A
field located in Murray Siding, Colchester NS.
Hugh Lyu
Wild Blueberry Specialist, Perennia
hlyu@perennia.ca; 902-890-0472.
July 14, 2023
Table of Contents:
Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Production Mid-Season
Updates
2023 Season GDD and Crop Development Updates
Upcoming Management Recommendations
Funding Opportunities
Events
Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Production Mid-Season Updates
We are halfway through the season and harvest is only a
few weeks away. We are starting to see mature berries in crop fields and this
is a sign and reminder for growers to start monitoring blueberry maggot and
SWD.
Based on personal observations and communications with
growers from different regions, I want to give a quick mid-season summary of this
season’s crop development. I will give a more throughout update in next
Tuesday’s field day and I hope to hear more updates from more growers.
-
Projected yield for NS:
less than 50 million lbs (below the average). In 2022, when I did a mid-season
report, I commented “We had decent weather and good growing conditions for all
wild blueberry regions”. This year, it is variable. The weather condition was
not great, especially in June. For your record, the provincial average yield is
50 million lbs, but with the critical factors that I want to mention below, we
are looking below this number. I have seen great fields, as well as fields with
heavy weed and disease pressures with very likely low yield. It is a mixed
year.
-
Winter damage: we
observed higher winter damage than in the previous three years. Minimal to no
snow coverage in wild blueberry fields this past winter was reported by growers
and the “Polar Vortex” event that occurred in February brought negative impacts
to overwinter blueberry stems and contributed to higher winter kill.
Personally, I would rate the winter damage around 5-10%.
-
Frost events:
two major frost events occurred on May 24 and May 30 this year. Some
frost-prone fields continued to get higher frost damage than other fields, but
overall, frost damage wasn’t a huge concern for the majority of fields in Nova
Scotia. With that, we are still losing some crops from low temperatures during
bloom periods (5%).
-
Pollination: although
we had higher winter damage than before, a lot of growers and myself claimed
that this year we actually had more blooms than last year. However, June wasn’t
friendly with only a few good pollinations days in the province (June 8-13) and
it was variable from region to region. This would certainly reduce yields for
many regions. If growers maintain or increase their pollination input this
year, it would be helpful to produce more fruit sets. This was observed in a few
fields where the grower increased beehives and brought in additional bumble
bees. If growers observe good blooms but didn’t feel like the fruit sets are
looking great, it is due to bad pollination weather and not enough bees to work
on those good days.
-
Weeds:
I am seeing cleaner wild blueberry fields (those fields growers actually have
input!) in Nova Scotia. The industry and growers give weed management more
attention and input which starts to pay back now. A clean field in the sprout
year doesn’t mean that you will have a clean field in the crop year. Please
take some time these two months to check your sprout fields and determine what
is needed next spring. A lot of weeds are in flowering and some of them are in
the optimum control timing. If you need support on this, feel free to reach out
to me. Top weeds to mention for this year: hair fescue, sheep sorrel, goldenrod
species, hawkweed, spreading dogbane, purple vetch (I am seeing more and more of
this weed and becoming a bigger patch), bird’s foot trefoil and rushes.
-
Diseases:
we didn’t have bad monilinia blight infection this year because it was dry in
May. However, June had perfect infection weather and the right crop stage to
develop botrytis blight on blossoms. It is expected to see botrytis blight
infection in all production regions in NS this year. Cumberland fields would
have a higher infection due to early bloom and longer flowering window this
year. Infections are more common to see in top and dense blueberry canopies and
weedy areas. With fungicide input, I don’t think the infection of botrytis
blight was very high. However, with the level of infection that I saw in
different fields, a small percentage of yield loss in some crop fields is
expected (5-10%).
2023 Season GDD and Crop Development Updates
Even though we don’t have new wild blueberry crop
stage GDD thresholds for growers to compare with their local GDD, it is still
important and interesting to understand how your season progress. Below, is 12 stations
accumulative GDDs that I track throughout the season.
Figure
1. Wild Blueberry GDD Summary_ July 13, 2023
In Cumberland, we are seeing more inland fields advancing.
Wentworth and Westchester Station were two late areas in the spring, but after mid-June,
fields in those areas are catching up.
In Cumberland and Colchester, some of the early fields
I saw have around 10% of ripening. The majority of fields only have a small percentage
of blue.
Upcoming Management Recommendations
Crop fields:
1. Insects,
trapping for SWD and Blueberry Maggot:
To trap and understand
SWD: https://www.perennia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SWD-factsheet_March2020.pdf.
For blueberry maggot:
Yellow rectangles coated with sticky material and an attractive bait are used
for monitoring the blueberry maggot. When the first capture is found, it is
better to give a few days for more adults to emerge.
Please remember to check the products’
pre-harvest interval (PHI) and check with your processor before you apply
products in the fields.
2. Weeds,
start to cut above-blueberry canopy weeds to ease the harvesting process. Also,
note down what weeds you have at this time. This information is helpful to
develop next year’s weed management program.
Sprout fields:
1. Leaf
disease management in sprout fields. Please read my last post about this topic.
http://www.novascotiawildblueberryblog.com/2023/07/2023-updates-and-seasonal-outlook-for.html.
a. Because
we had a wet June and high temperatures in July, this condition is great for Septoria
leaf disease.
b. We
also are entering the peak time for leaf rush and powdery infection.
c. If
your local weather station is getting to 1300 GDD (around 80-90% tip dieback),
you should start to apply the first leaf disease treatment. For many, the last
week of July and the first week of August are two good weeks to apply
fungicides in sprout fields.
d. You
should try to get at least 1 fungicide application in sprout fields before we
start harvesting.
e. The
weather in August will determine if a second leaf disease application is needed
for leaf rush control. In a humid year, it is recommended to do so. The summer
of 2021 was humid and that year we had a bad leaf rush infection which caused
early defoliation in many fields.
f.
Growers should try to get leaf disease application
on before Mid-Septermber (speaking for central area fields). Anything that applies
after that would likely reduce fungicides’ value.
2. Leaf
tissue and soil sampling: if growers want to collect tissue and samples for
analysis, it is a good time to do that now (tip-dieback stage). Here are two
resources to help with the sampling and interpretation of the reports:
a. Soil
and leaf sampling in wild blueberry production: https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/10/pdf/Agriculture/WildBlueberries-BleuetsSauvages/D10E.pdf.
b. Nova
Scotia Wild Blueberry Leaf Nutrient Ranges: https://www.perennia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/wbb-leaf-nutrient-ranges.pdf.
Funding Opportunities
NSDA SCAP Program – Highlight – Resilient Agriculture
Landscapes Program (RALP), Application deadline: July 31, 2023
The
objective of the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program (RALP) is to
increase the environmental resiliency of agricultural landscapes by
accelerating the adoption of on-farm land use and management practices that
maximum provisions of multiple ecological goods and services (EG&S).
Ecological goods and services are the benefits society derives from healthy
functioning ecosystems. This includes the maintenance and provision of healthy
soil and water
resources, wildlife habitat and biodiversity, as well as adapting to the
impacts of climate change
(e.g., increasing carbon storage and resilience to floods and droughts).
There are currently four project streams for this year, they
include:
Stream 1 – Reduced Tillage - An agricultural management approach that
aims to minimize the frequency or intensity of tillage operations to promote
economic and environmental benefits. Includes zero tillage, reduced tillage,
and strip tillage.
Stream 2 – Pollinator Habitat - Promoting pollinator habitat supports climate
change adaptation, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity.
Stream 3 – Ponds - The objective of ponds is for water retention on the landscape,
climate change adaptation, water quality and quantity, and biodiversity.
Stream 4 – Buffers and Shelterbelts - Buffers support climate
change adaptation, carbon sequestration, water quality, and biodiversity.
Buffers and shelterbelts can also provide improved habitat on highly sensitive
areas of the landscape.
Projects must provide an incremental benefit in ecological goods
and services.
For
more information go to this site at RALP Program Information
Events
1. Nova
Scotia Wild Blueberry Field Day (WBPANS), July 18 @ Queens County Fair (9560
Nova Scotia Trunk 8, Caledonia, NS B0T 1B0)
2. Wild
Blueberry Harvest Festival, August 19- September 4, 2023 (https://wildblueberryfest.com/)