GDD Updates_ May 21, 2024
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1. GDD Summary, May 21, 2024
Blueberry Frost Risks
As we are getting closer to early flowering, spring frost can pose a severe risk to blueberry blooms if low temperatures occur in crop fields with a good percentage of open flowers.
Below, you can see each blueberry bud/flower stage has a minimal tolerant temperature. For example, fully open wild blueberry flowers could get structural damage under -2.2 c for just 3-4 hours (Figure 2).
This information will be helpful for growers to determine their crop fields’ damage risk and level based on their crop field crop stage and local weather conditions (wild blueberry weather stations or Environment Canada).
Figure 2. Blueberry Frost Risks
Frost Damage? Disease Infection? Monilinia VS Botrytis?
Many growers are wondering how to tell the differences between frost damage and disease infection on leaves and flowers. The UMaine Wild Blueberry Extension team produced a very nice factsheet and this is a good one to print and keep handy.
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3. Photo and information credits: UMaine Wild Blueberry Research and Extension
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