Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum) is a deciduous shrub that’s native to North America. Its fruit is so devastatingly sour that it must be sweetened before human beings find it palatable. However, deer don’t mind the bitter taste and love to feast on it.

I. Appearance and Characteristics

Vaccinium stamineum, commonly known as deerberry, tall deerberry, highbush huckleberry, buckberry, and southern gooseberry, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is native to North America, including Ontario, the eastern and central United States, and parts of Mexico. It is most common in the southeastern United States.

This species is quite variable in morphology. It is a shrub usually growing up to 1.5 meters (60 inches or 5 feet) tall, but reaching up to 3 meters (10 feet) at times. It has multiple twisted trunks covered in peeling reddish bark and is highly branched, tapering into thin twigs, some just a millimeter wide. It is deciduous, with alternately arranged leaves. The thin leaf blades are yellow-green, sometimes hairy or waxy in texture, especially on the undersides, and oval in shape with pointed tips and smooth edges.

They are up to 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) long by 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide. The flowers are borne in hanging inflorescences from the leaf axils. Each flower has five green sepals and a bell-shaped corolla of five fused white petals about half a centimeter (0.2 inches) long. The long, yellow stamens protrude, bearing long, tubular anthers. The style is longer than the stamens. The fruit is a spherical berry about a centimeter wide. It is greenish or yellowish, often with a purple tinge.

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
Vaccinium stamineum kz04 Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz CC BY-SA 4.0

This plant usually grows in dry, rocky habitat types in forests and fields, but it sometimes occurs in moist areas such as bogs and swamps. It grows in acidic, well-drained soils. It is wildfire-adapted and associated with fire-tolerant vegetation.

It establishes via seed, and commonly spreads via woody rhizomes, with a single plant forming what appears to be a thicket with many trunks. Because most of the mass of the plant is underground, it easily survives fire and the above-ground parts grow back.

The fruits are large for a Vaccinium species. They are an important food source for many kinds of wildlife. They are eagerly consumed by deer along with the twigs and foliage, the inspiration for the common names deerberry and buckberry. Smaller animals gather fallen fruits from the ground. They are food for many songbirds, ruffed grouse, bobwhite quail, wild turkey, foxes, raccoons, black bears, chipmunks, and squirrels.

The plant is pollinated by bees, the primary pollinator being Melitta americana. Bees dislodge, accumulate, and disperse pollen with buzz pollination while foraging nectar from the bell-shaped flowers. This species is a host to the blueberry maggot (Rhagoletis mendax), a pest of blueberry crops.

II. How to Grow and Care

Sunlight

The deerberry is a full sun plant. Insufficient sunlight affects its flowering and fruiting. When selecting a growing location, try to avoid placing your plants near large trees. The tree crown coverage not only affects light, but also reduces air circulation, making diseases much more likely.

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
Vaccinium stamineum 1 Eric Hunt CC BY-SA 4.0

Temperature

The deerberry has many cultivated species that have a wide adaptability to different temperatures. However, cold temperatures (T < 7 ℃) during dormancy are vital to helping them bloom the following year. The Lowbush Blueberry and the Northern High Blueberry usually need more than 800 to 1000 chill hours in an environment below 7 ℃. The Rabbiteye deerberry from the south also needs around 350 to 700 hours. It is important to pay attention to cold resistance and chill hours when selecting varieties.

The deerberry has a fibrous root system with shallow root distribution. Like other Ericaceae species, its roots with symbiotic fungi absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Therefore, the deerberry is neither drought-resistant nor flood-resistant, and requires careful adjustment of soil moisture.

Watering

Regular watering is needed to grow deerberry. Since sandy soil it preferred has low humidity and low water retention, irrigation should be done every two or three days during a hot summer. Deep watering may be required once a week. In total, deerberry requires the amount of water equivalent to an average precipitation of 2.5 cm per week from germination to defoliation, and then around 4 cm from the beginning of fruit bearing to fruit harvesting. Water supply should be reduced from fall to enable the plant to enter dormancy in time.

Soil

Because the wild blueberries mostly grows on the edges of forests, they are accustomed to the acidic soil formed by dead branches and fallen leaves.Loose, acid soil (pH 3.8-5.5) with a good drainage performance and plenty of humus is best, with the optimum pH value being 4.5. Sandy soil and sandy loam are also preferred.

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
Vaccinium stamineum foliage williamsburg1 Daniel J. Layton CC BY-SA 3.0

Soil acidity can be adjusted to cater to the deerberry. If the pH of your soil is between 5.5 and 7.0, sphagnum peat can be applied at a 10 to 15 cm thickness into the 0 to 150 mm top-layer of soil, before being fully mixed in. Sphagnum peat not only improves soil acidity, but also significantly increases the content of humus. If the pH of your soil is higher than 7.0, a raised ridge bed can be built and filled with soil that has the correct acidity. Back-filling soil should be 20 to 30 cm higher than the ground plane, and all roots must be covered in the soil layer below 0 to 150 mm.

Fertilizing

The deerberry is a plant that does not demand much fertilizer. However, if you are meeting soil acidity requirements and the leaves are losing their green color, or new shoots are growing extremely slowly, a nitrogen fertilizer should be considered. Ammonium nitrogen is the best kind of nitrogen fertilizer for a deerberry.

After planting, young plants should be fertilized in early spring and late spring respectively. For adult plants, fertilizer can be applied every fall and winter after flowering. Each plant would benefit from an organic fertilizer or a compound fertilizer (N%-P2O5%-K2O%=15:15:15).

Excessive fertilization easily damages the deerberry, and can even kill the whole plant. Forbidden fertilizer types include chlorine-containing fertilizer; nitrate nitrogen fertilizer; calcium-containing fertilizer.

Planting Instructions

Planting requirements for the deerberry differ between varieties. Ideally, use bag seedlings that are two to three years old when planting a deerberry, with the diameter of the base of the main stem being more than 5 mm.

If garden centers provide bare-root seedlings, these can be stored in a damp and dark environment before planting to keep them in dormancy. The criterion of “dampness” is that the roots must be kept moist, but not fully saturated. Ideal planting time is usually late winter or early spring, before the plant starts sprouting new buds. Soak the roots of bare-root seedlings in water for 3 or 4 hours before planting.

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
Vaccinium stamineum, flower. C & O Canal Park, Montgomery co., MD. (4/25/12) FritzFlohrReynolds CC BY-SA 2.0

Two or more plants of different species, with the same florescence, can be planted at the same time. Pollination between different plants can increase the fruit setting rate, as well as the single fruit weight. For species with a larger plant shape, the spacing should be appropriately increased.

If you are planting deerberry into a pot, place this in a shaded and well-ventilated room for a week, before moving it outdoors and resuming with normal care. If on sloping land, avoid planting in locations where cold air stagnates, so that the plant is protected from frost during flowering. Adequate irrigation should also be carried out after planting. Maintain an organic mulch at a thickness of 5 to 10 cm throughout the year after planting.

A mulch such as broken wood sawdust, peat, pine needles and fallen leaves can help maintain soil acidity. As acidic organic matter degrades every year, the pH value of your soil needs annual monitoring, with adjustments as needed. Once the pH value of the soil is higher than 5.5, the deerberry roots cannot absorb iron, meaning that the edges of leaves will lose their green color and turn red. Growth will be stunted, and the plant could even die. An acid peat soil mixture, while useful, takes effect slowly. If there are signs of an iron deficiency during the growing season, a chelated iron foliar fertilizer can be sprayed and a sulfur powder can be used to adjust the pH value of the soil.

Pruning

Pruning of young plants: After planting, for the first two or three years, the flower buds should be completely removed in the spring. This will promote growth, improve lifespan and boost future fruit yield. Pinch off any spindly shoots during the growing season to increase the number of sprouting lateral branches, so as to expand the tree crown.

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
Vaccinium stamineum [email protected] CC BY 2.0

Fruiting plant pruning: From the third year after planting, the deerberry should be pruned each year, before the sprouting of new buds in early spring. The annual branch bears fruits, and the stronger the branch is, the more fruits it bears. For mature plants, each cluster should retain 4 to 6 stems and 1 or 2 new branches each year, keeping the tree uniform and well-ventilated.

Because of the plant’s slow growth, pruning should be conservative. Excessive pruning will greatly affect the amount of fruits produced. Deerberry has both creeping and erect branches, and the erect should be retained as much as possible when pruning.

Propagation

The deerberry is best propagated through cuttings and division.

  • Cutting

Cuttings of hard branches is usually recommended for the highbush blueberries, while cuttings of tender branches is best for the rabbiteye blueberries. Both methods are acceptable for the lowbush blueberries.

Cuttings should be taken from plants that are robust and free from diseases and pests, ideally in the late spring or early summer. Annual vegetative branches with good maturity should be selected, about 20 cm long each. The rooting rate of the basal branches is significantly higher than that of the upper branches. Only take cuttings with buds, ensuring that the cut at the upper end of the branch is flat, while the cut at the lower part is oblique. Wet the soil and insert cuttings into the soil, with only one terminal bud exposed.

  • Division

Firstly, the stock plant should be dug out from the soil and its roots cleaned. Cut off the underground stem with clean sharp scissors and divide it into several plants. Fill the planting pit with a peat sand mixture with adjusted pH, then arrange the roots of the separated small plants and place them into the soil. Carefully wrap the roots with the soil mixture before filling in the hole.

III. Uses and Benefits

Deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum)
Vaccinium stamineum [email protected] CC BY 2.0

The fruit is edible for humans, and the taste has been described as tart, sour, bitter, or “sweet-spicy tasting, a little reminiscent of lady’s perfume”. It has long been collected in the southern United States for preserves and pie filling. Deerberries contain potent free radical scavenging activities. However, deerberry is of the Vaccinium genus, which typically contains high amounts of oxalates.

IV. Harvesting and Storage

The deerberry fruiting period can last for several weeks. Fruit ripens when its surface turns bluish black. Due to inconsistent ripening of fruits, they should be harvested in batches. Harvest once every 2 or 3 days in full fruit period, and once every 3 or 4 days in both the initial and final fruit period, completing your harvest before the frost.

Gloves (finger sleeves) should be worn when picking fruits to avoid damaging them, which would affect their appearance and storage potential. When picking ripe fruits, gently hold the berries and tweak them clockwise to keep the peel intact. This will also help to prolong their storage period.

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