FOREWORD

This volume contains papers presented at the Symposium. The papers are arranged in this book in a sequence, which follows the steps: highbush blueberry cultivar trials, selection and breeding, soil management and nutrition, lingonberry cultivars, selection and culture, and American cranberry nutrition.

The name lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) comes from Sweden originally and is used in America. It appears by far preferable over "cowberry" for marketing reasons.

This book includes by no means all results available at the present.

Nearly all authors mailed their contribution without delay.

The editor thanks to everyone for his careful cooperation. I wish to express my gratitude to the many people who made this Symposium a success. To Prof. Gerhard Bünemann - Chairman of the Fruit Section ISHS, who initiated the meeting during the Hamburg Horticultural Congress in 1982.

Many thanks also to all speakers and chairpersons who kept a fully packed programme running smoothly and on time.

Sincere appreciation and deep gratitude are expressed to Prof. Andrzej Sadowski, Dean of the Faculty of Horticulture, who gave generously his time and counsel to assist me in the Symposium.

Special thanks go to the Staff of the Department of Pomology. Gratitude is also extended to Mrs Ewa Czesnik (M.Sc.) secretary to the Symposium.

Finally, to all Graduate Students, whose attention to dozens of details really made the Symposium a success, my thanks.

Kazimierz Pliszka
Editor


OPENING ADDRESS

Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome to all of you, welcome to the Third International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture. It is a great honour to have a large number of prominent guests and specialists in Vaccinium plants. We thank you for coming to our country to take part in this Symposium. I believe this Symposium will do more in Vaccinium propagation and research practices dealing with Vaccinium crops. Poland is very interested in extension of blueberry, cranberry and lingonberry culture. We have thousand hectars of land adapted to these plants. In some regions of Poland the soil is light, sandy, acid, rich in organic matter and in general suitable specially for blueberry culture. The climate is not so favourable as in some states of the USA or in western Europe but enough good to grow here an early ripening cultivars such as Earliblue, Blueray and Bluecrop and is also suitable for the cranberry and lingonberry in some regions. We observed that also winters are not so dangerous to these plants as could be expected. Prof. G. Liebster, an enthusiast and the pioneer of blueberry growing not only in Germany but also in Europe wrote in his book "Die Kulturheidelbeere" the blueberry plants can be damaged by frost during the winter when the temperatures drop below -25°C. Such frosty winters occur in this country rather rarely. So we are quite in agreement with this statement.

In Poland we tried to introduce the blueberry before the Second World War but without evident results. After the Second World War when Prof. Pieniazek in 1946 returned home from the USA and dr K. Pliszka after his study at New Brunswick University, USA came in 1965 to our Department at Warsaw Agricultural University, we began to propagate the blueberry and set up first fields trials with this plant. After some years we have learnt that it is possible to grow the highbush blueberry on commercial scale.

To fulfill our wishes we must select the most profitable cultivars adapted to our climate. We should also extend the breeding work initiated by dr. Pliszka. Now it is evident that the blueberry is very common in home and amateur gardens. It is also grown on commercial plantations but till now on a small scale. I have good reason for believing that the Vaccinium plants will be soon the common plants in this country.

I wish you a very pleasant and useful stay in this country.


SPEECH OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ISHS VACCINIUM WORKING GROUP - KAZIMIERZ
PLISZKA

Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome to all of you who came to participate at the Third International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture; welcome to Poland and to Warsaw, arrivals from faraway countries - Australia, New Zealand and Japan, from beyond the Ocean, from Europe.

All of you are invited to present your works and report on your research on Highbush Blueberries and other Vaccinium Crops.

Let me greet the authorities of our Agricultural University, representatives of the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture. I hope you will excuse me for having limited myself to very general greetings.

I would like to briefly relate the past of research on the Highbush Blueberry in Europe. In 1964 at an ISHS conference of the Fruit Section at Wilhelminadorp, The Netherlands, Professor Dr. Günther Liebster of Munich University, FRG, today the Honorary Chairman of the Vaccinium Working Group suggested that a research team for blueberry culture in Europe be created. The first symposium was held in Venlo, The Netherlands in 1967. It was a two-day event with approximately 30 participants from 12 European countries. However, there was a lack of own experience and trial. For this reason, members from the following 12 countries: Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany decided to carry out a cultivar trial. Some of detailed results of this trial will be presented today.

In the spring of 1971, our Working Group renamed to "Blueberry and Cranberry Culture in Europe". For some years now, especially in Scandinavia, Germany and here in Poland, the cultivation of lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) has been tackled.

The second Symposium on Vaccinium Culture was held at Hannover, FRG. And once again the Working Group was renamed by giving it the final designation "Vaccinium Culture".

The motto of our meeting is: "The greatest service which can be rendered to any country is, to add an useful plant to its culture". It was Thomas Jefferson who said it. The highbush blueberry and cranberry come from North America. The place of this symposium is Ursynów, named after Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, poet, writer and politician, who was a friend of Thomas Jefferson and originally intended to name his estate after Jefferson. He was an amateur - gardener and brought over many seeds and shrubs from America to be cultivated in Poland.

I wish all of you a pleasant stay in Poland.