We are very close to Nova Scotia’s wild blueberry
harvesting season. We are experiencing a higher risk of SWD and Blueberry
Maggot damage this pre-harvest season. Monitoring and spraying as needed are
strongly recommended at this point.
I hope everyone has a great and safe harvesting season!
🫐🫐🫐🫐🫐
Hugh Lyu
Wild Blueberry Specialist, Perennia
hlyu@perennia.ca; 902-890-0472.
July 31, 2024
Table of Contents:
Nova Scotia Weather Update
Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Crop Development Update and Management
Recommendations
Upcoming Events
Nova Scotia Weather Update
2024 Degree Day
Accumulations- Kentville, NS: The degree day accumulations are
based on the weather data from Kentville weather station, giving us an overall
idea of this production season’s temperature trend in Nova Scotia.
Figure
1: Heating
degree day accumulations for plant (above 5°C) and insect (above 10°C)
development from March 1 to July 29 for the past 17 seasons. Provided
by Jeff Franklin (AAFC).
-
The degree day accumulations for base 5°C
plant development and base 10°C insect development are ahead of the 5- and
10-year averages (Figure 1).
Table 1.0. Degree day accumulations as of July 29,
2024. All data are taken from the Environment and Climate Change Canada weather
station located at the Kentville Research and Development Centre. Calculations
are based on a start date of March 1, and calculated using the single-sine
method.
|
Category |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
5-year average |
10-year average |
|
Plant development
(Base 5ºC) |
1179.2 |
1164.3 |
1131.2 |
1196.8 |
1117.0 |
1103.7 |
|
Insect development
(Base 10º) |
682.0 |
671.7 |
671.7 |
706.0 |
647.0 |
638.1 |
© His
Majesty the King in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Agriculture
and Agri-Food (2024).
Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Crop Development Update and Management
Recommendations
From the wild blueberry stations, we have 15 stations
across the province, and the GDD accumulations from April 1 to July 1 are shown
in Figure 2. On average, we are looking at 1566 GDD. From our past study, the preliminary
results suggest that commercial wild blueberry harvesting can start after 1700
GDD (90-95% ripening). However, we are experiencing an early spring which means
that plants have a longer and earliergrowing season. Growers might experiencing
early harvesting in 2024.
Figure
2. Wild Blueberry Weather Stations GDD Accumulation from April 1 to July 31,
2024
Upcoming Management Recommendations
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.
3. Leaf
disease management in sprout fields. Before you start harvesting, you might
want to consider spraying chemicals for leaf disease control. It is possible to
run into a couple of wet periods in the next two months in our region, which
would favor the disease infection. Therefore, it is important to provide that
protection to wild blueberry sprout plants, especially in fields have bad
disease infection in the past. The ultimate goal for this activity is to keep sprout
plants’ leaves on stems as long as possible so bigger and stronger fruit buds
can be produced for the next crop season.