Toro Highbush Blueberry
Toro Highbush Blueberry
Species: Vaccinium corymbosum
History: Toro is a cross between Earliblue and Ivanhoe bred by USDA blueberry breeder Arlen Draper in Maryland. It was selected for its productivity, firmness, and flavour and introduced in 1987. It was named Toro ('bull' in Spanish) due to its strong and stocky structure, however this dense canopy structure prevented Toro from achieving true commercial success due to the added difficulty of pruning and harvesting it at a commercial level.
Why We Grow It: Toro produces large blueberries that are quite sweet and firm. They tend to produce heavy crops that ripen all at once, making mechanical picking easier. Like other blueberries, Toro is great for eating fresh, baking, and preserving!
Fruit Specs
Fruit Specs
Recommended Use: Fresh eating, baking, preserving, wine
Fruit Size: Large
Storage: Keeps less than two weeks when stored in the fridge
Harvest: July - Late
Growing Specs
Growing Specs
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4
Soil Preference: 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
Bloom Colour: White
Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a different highbush blueberry variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present. A pollination partner is recommended for Toro.
Sun/Shade Requirements:
Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily) preferred but will tolerate partial shade
General Growth Habits:
Shrub reaches 2m tall, vigorous with an upright and stocky growth habit, productive. Generally disease resistant.
Shipping vs. Pick Up
Shipping vs. Pick Up
CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.
Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. 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. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.
Size at Purchase
Size at Purchase
Blueberries are divided into the following grades:
- 2 year plant - 10-45cm
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.