BLUE
FOCUS NEWSLETTER- April 2025
(Perennia’s
Wild Blueberry Production Newsletter)
Hello, everyone
While we enjoy this week’s nice weather, we also see
fast blueberry development in the fruit bud stages. The vegetation around wild
blueberry fields starts to thrive. We are officially in a new blueberry season! It's lovely to be in the blueberry field this time of year, when there's a blue sky and sunshine. Enjoy the weather and the walk through the blueberry field.
This month’s production newsletter aims to be short and focus on provincial soil temperatures, wild blueberry Growing Degree Days (GDD), and crop
stage updates. We will soon be in the blight season, so you will receive more
regular updates through the blog and blight line.
I wish you all a good spray season!
Hugh
Hugh Lyu
Wild Blueberry Specialist, Perennia
hlyu@perennia.ca; 902-890-0472.
April 30, 2025
Table of
Contents:
Nova Scotia Soil Temperature Update
Wild Blueberry GDD& Crop Stage Updates
Upcoming Events
Nova Scotia Soil Temperature Update
The graph below shows the trend in soil temperature development from the Kentville research weather station. This year (red line), the soil temperature
was above the 10-year average from mid-March to mid-April. We also experienced
high air temperatures during this period, resulting in early crop development
in some fields, such as those on the south shore, warmer coastal locations, and fields with sandy and dry soil.
After mid-April, the soil temperature was around the 10-year
average. The air temperature cooled, and we had a few rainfall events, which helped
slow crop development.
Figure 1. Kentville
Research Weather Station Soil Temperature, as of April 28, 2025, provided by
Jeff Franklin (AAFC).
Wild Blueberry GDD& Crop Stage Updates
We
selected 19 weather stations to report their seasonal Growing Degree Days (GDD) accumulations. We
started the calculation on April 1, and the following information is the April
GDD totals from those stations.
Figures
2 and 3. Wild Blueberry Weather Station GDD Updates (April 1-30)
On the crop field side, we all closely watch fruit bud development (F2 stage). Please refer to Table 1 for the percentage of F2 in known areas. We are experiencing some nice weather this week, which would further develop fruit buds and put crop fields at risk of Monilinia blight if wet periods and disease spores are present. Most mainland fields would require blight sprays in the next two weeks.
We are also close
to optimum windows for sprout field spring herbicide applications. It is still
too early for wild blueberry plant emergence in sprout fields. Still, the major
weed species we target are ready for early spring herbicide treatments, particularly
if you use some chemicals that might hurt new wild blueberry shoots.
Table 1. Percentage of Wild Blueberry Fruit Bud F2
stage
light green (0-20% F2), dark green (20-30% F2), yellow
(30-40% F2) and red (40-100% F2)
|
Wild blueberry production regions, NS |
The average percentage of fruit buds at F2 |
|
|
|
|
South West Nova Scotia |
|
|
West Caledonia |
= >40% F2- April 30 |
|
East Kemptville |
= >40% F2- April 30 |
|
|
|
|
Hants County |
|
|
Upper Rawdon |
25-30% F2- April 30 |
|
|
|
|
Cumberland County |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Colchester County |
|
|
Londonderry- Baseline Rd. |
20% F2- April 29 |
|
Westchester Mt. |
12% F2- April 29 |
|
Debert (WBPANS office) |
25% F2- April 29 |
|
East Mines |
20% F2- April 29 |
|
Murray Siding |
30% F2- April
28 |
|
Camden |
25% F2- April 28 |
|
|
|
|
Halifax Regional Municipality |
|
|
Dean |
< 20% F2- April 30 |
|
|
|
|
Guysborough County |
|
|
|
|
|
Pictou and Antigonish County |
<
20% F2- April 30 |
|
|
|
|
Cape Breton |
<
20% F2- April 30 |
Upcoming Events
1. Perennia
Wild Blueberry Virtual Grower Meetings in May: May 7 and May 21. Link to
register: https://www.perennia.ca/eventer/wild-blueberries-virtual-grower-meetings-2025/edate/2025-04-09/.
2. Nova
Scotia Wild Blueberry Field Day (WBPANS): Wednesday, July 16. Bible Hill Exhibition
Grounds.