Blueberry flowers are Lantern shaped [Photo/China Tibet Online] 

As one of the top 5 health preserving food by Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), blueberry is known as "king of berries". Its fruits contain richer amount of nutrients, such as zinc, calcium, iron, copper and vitamins, and rank high on the recipes of healthy diets. Surprisingly, researchers found that blueberries transplanted to Lhasa are richer in certain chemicals, such as anthocyanidin, sugar, acid and vitamin C which are supposedly to give a better taste in the fruits than inland blueberries.

"These blueberries are donations from Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences last April. Technicians there also gave instruction on transplanting, trimming, watering, fertilizing, temperature control and humidity control," Deng explained.

Although last year's blueberry fruits were smaller than inland species, under the technical guidance from Liaoning and adapting to the environment better and better, these blueberries are expected to yield similar sized fruit to inland blueberries, said Deng, "By the middle of April, Tibetans will taste local blueberry for the first time."

 
Assistant researcher Deng Lan from Chinese Academy of Sciences is busy in a greenhouse [Photo/China Tibet Online] 

Blueberries are perennial flowering plants. Prostrate shrubs can vary in size from 10 centimeters to 4 meters in height. In the commercial production of blueberries, the smaller species are known as "low-bush blueberries", while the larger species are known as "high-bush blueberries".

The fruit is a berry 5-6 millimeters in diameter with a flared crown at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally dark purple when ripe. Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude, consequently the height of the crop can vary from May to August depending upon these conditions.

On March 24, a patent panel was organized to assess the blueberry growing pilot project. Besides positively appraising the existing experience gained through the project, experts also called for a sustainable blueberry chain to extend greenhouse planting into open-air planting.