It is with great sadness that I have to report, that our colleague and friend Rick Delbridge passed away early this morning. Rick was an extremely kind and generous man, an exceptional Agrologist and made a huge impact to the wild blueberry industry throughout his career.
Rick along with Paul Hildebrand were pioneers in blight monitoring for the wild blueberry industry. As many of you know Rick led the Monilinia and Botrytis monitoring programs "blighline" for many years, and was still involved into this spring.
He will be missed by all who knew him. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.
Rick had a great passion for plant pathology and I know he would want to make sure the Monilinia report got out to growers, so here it goes.
Fruit buds are beginning to move across the province, but we have seen great variation in development depending on slope, location and how long the snow has been off the field.
Newville lake -11% F2
Athol - 7 & 9% F2 (two fields)
Windham Hill - 4% F2
Oxford - 23% F2
Westchester - 3% F2
Pigeon Hill (Charles Ripley field) - 7% F2
Canaan Mountain - 20% F2
Parrsboro - 0% F2
Woods Mountain - 0% F2
Swallow road - 5% F2
Spiddle Hill - 10% F2
East Mines - 11% F2
Montrose - 11% F2
Highland Village - 23% F2
Londonderry - 19% F2
Cooks Brook - 40% F2 (1 pin)
Glenmore - 16.5 % F2
Benvie Hill - 24% F2
Rawdon 30% F2
Caledonia (Wednesday) - 18% F2 (moving fast)
There is some possible wet periods approaching at the end of the weekend. With the projected temperatures, some fields will be beyond 40% F2 by Monday and if there is a significant wet period, a control may be warranted.
Farmers that have fields, in traditionally early areas, should be paying close attention to fruit bud development this weekend.
