Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Northblue Half-High Blueberry Bareroot

Species: Vaccinium corymbosum x V. angustifolium

History: Northblue was bred by the University of Minnesota as part of a hybrid blueberry breeding program that started in 1967. The goal of the program was to cross highbush and lowbush blueberries in order to create high-quality cold hardy varieties. Of the three varieties initially created in this program, Northblue was noted for having the largest fruit and highest productivity. Northblue was introduced to the public in 1983. 

Why We Grow It: Northblue produces nicely sized, firm blueberries that store well. The berries have a good sweet flavour akin to that of wild blueberries and are great for a variety of uses. The compact shrub is quite productive and cold hardy.

$23.00

Size:

46 in stock

Fruit Traits:

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, baking, preserving, wine

Fruit Size: Medium to Large

Storage: Stores better than other blueberries in the fridge

Harvest: July - Mid

Tree Traits:

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 3

Soil Preferance: Prefers sandy, well-drained, acidic soil. We plant ours in a mix of one part peat moss and 1 part wood chips (we prefer pine). Consider checking your soil type and pH before planting and adding peat moss or other acidifiers if needed.

Flowering Time: Spring

Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a different highbush, lowbush, and/or half-high blueberry variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present.

Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily) preferred but will tolerate partial shade

General Growth Habit: Shrub reaches 0.5-1m tall, cold hardy, vigorous, productive

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

Blueberries are divided into the following grades:
• 1 year plant - 10-25cm
• 2 year plant - 15-45cm

There is some overlap in size since we are also taking the age of the plants into account. Some older plants may not have put on quite as much vegetative growth but will have larger root systems.

All of these heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively.

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

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