Rabbiteye blueberries (Vaccinium ashei) are an important commercial fruit crop that is also native to the southeastern U.S. Rabbiteyes’ are grown commercially from Virginia and Ten-nessee, south to Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas in areas that have acid soils. Rab-biteye blueberries are “calcifuges”; plants that do not tolerate alkaline or basic soils or water. Plants will not thrive if the soil pH is not in the range of 4.0 to 5.5 and the irrigation water has little to no calcium bicarbonate. Rabbiteye plants are also extremely sensitive to sodium. Attempts to grow rabbiteyes’ on alkaline soils by lowering soil pH with organic matter and acidifying fertilizer usually fail due to com-plexities of soil chemistry. Likewise, there are no cost-effective methods of removing calcium from water. Containers or raised beds with mixtures of peat moss and pine-bark as a growing medium can give satisfactory produc-tion, but growers attempting to grow blueber-ries commercially should plant them on soil with a naturally favorable pH.
If grown on the right soil, Rabbiteye blueber-ries are a relatively easy fruit crop to grow, be-cause they have very few serious pests and low nutritional requirements. They are an excel-lent choice for organic or Earth-Kind orchards. Blueberries are presently experiencing popu-larity and consumer demand because of the high concentration of antioxidants contained in their pigmented fruit. Varieties vary in rip-ening date, productivity and fruit size, with some bearing quite large, sweet fruit (dime to nickel-size). Harvesting may be done by hand or machines, with the majority of fruit grown in Texas picked by hand and sold for fresh consump-tion. As increasing numbers of north-erners move south, the demand for blueberries should remain strong.