Highbush blueberry is a fruit bush that grows to between 0.6 m and 2 m depending on the variety. Its fruit is blue, sweet but sometimes lightly sour, and very tasty. Blueberry fruit contains Anthocyanins with anti-oxidising properties, folic acid, anti-oxidants and egalic acid. These properties help remove excess free radicals, responsible for many civilisation diseases, including several cancers, from the human body. Nothing comes close to blueberry fruit in this respect. These beneficial characteristics qualify blueberry as the fruit of the 21st century. The bush thrives in acidic soil e.g. peat or spread sawdust.

Highbush belongs to the Ericales order (heath), the Ericaceae, and the Vaccinum L genus which includes ca. 400 species. We are only interested in those members of this sizeable group which are economically significant to Poland.
Vaccinium corymbosum – highbush blueberry, commonly known as “American blueberry” in Poland – takes pride of place. The name “American blueberry” is the one used in this document.

American blueberry grows wild in the north-eastern USA. The species is the protoplast of many breeding varieties commonly grown for their tasty fruit and healthy properties. The different varieties do not vary much in taste. Some are sourer than others and sugar content may vary. There are also distinctive differences in the size and shape of the fruit.
The most important distinction for variety selection is fructification period, which can vary considerably. The varieties with the earliest fruiting times include Earliblue, Duke and Spartan, which start bearing fruit in mid-July. The varieties with the latest fruiting times include Darrow, Elizabeth and Eliot. These latter may not fully ripen until the first ground-frosts. This ability, however, to prolong fructification until so late in the season gives these varieties a great advantage.
Other features come into play when selecting varieties for plantations, the most important being the abundance of the fruit and the time it lasts in storage as well as the resistance of the bushes to frost and disease, and mechanical damage during transportation. The size and evenness of the fruit is also important. Another desirable property of blueberry is the fact that all its fruit ripen at the same time. This greatly facilities harvesting, especially mechanical harvesting.