Virtually unknown in the UK until just a few decades ago, the blueberry has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. With sales more than quadrupling since 2005 and British growers racing to keep up with demand, the fruit is said to rival the strawberry for our national affections.
Much of the blueberry’s newfound appeal is due to its purported health benefits, and in particular its rich anthocyanin content. Research suggests this group of plant pigments, which gives the skin of blueberries its characteristic colour, may possess unique nutritional benefits: a claim marketeers have been keen to latch on to. What they often fail to mention, however, is that blueberries can vary widely in their anthocyanin content, with some commercial varieties containing far less than those only available to home growers.
Blueberry ‘Rubel’, for example, can contain 300% more than the supermarket staple ‘Bluecrop’ according to a USDA trial – significantly more than any other tested variety. The key to its high anthocyanin content is its wild provenance, being the descendant of a single cutting taken from the swampy forests of New Jersey in the early 20th century. Its smaller size and darker colour mean its fruit contains proportionally more pigment-rich skin than the larger, lighter-coloured hybrids favoured by supermarkets. It has excellent flavour, too.
‘Rubel’ is also disease-resistant and just as high yielding as other cultivars, capable of kicking out an average of 6kg a year on mature plants. At current supermarket prices that is roughly £80 worth of fruit a year, on bushes that require little care and attention.
Their one downside? The smaller berries can be fiddly to pick. But with pretty spring flowers and vibrant scarlet autumn foliage, they are the best variety for home growers.
How to grow the ‘Rubel’ blueberry
Originating from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, ‘Rubel’ is as tough as they come, happy to put roots down and get on with it as long as it is given a bed in full sun and moist, acid soil. (They don’t call them Pine Barrens for nothing.) The blueberry bed that I worked on at RHS Wisley has no supplemental water or fertiliser for years at a time, and consistently offers up bumper crops. If anything, too much fertiliser can be an issue, so treat them mean to keep them keen. Just remember to net them as they begin to ripen, to defend your crop from marauding birds.
Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter:@Botanygeek
