diff --git a/openjpa-jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/jdbc/sql/MySQLDictionary.java b/openjpa-jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/jdbc/sql/MySQLDictionary.java
index 1dfcc6613..412d2dad5 100644
--- a/openjpa-jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/jdbc/sql/MySQLDictionary.java
+++ b/openjpa-jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/jdbc/sql/MySQLDictionary.java
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ public class MySQLDictionary
     public String tableType = "innodb";
 
     /**
-     * Whether to use clobs. Some older versions of MySQL do not handle
-     * clobs properly so we default to false here.
+     * Whether to use clobs; defaults to true. Set this to false if you have an
+     * old version of MySQL which does not handle clobs properly.
      */
     public boolean useClobs = true;
 
diff --git a/openjpa-project/src/doc/manual/ref_guide_dbsetup.xml b/openjpa-project/src/doc/manual/ref_guide_dbsetup.xml
index 76d2c193f..b9a1e6ef0 100644
--- a/openjpa-project/src/doc/manual/ref_guide_dbsetup.xml
+++ b/openjpa-project/src/doc/manual/ref_guide_dbsetup.xml
@@ -3159,12 +3159,14 @@ properties:
                             DriverDeserializesBlobs
                         </secondary>
                     </indexterm>
-<literal>DriverDeserializesBlobs</literal>: Many MySQL drivers automatically
-deserialize BLOBs on calls to <methodname>ResultSet.getObject</methodname>. The
+<literal>DriverDeserializesBlobs</literal>: Many older MySQL drivers
+automatically deserialize BLOBs on calls to
+<methodname>ResultSet.getObject</methodname>. The
 <classname>MySQLDictionary</classname> overrides the standard <methodname>
-DBDictionary.getBlobObject</methodname> method to take this into account. If
-your driver does not deserialize automatically, set this property to 
-<literal>false</literal>.
+DBDictionary.getBlobObject</methodname> method to take this into account.
+Defaults to <literal>true</literal> if driver version is less than 5.0,
+<literal>false</literal> otherwise. If your driver deserializes
+automatically, you may want to set this property to <literal>true</literal>.
                     </para>
                 </listitem>
                 <listitem id="MySQLDictionary.TableType">
@@ -3191,9 +3193,9 @@ Defaults to <literal>"innodb"</literal>.
                             UseClobs
                         </secondary>
                     </indexterm>
-<literal>UseClobs</literal>: Some older versions of MySQL do not handle clobs
-correctly. To enable clob functionality, set this to <literal>true</literal>. 
-Defaults to <literal>false</literal>.
+<literal>UseClobs</literal>: Some older versions of MySQL do not handle CLOBs
+correctly. To disable CLOB functionality, set this to <literal>false</literal>. 
+Defaults to <literal>true</literal>.
                     </para>
                 </listitem>
                 <listitem id="MySQLDictionary.OptimizeMultiTableDeletes">