Olympos blueberries are the result of many years of breeding work, initiated in 2010 and based on the selection of varieties collected for crossbreeding since 2000. The Ciepłucha Nursery has been commercially producing blueberries using the micro-seedling method since the beginning of the XXI century.
Only northern varieties, with high frost resistance took part in the breeding process. The goal was to obtain varieties with large and firm fruits, with an emphasis on early and very early ripening varieties. The parameters that were the most important in the selection were: size, hardness/firmness, yield, shelf-life, BRIX, plant vigour and health.
More than 300 crossings were made, of which almost 20,000 seedlings were obtained for selection. Through years of observations in both container and field cultivation, 19 initially selected seedlings were obtained from the first pollinations and another 57 seedlings from later pollinations. Micro seedlings were made from the selected genotypes and planted on a plantation in 2021. As a result of observations of bushes and fruit tests (BRIX, hardness, firmness, weight, diameter, shelf-life) on a larger number of plants of a given cultivar (10 pieces each), another selection was made and the 6 most promising seedlings were selected.
A professional approach to breeding work and the development of blueberry breeding ‘know-how’ was possible due to the experience gained in rhododendron breeding (started 10 years earlier than blueberry breeding) and cooperation with the Institute in Skierniewice. In particular, we would like to thank prof. Stanislaw Pluta for giving us invaluable tips!
The final selection is planned for 2024, when the selected, best blueberry genotypes will receive commercial names. They will be named after Greek mythological gods, hence the name of the entire series – Olympos Blueberries.
The plants will be available for sale in autumn 2025 in a C2.5L container.
We are happy to present you the first information about them!
Below, we present the most important parameters in charts and provide the profiles of 6 seedlings in PDF format:
