Reminders!!! Events and Funding Opportunities- June 27, 2023

Hello,

Things start to slow down in the wild blueberry world as most of you already removed or planning to remove beehives from fields. Here are a couple of reminders to help you to plan your trips and things you can work on in the next few weeks before getting busy with harvesting again.

 

Events

 

1.      WBPANS/ NSFA Field Session: Thursday, July 13 @ Kirkhill (near Parrsboro), NS

 

WBPANS and NSFA are hosting a field session on July 13th on Kirkhill near Parrsboro.

 

It is an afternoon session from 2-3 pm

 

This field site is a part of a larger Living Labs project, being administered by NSFA, that looks at ways to sequester more carbon in our soils.

 

This wild blueberry field site is looking at novel ways to establish shelterbelts that can act as a carbon sink but also provide other ecological benefits for the environment and production. Wind protection, snow retention and native pollinator habitat are all integrated in the design.

 

This is a 5 year project that will monitor benefits of the design and will allow growers to see the impacts first hand. This site was just established this year, but study leads will be there to describe the project and go over goals and answer questions.

 

 

 

 

2.      WBPANS 2023 Field Day: Tuesday, July 18 @ Queens County Exhibition Grounds, Caledonia, NS.

Please register online before June 30! https://nswildblueberries.com/registration-form/

 

 

 

3.      Nova Scotia Power NS-NB Reliability Intertie

Wild blueberry growers may be interested in attending one of the upcoming open house sessions with Nova Scotia Power to discuss a potential upcoming project in your area and learn more about the NS-NB Reliability Intertie. This project includes a second transmission line twinning the current line to help provide reliable service, support the development of renewable energy in our province, and facilitate the export and import of clean energy.

 

To learn more, join them at one of the following locations:

 

Wednesday, July 5th - 2-8 pm Royal Canadian Legion, 74 Jackson Street, Oxford, NS

 

Thursday, July 6th, 2-8pm Business Innovation Centre, 5 Ratchford Street, Amherst, NS

 

Wednesday, July 12th, 2-8 pm, Wentworth Recreation Centre, 13572 Highway 4, Wentworth, NS

 

Thursday, July 13th, 2-8 pm, Lower Onslow Community Centre, 12391 Highway 2, Lower Onslow, NS.

 

NS Power Open House Invitation

 

 

 

 

Programs and Funding Opportunities

 

1.      Applications Open for Emergency Relief Grant for Individuals- Wildfires

Nova Scotians who lost income because of the recent wildfires in Halifax Regional Municipality and Shelburne County may be eligible for short-term financial support through the Emergency Relief Grant for Individuals.

 

Employed and self-employed Nova Scotians who are not receiving Employment Insurance (EI) and those who had or are in an EI waiting period may qualify for this relief grant. The amount of the short-term emergency grant, either $275 or $550 per week, depends on the extent of the impact faced.

 

To be eligible, workers must not have been able to attend work, resulting in an interruption in income. They must either live or work in a mandatory wildfire evacuation area or were affected by business disruptions that happened because of the recent wildfires. People who are self-employed and unable to operate their business, permanently or temporarily, because of the wildfires may also qualify. Nova Scotia volunteer firefighters who helped fight the Barrington Lake complex or Tantallon wildfires, including Farmers Dairy Lane, and could not access paid voluntary leave from their employers may also be eligible.

 

Information on how to access the grant and eligibility is at: https://novascotia.ca/programs/emergency-relief-grant-individuals. People with questions about the grant or application can contact an Employment Nova Scotia office at 1-877-223-0888.

 

2.      NSDA SCAP Programs- application deadline: Friday, June 30, 2023

 

The deadline for the Value Adding Equipment Program is this Friday, June 30, 2023. If you are considering a project and have any questions regarding the program, please reach out to your Business Development Officer (BDO) or Ag. Rep. to assist you with this program. The program application and guidelines can be found at Value-Adding Equipment Program.

 

The Agricultural Skills Student Bursary Program introduces agriculture to students as a career option and helps address the labour gap for agriculture producers in Nova Scotia. The program allows for students to develop business skills and learn about value-adding processes by working on registered farms. Let your summer students know about this program and look for the application in September.

 

The program opens on September 1st, 2023 and the application deadline is November 30th, 2023. You can learn more about eligibility for the program here!

 

 

3.      Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture Programs

Now, is a good time to check newly released programs and decide which programs would be a good fit to improve your farm productivity. https://novascotia.ca/programs/

 

Programs which may be of interest to wild blueberry growers include:

 

https://novascotia.ca/programs/on-farm-industry-preparedness/ (Drainage)

 

https://novascotia.ca/programs/environmental-stewardship-and-climate-change/ (Bio diversity and Habitat- species at risk enhancements, IPM )climate change adaptation - water supply, drainage, water quality, frost protection and weather stations; Product management – Chemical and fuel storage)

 

https://novascotia.ca/programs/get-growing/ (Small farms adopting specialized equipment and infrastructure)

 

 

2023 Updates and Seasonal Outlook for NS_ June 21_ Botrytis Blossom Blight and Spreading Dogbane Management

Botrytis Blossom Blight

 

We had many wet days starting at the beginning of June (June 1-7) when a majority of mainland fields were in mid to full blooms. Although temperatures were not very high (on average, it was around 10 c during those days), the duration of wetness was long enough for an infection to occur (see the severity rating table below). This year, we had a perfect condition for botrytis blight infection.

 

 

During those days, it was wet and windy which hampered growers to apply botrytis fungicides. We are starting to see symptoms of botrytis in crop fields in many regions/fields.

 

Here are some areas where I observed botrytis symptoms and received reports on botrytis infection, including Parrsboro (Kirkhill and Port Greville, but I am sure other fields in this area should have different levels of infection too), Oxford and Mt. Pleasant fields, Collingwood, Wentworth, Mt. Thom, and growers in Cape Breton also reported there was botrytis infection.

If you didn’t apply botrytis fungicides this year, I strongly suggest you check the fields. A lot of people put on Merivon towards the end of bloom which was helpful for late bloom patches but for early clones and fields, if you didn’t put on something during mid-bloom, you will likely see symptoms. I took some photos and I want to show all of them to you so you can see different angles and levels of infection from Botrytis.

Some key points about Botrytis Blossom Blight symptoms:

-       Only some flower clusters on a stem will be affected

-       Botrytis targets almost open and open flowers

-       As botrytis develops, you can see black hairs, some with gray tips. 

 

Please click on each photo to see a clear view of botrytis symptoms: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spreading Dogbane Management

 

If you are having trouble with spreading dogbane in your fields, this month towards the beginning of next month would be a good window to control them.

 

Crop fields: it would be hard and risky to apply chemicals to control dogbane in crop fields, so I recommend growers repeatedly cut above blueberry-canopy vegetation or simply cut them before harvest to make picking easier.

 

Sprout fields: when spreading dogbane reaches the early bud stage (see the photo below, when you start to see them produce green flower buds, that’s a good time). Currently, the industry standard to control this weed is still Dicamba. This is the active ingredient and the most common brands we are using now are Banvel (if you have leftovers from before) or Enginea (the product local stores carry now).

 

Rate and application recommendations:

Please spot spray spreading dogbane with Dicamba and be careful to not let chemicals run into blueberry plants.

 

3 mL of Banvel or Enginea per litre of water+ 2 mL of adjuvant (either activate plus or merge) per litre of water.

 

So, if you are mixing 5 L of water in your backpack sprayer, you would need 5 L of water+ 15 mL of the product+ and 10 mL of adjuvant.

 

Spreading dogbane in the early bud stage

 

Lastly, here is a photo of Cow Wheats in a crop field: 

BLUE FOCUS NEWSLETTER- June 2023

  

 

 

 

BLUE FOCUS NEWSLETTER- June 2023

(Perennia’s Wild Blueberry Production Newsletter)

 

 

 

 

Dear Growers,

As we see more petal fall (pin head stage) and forming of early green fruits, we are halfway through the production season before harvest! The timely rain we got at the beginning of June and a few good pollination days we had over this past weekend certainly were helpful and we needed it! On the sprout side, the plant emergence is ranging from 50%-90% across the province. We are fast approaching the start of the tip-dieback stage.

 

Table of Contents:

 

Nova Scotia Weather Update

Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Crop Development Update and Management Recommendations

2023 Wild Blueberry Management Updates: Diseases, Weeds and Pollination

Programs

Upcoming Events

 

Hugh Lyu

Wild Blueberry Specialist, Perennia

hlyu@perennia.ca; 902-890-0472

June 15, 2023

 

 

 

Nova Scotia Weather Update

 

Weather is so critical but we often don’t understand it enough.

This year, we have been sharing more information on weather and how it is affecting growers’ management. A special thank you to Jeff Franklin (AAFC- Kentville), as well as the weather station owners, who contribute a lot of great information to help us understand this production season’s weather and the challenges we are facing.

Here is the latest information on different factors affecting crop development and yield potential.

 

2023 Degree Day Accumulations

The degree day accumulations are based on the weather data from Kentville weather station and this is 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 June 12 for the past 17 seasons. Provided by Jeff Franklin (AAFC).

-          The trend of cumulative degree days being below the 5- and 10-year average continues.

-          Approximately 10% less plant development heat units compared to the 5-year average, and 12% less compared to the 10-year average.

-          Approximately 20% less plant development heat units compared to 2022, and 25% less compared with 2021.

 

June Rainfall Update

 

-          The recent rainy period was fairly widespread with much-needed rain for western NS.

-          Most locations there have received over 100 mm so far in June, which may be more than what those locations received in April and May combined. Northern and Eastern NS have received 70-100 mm of rain so far this month.

 

-          For context, a normal amount of precipitation for Kentville in June is 81.6 mm for the entire month. Within the first week of June, ~130 mm of precip was recorded there (KRDC).

 

Some other locations for June:

Station	Precip for June (as of June 13) (mm)
Paradise	113.2
Bear River	112.6
Comeauville	109
West Caledonia	169.4
Cambridge	130
Hillaton	116.2
Aylesford	111
Upper Rawdon	110.6
Mackay Siding	77
Middle Musqoudoboit	84
Belmont	66.6
Kirkhill	84.6
Oxford	106.4
Wentworth	87.6
Earltown	84
Hazelglen	89.6
Blue Mountain	77.4
College Grant	99.4
Skye Mountain	95.4

 

 

Soil Temperature in Relation to Moisture (from Perennia Tree Fruit Blog, thanks to Michelle Corten and Jeff Franklin for providing this great information)

If you are wondering how deeply the 130 mm of rainfall from early June might have travelled in the soil profile, Jeff Franklin offers this graph of soil temperature over the period of heavy rainfall. Soil temperature at 50 cm depth appeared to respond to the cooling effect of the rainfall meaning that moisture likely reached 50 cm depth.

 

 

Figure 2: Soil temperatures at various depths at the Kentville Research Station in 2023 in relation to the 130 mm of rainfall in early June.

 

Wild Blueberry Weather Station GDD Summary- as of June 13

 

Here is the latest GDD summary from the wild blueberry weather stations.

Figure 3. Wild Blueberry Weather Staitons GDDs- June 13

 

 

Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Crop Development Update and Management Recommendations

 

Based on Figure 3 (GDD summary from wild blueberry stations), here is a quick summary of the crop stages across different regions. Please note, this information was based on my observations, GDD research and weather station information.

Regions/ Counties	Crop Fields	Sprout Fields
Annapolis, Digby, Yarmouth, Shelburn, Queens	Early green fruits (halfway through this stage and should start to see late green fruit (blushing)):   -----------------------------------------	Plant tip dieback- start                         What is a tip die back stage?   As the plant transitions from vegetative growth to reproductive growth (budding) the upper-most leaf will curl, dimple and eventually die/drop.
Hants, Cumberland (excluding late fields)	Petal Fall (Pin Head) with small size early green fruits	70%- 80% plant emergence
Other Mainland Fileds	Passed full bloom, in the middle of petal fall and a small percentage of early green fruit forms	50%-70% plant emergence
Cape Breton	About 70% bloom in crop fields	50%-60% plant emergence

 

Regions/ Counties	Next Management Recommendations
Annapolis, Digby, Yarmouth, Shelburn, Queens	Crop fields: scouting for monilinia blight and Botrytis blossom blight symptoms (I will share a few photos) and evaluate if this year’s fungicide program was successful   Crop fields: preparing insect traps to monitor SWD and Blueberry Maggots   Sprout fields: determine if current sprout fields need soil and tissue sampling
Hants, Cumberland (excluding late fields)	Crop fields: scouting for monilinia blight and Botrytis blossom blight symptoms   Sprout fields: fertilizer application; post-emergence herbicides (Callisto, Venture L etc. for broadleaf weeds and grasses control)
Other Mainland Fileds	Crop fields: finishing pollination; scouting for monilinia blight and Botrytis blossom blight symptoms   Sprout fields: fertilizer application; post-emergence herbicides (Callisto, Venture L etc. for broadleaf weeds and grasses control)
Cape Breton	Crop fields: finishing pollination; scouting for monilinia blight symptoms; applying fungicides as needed for blossom blight and leaf diseases control   Sprout fields: fertilizer application; post-emergence herbicides (Callisto, Venture L etc. for broadleaf weeds and grasses control)

 

2023 Wild Blueberry Management Updates: Diseases, Weeds and Pollination

 

Diseases:

-          Monilinia Blight:

 

During the typical monilinia blight infection period (May), it was very dry. The monilinia blight infection was low to very low this year. However, I still spot some patches and fields with monilinia blight. Most of the cases, it was because at least one fungicide application wasn’t conducted in those fields. I encourage you to take a look at your crop fields as symptoms are obvious this time of the year.

 

This photo was taken in a field located in Antigonish

 

Here are a few photos from before but they show very obvious Monilinia blight symptoms.

(This photo's credit goes to Dr. Paul Hilderbrand)

 

 

 

-          Botrytis Blossom Blight:

I think we are picking up more Botrytis blight this year than Monilinia blight (for fields in Cumberland, especially Parrsboro and fields near the coast). The rain period we got at the beginning of June contributed to this infection as a majority of fields are in mid to full bloom. If you didn’t get a chance to put on Botrytis spray around the first week of June, then you might want to have a check of your crop fields. Please go to those early patches, tall and dense areas and weedy areas. We found Botrytis in a few Parrsboro fields and growers can bring those photos with you while you are checking fields.

 

 

Weeds:

We continue to see sheep sorrels and hair fescues being the main weed species that we are dealing with in wild blueberry fields.

If you applied Kerb last fall (or this spring if you managed to apply at a good time), pre-emergence herbicides (Spartan, Chikara, Ignite etc) this spring and post-emergence products (Option and Callisto) last month or recently, now it is a good time to go to your sprout fields and check results.

I didn’t mention Velpar as I was disappointed with this product’s efficacy. I would remind growers who continue to use Velpar on their weed management program to check results and determine if this product is still a good fit in your spraying program.  

 

Pollination:

-          Overwinter bee losses: the most recent number I heard about overwinter bee losses (on average) is 15%-20% which is still an acceptable range. Bees survived overwintering and gained sizes fast this spring. There is enough moisture during the pollination period for most of the fields in the province.

-          2023 pollination: although we were concerned about the weather (wet and windy) during pollination season, we did get a few good pollination days during peak bloom timing. This was helpful but for early fields that reached mid-bloom before June, it would be a concern.

-          2023 blooms: during the open bloom period, I noticed and felt that there were more blooms this year. I also heard growers have more input on bees this year. I hope this is a good return.

 

Programs

-          Agriculture Wildfire Response Assistance

 

Financial assistance will be available soon for Nova Scotia farmers and agri-food business owners affected by evacuation orders related to wildfires. The program will provide a one-time grant of $2,500 to registered farmers located in the mandatory evacuation zones in Halifax Regional Municipality and Shelburne County.

 

Details on the grants and how funds will be distributed will be posted soon to the Department's website. Inquiries can be emailed to the Department: prm@novascotia.ca

 

-          Agricultural Clean Technology Program, adoption stream- ACT A

 

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Adoption Stream is reopening. The applications will be accepted starting Thursday, June 1 to a deadline of Thursday, June 22.

 

Program details are now on the AAFC website and note the funding level for this program is a maximum of 40%. Note only one application per client and previous ACT Adoption recipients will not be eligible to apply again. There is a new online application portal.

 

https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/programs/agricultural-clean-technology-adoption-stream

 

 

-          More programs from the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, please check the program link: https://novascotia.ca/programs/.

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Events

-          Maine 2023 Blueberry Hill Farm Field Day

·         For Details and registrations, please check this link: https://extension.umaine.edu/blueberries/upcoming-events/wild-blueberry-field-meetings/#blueberry-hill-farm-field-day

 

-          WBPANS 2023 Field Day, Tuesday, July 18

·         Where: Queens County Exhibition Grounds, Caledonia, NS

·         Registration: https://nswildblueberries.com/registration-form/. Deadline: June 30.

Please note: this year, Quebec and NB don’t have field days.