2025 Blueberry Variety Demonstration Update
Last year, I wrote about the 2024 yields of the 31 blueberry varieties in our demonstration at the Hammond Research Station. This past summer, we again harvested blueberries and weighed them to quantify yields. Here, I’m providing information about 2025 season yields and the two-season averages.
Weights are per-plant yields in pounds, averaged over three (or two, in the case of Centurion) plants of each variety. All were planted in November of 2020. Because this is a demonstration and not a true research project, all plants of a given variety are next to each other, rather than replicated randomly within the area. Therefore, it’s likely that some of the variation in yields is due to factors other than the varieties themselves, such as soil conditions in the spots where they’re planted. Nevertheless, the data we’ve collected does provide some useful information.
The top yielders in 2025 largely overlapped with 2024’s top performers, though the exact ranking was different. Premier (15.3 lb), Brightwell (13.3 lb), Tifblue (12.0 lb), Ochlockonee (11.7 lb), Austin (11.0 lb), Alapaha (8.7 lb), and Powderblue (7.6 lb) – all rabbiteye varieties – were top-10 yielders both years. Three varieties – Farthing (9.2 lb), Suziblue (8.0 lb), and Onslow (7.6 lb) – that didn’t crack the top 10 in 2024 did so in 2025, replacing three others – Centurion, Legacy, and DeSoto – that were top-10 yielders in 2024.
We harvested from April 18, when Patrecia, Paloma, and Farthing had ripe fruit (at least 10 grams per plant) until June 30, when Ochlockonee, DeSoto, Onslow, and Centurion still had at least that amount of ripe fruit.
In 2025, no variety achieved the 17 to 19 pound yields we saw from Tifblue, Ochlockonee, and Brightwell in 2024. The high yields that year may have been due in part to the very small 2023 crop. A late freeze that year killed most blueberry flowers, so plants did not expend energy ripening many berries and likely had some extra carbohydrate reserves that helped the plants make the 2024 crop.
Averaged over two years, the top 10 producers were Tifblue, Brightwell, Ochlockonee, Premier, Austin, Alapaha, Powderblue, Legacy, Farthing, and Centurion. All of these are rabbiteye varieties except Legacy and Farthing.
The per-plant yields (lb) of the rabbiteye and related varieties averaged over the 2024 and 2025 seasons were as follows: Tifblue (15.6), Brightwell (15.4), Ochlockonee (15.0), Premier (13.7), Austin (11.6), Alapaha (9.2), Powderblue (8.4), Centurion (6.7), DeSoto (6.5), Onslow (6.5), Delite (5.8), Climax (5.1), Vernon (5.1), Columbus (3.6), Pink Lemonade (2.9), Titan (2.7), Krewer (1.9), and Robeson (1.8).
(I strongly suspect that one or more of the plants in the DeSoto and Robeson plots are not actually DeSoto and Robeson, even they were labeled as such. So, the stated yields of those may not be entirely reflective of those varieties’ potential.)
These are the per-plant yields (lb) of the southern highbush varieties, averaged over the 2024 and 2025 seasons: Legacy (7.2), Farthing (6.9), Suziblue (5.9), Gupton (5.6), Pearl (5.3), Keecrisp (3.7), Emerald (3.5), Camellia (1.6), Colibri (1.5), Miss Lilly (1.4), Patrecia (1.2), Paloma (1.2), and Star (0.8).
Of course, yield isn’t the only thing we care about when choosing blueberry varieties. We did some informal taste testing over the past two seasons, but in 2026, I plan to do some more organized evaluations of consumer preferences.
Let me know if you have questions.
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Dr. Mary Helen Ferguson is an Extension Agent with the LSU AgCenter, with horticulture responsibilities in Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes. Contact Mary Helen at mhferguson@agcenter.lsu.edu or 985-277-1850 (Hammond) or 985-839-7855 (Franklinton).
