vernon is an early season rabbiteye blueberry released in 2004. The variety has good yields and excellent plant vigor.

'Titan' ripens around the time of the early rabbiteye varieties 'Alapaha', 'Vernon' and 'Premier', but before the mid-season 'Brightwell. 'Titan' has very large, firm berries, and the plant has a high degree of plant vigor. The selection is estimated to have a chilling requirement of 500 to 550 hours below 45 F.