Jubilee

Jubilee is a southern highbush released from the USDA-ARS Small Fruit Research Station at Poplarville, Mississippi, alongside 'Magnolia' and 'Pearl River'; Mississippi State Extension dates the Mississippi release to 1995. It was bred for the Gulf coastal plain, where the threat is less winter cold than erratic warm spells that break dormancy too early. Its designed niche is a bloom five to twelve days after the earliest rabbiteye cultivars combined with fruit that ripens five to fourteen days before them - late enough to dodge late-winter freezes, early enough to beat rabbiteye to market. Growers value it because the crop concentrates: MSU reports about 95 percent of the fruit can be taken commercially in one or two pickings. Its chilling requirement of 550-650 hours is considerably higher than the Florida low-chill types, so it needs a real if mild winter to perform.