Cultivated blueberry plants are grown on thousands of farms across the United States. High bush blueberry plants grow quickly and produce many berries. They grow best in moist, well-drained, acidic soils. Rabbiteye blueberry plants produce a similar type of blueberry but they grow even faster than the high bush species.
Blueberries grow in clusters, but they don’t all ripen at the same time. Sometimes the fruit on the bottom of the cluster may be ripe when some on the top are still green. It takes about 2–5 weeks for blueberries to ripen on the bush.
Blueberries are first picked by hand to gather the best of the early fruit. Later, if the fruit is to be mechanically harvested, a harvesting machine goes through the field and gently shakes each bush so only the ripe blueberries drop off.
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