I am jealous, my first ones here are usually O'neal, in early June. It appears that I only lost less than 5%, so I feel very lucky.
What is(are) your first to ripen?

Benny

Benny,

My first to ripen are Southern Belle. They lost 90% of their fruit but I only have 2 of them. The windsors though are turning purple also. Meanwhile a lot of the rabbiteye are just now blooming. The harvest is scattered over a long season from now until early June.

Bamboo, do you grow O'neal, and if so, when does it ripen in comparison to your other early ones.

Benny

Benny,

I don't grow it and don't give me any ideas:) This is a list of what I do have or at least close. I have not done a head count in awhile.

50 sweet Crisp
5 Gulf Coast
8 Windsor
2 southern Belle
4 millennium
14 Jewel
4 South Moon
33 Emerald
9 Sunshine Blue
1 scintilla

2 Windy (rabbiteye)
2 Beckyblue (rabbiteye)
2 Snowflake (rabbiteye)
Brightwell (rabbiteye)
Powder blue (rabbiteye)
2 Tiff blue (rabbiteye)
Austin (rabbiteye)

Well, you won't want to hear this, Bamboo, but O'Neal are superlative tasting. Better than anything else I have (until I can taste a real Sweetcrip, that is.) They are fantastic. And one of the highest-touted blueberries for us here in S. California. Sorry about your early crop. We all were afraid this was going to happen with our weird weather.

Patty S.

Such is life. I have no more room to add more unless I add another bed for them. As it is I have 6 beds allocated to the blueberries.

The lack of harvest is a bummer. I won't go wanting as there is a 25 acre field of Emeralds and Jewels 3 miles from me and I can go there and pick all I want to for free but it just isn't the same as picking your own berries.

If anyone wonders why free....when the Georgia berries come in to bearing the price drops and the Florida growers stop paying the migrants to pick as it becomes unprofitable. Some farms do a U pick but this farm down the road will just let them drop to the ground and rot. I just happen to be friends with someone who has a "in" lol.

Bamboo,
What did the temperature drop to that caused you to loose a part of your crop?

It dropped to 27. The closed flowers were ok but the open flowers and the fruit that was already formed were lost. I got up at 2:00 am to turn the watering system on but it was already too late.

Dang Bam, thats sucks to hear that man! At least you got the hook up though on some other fields. Its that picture of Windsor? I was looking at your Rabbiteye collection and was wondering how Powder Blue and Tift do for you? I have powder blue and so far its the latest to break buds for me here in Houston. Do you have any problems with those 2 varieties leafing out in the spring due to insufficent chilling? How many chill hours on average do you recieve?

Blueboy,

Good eye, it is a Windsor.

The higher chill rabbits are mediocre at best. They are an effort to extend my season as long as possible. The plants grow ok here but they are very slow to leaf out and it takes it's toll. On average we get 300-400 chill hours. This year we are about 300. Those rabbits are just starting to flower now.