Chandler

'Chandler' is the northern highbush cultivar people plant when they want a spectacle. It was released in 1995 by the USDA-ARS programme at Corvallis, Oregon, and the USDA framed it at release as a fresh-market, local-sales variety rather than a shipping or machine-harvest berry. Two traits define it: berry size, which PNW 656 rates as very large and Penn State Extension simply calls huge, and an unusually drawn-out ripening season, so a single bush trickles fruit over weeks instead of dumping it in two or three picks. That is precisely wrong for an operation paying by the harvest pass, which is why the Pacific Northwest extension guide gives it the lowest large-scale commercial rating while still ticking it for small farms and home gardens. Fruit runs medium to dark blue with good firmness, a good scar and good flavour, and Penn State credits it with excellent 'true blueberry' flavour. Because the berries are so large and ripen so unevenly, hand picking is the only sensible approach.