• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.701-706
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• 2014

Three highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum cvs. Bluecrop, Coville, and Northland) grown in an open field and in a rain shelter were compared to evaluate the potential benefits of rain-sheltering systems on growth and fruit quality. Shrubs grown in rain shelter flowered 5-14 days earlier and were in full bloom earlier than those in the open field. All three cultivars set fruit by nearly 90% of flowers when they were grown in the open field, but was markedly reduced when they were grown in the rain shelter, to approximately 50% for 'Bluecrop' and 'Coville'. Fruit sets ratio of 'Northland' grown in the in the rain shelter was 14.5. Fruit from greenhouse-grown 'Northland' were larger, heavier, and had more seeds per berry. Soluble sugar content (SSC) of fruits varied both with the cultivars and growing conditions. SSC of fruits grown in the greenhouse was higher in 'Bluecrop' compared to that grown in the field, but this pattern was reversed in 'Northland'. Titratable acid was significantly higher in fruits from rain shelter-grown shrubs of both 'Bluecrop' and 'Northland' than in fruits from open field-grown shrubs (P < 0.05), although there was no difference in TA with respect to growing conditions for 'Coville'. The number of seed per fruit, fruit length and diameter, weight, SSC, and TA were similar in 'Coville' shrubs grown in the open field and the rain shelter. Fruit firmness of 'Bluecrop', 'Coville', and 'Northland' was higher in the rain shelter than in the open field. 'Coville' and 'Northland' fruits harvested in the open field had higher blue chroma than those harvested in the rain shelter. However, this pattern was reversed for 'Bluecrop'. On the whole, sheltering from rain affected most fruit characteristics of the three cultivars differently. Therefore, suitable blueberry cultivars for the rain shelter should be chosen by purpose.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2014

Rooting agents and shading treatments were tested in two different experiments to determine their effects on the establishment success of hardwood cuttings of three highbush blueberry varieties 'Bluecrop', 'Duke' and 'Sunrise'. For the experiment with rooting agents, one-cm long bases of the cuttings were dipped into solutions of IBA or NAA for 5 s, both at 0, 500 and $1000mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ in 50% ethanol, and were also treated with Rootone$^{(R)}$ powder. Determined 90 days after cutting, the percent rooting and root weight were increased by NAA at $500mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ in 'Bluecrop' and 'Sunrise', while in 'Duke' IBA at $500mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ was effective. These auxin treatments were found to work better than a commercial product Rootone$^{(R)}$. The rooting agent-induced increases in root development resulted in better shoot growth of the cuttings in all three varieties, as determined after 90 days of further growth in individual containers. In the experiment with shading treatments, different levels of the shading treatment (30 to 90%) were imposed over the cutting bed under no mist. In all three varieties, 30% shading increased the percent rooting and root and shoot growth, compared to no shading control. However, shading levels higher than 50% shading were found to be inhibitory for hardwood cuttings of highbush blueberries, especially under the environmental conditions with no mist system.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.209-221
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• 2020

Highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum), 'Duke', 'Bluecrop', and 'Elliott', were applied with ground cover mulch systems to evaluate bush growth and fruit characteristics. Soil temperature variation was lower in the woodchip mulching plot. Therefore, CEC, soil pH, phosphate, mineral ions were not significantly different among mulching materials. The number of main stem was higher in woodchip > sawdust > rice husk > plastic film mulching plot, respectively. Total shoot number was also higher in organic mulching plots than in plastic film plot. However, total shoot number was not significantly different among the organic mulching plots. Fruit weight was the highest in the woodchip mulching plot of all blueberry cultivars, however, soluble sugar content, organic acidity, fruit firmness were not significantly different in mulching materials. Yield was higher in organic mulching plots than in plastic film plot in all blueberry cultivars. Especially, yield per shrub of woodchip plots was the highest about 3.6 kg in 'Duke', 2.7 kg in 'Bluecrop', and 2.6 kg in 'Elliott'. Furthermore, correlation of main stem number and yield was highly significant (r² = 0.8413). Therefore, woodchip mulching is expected to be an eco-friendly method to increase the number of stems and the yield of blueberries.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.598-603
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to elucidate the influence of vigor of a bearing shoot in ‘Bluecrop’ Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) on growth characteristics of shoots and fruits. Bearing shoots were classified with BS (bearing shoot) and BMB (bearing mother branch). The vigor of bearing shoots were divided into four arbitrary categories; A was thin (< 6.0 ㎜) BMB and short (< 10 ㎝) BS, B was thin BMB and long (≥ 10 ㎝) BS, C was thick (≥ 6 ㎜) BMB and short BS and D was thick BMB and long BS. Shoots from D were longer (6.5 ㎝) and thicker (1.70 ㎜) than those from the others. Shoots of D had more leaves (5.8 ea) than those of the others. Leaf area of D was larger (13.5 ㎠) than those of the others. The first harvest of D was one week faster than the others. Ratio of big berry (>14 ㎜) from the long BSs was higher (B : 41.7, D : 46.8%) than that from the short BSs. Soluble solid content of small berrys did not show any different according to vigor of bearing shoots, but soluble solid content of big berrys of the long BSs was higher (B : 16.2, D : 15.6°Bx) than those of the short BSs. The thickness of BMB did not affect ratio of fruit size and soluble soild content. The long BSs would be proper than the short BSs for bearing bigger fruits.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.689-695
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• 2013

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of in vitro human digestion on the antioxidant activity of blueberry leaf extracts (BLE) in emulsion-type sausages (ETS). Leaves from four cultivars of blueberries (Bluecrop, Bluegold, Duke, and Northland) collected from a wild blueberry farm were extracted with 80% ethanol. ETS were prepared with 0.2% BLE. The samples were then passed through an in vitro human digestion system which simulates the composition of the mouth, stomach, and small intestine juice. Only one phenolic compound (chlorogenic acid) was detected in the BLE. Northland BLE had appreciably higher amounts of chlorogenic acid than that of other BLE, both before and after in vitro human digestion. Antioxidant activity of any BLE was not influenced by in vitro human digestion, whereas the antioxidant activity of chlorogenic acid standard increased in response to in vitro human digestion in both 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) and ferric-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP). In the present study, the antioxidant activities of the BLE were not strongly influenced by in vitro human digestion, and the antioxidant activity depended on the chlorogenic acid content of ETS. Thus, compounds from blueberry leaves may have important applications in the future as natural antioxidants for meat products.