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Background: The phytochemical content of blueberries, particularly anthocyanins and other polyphenols is of increasing importance to researchers in the field of food and health, because they are thought to be largely responsible for the health benefits of this popular fruit. Objective: To determine the potential for selective breeding of blueberries to produce high-polyphenol and particularly, high anthocyanin cultivars, while retaining desirable traits such as high yield, disease-resistance and large fruit. Methods: Comparison of content data for the anthocyanin and polyphenol classes of phytochemicals, in blueberries, between a comprehensive collection of literature reports and data from the New Zealand blueberry breeding programme. Results: There was a wide range of variation in anthocyanin and total polyphenol content both between cultivars in a given growing region and within the same cultivar, when grown in different regions. Experience from the New Zealand breeding programme suggests that selection based on critical agronomic traits, such as yield, or fruit size, but not including anthocyanin content, tends towards a marked reduction in this trait.

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Effective pollination is a complex phenomenon determined by the outcome of the interaction between pollen transfer and a plants' pollinator dependency, yet most studies investigate pollinator effectiveness without consideration of plant mating system differences. We investigated pollinator effectiveness in three types of blueberry that differed in their degree of pollinator dependency as measured by plant mating system: two self‐compatible highbush cultivars and one partially self‐incompatible rabbiteye cultivar. We quantified pollinator effectiveness as a function of the fruit set and fruit weight resulting from single and multiple floral visits (2–15 visits), in comparison with estimates of fruit set and fruit weight resulting from experimental pollination treatments (open‐pollination, cross‐pollination and self‐pollination). Single‐visit effectiveness of fruit set was similar across pollinator taxa but considerably higher in both self‐compatible cultivars. The probability of fruit set in all three blueberry types improved in response to an increasing number of visits, but this relationship was steeper in self‐compatible cultivars: >90% probability of fruit set was achieved in three to five visits. In the self‐incompatible rabbiteye cultivar, 58% fruit set was achieved with 15 visits. Multiple visits improved fruit weight by 27%–48% in self‐compatible cultivars, but there was no relationship in rabbiteye. Pollination deficits in fruit set and fruit weight due to self‐pollination were most pronounced in rabbiteye. Synthesis and applications. Improved understanding of cultivar‐level mating system differences in plants will inform pollination planning and management in agroecosystems. Self‐compatible (highbush) cultivars require less floral visitation to maximize fruit production. Therefore, these cultivars may be best suited to landscapes in which pollinator abundance is low, such as intensive and/or simple landscapes. In contrast, self‐incompatible (rabbiteye) cultivars may benefit from the implementation of mixed‐cultivar crop row plantings to facilitate cross‐pollination.

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