ALAPAHA is named
for the Alapaha river, which is located in southern
Georgia. Plants of Alapaha are vigorous, upright with
quite narrow crowns, flower relatively late, and produce
consistent high yields. Its berries are medium in
size and have excellent firmness, color and flavor. Its
small dry scars contribute to good shelf life. Alapaha
fruit ripens quickly, beginning about the same time as
the Climax cultivar. Alapaha is recommended as an early
ripening cultivar to replace Climax wherever rabbiteye
blueberries are grown
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successfully. In
fact, during a four year study in Alapaha GA and
Clarksville AR, productivity of Alapaha substantially
exceeded that of Climax every year. Preliminary
observations indicate that Alapaha’s chilling
requirement is about 450 hours below 45 degrees F. It is
recommended that Alapaha be planted with other rabbiteye
blueberry cultivars with similar time of bloom, such as
Austin and Premier. The outstanding characteristics of
Alapaha include late flowering with early ripening and
vigorous plants that produce high yields of excellent
quality fruit.
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Alapaha was
developed by D. Scott NeSmith and is a joint release by
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences and USDA/ARS. It is a protected
blueberry variety that can only be sold by individuals
licensed by the Georgia Seed Development Commission
(GSDC) under guidelines established in conjunction with
the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF)..
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