5.27.19 Botrytis Risk May 23 to May 27
Botrytis is a fungus that varies each year in its presence in a field. You need to have infection in early blooming clones or other plants in your field to provide the spores to spread the infection. If you do NOT have symptoms (dead flowers/leaves WITH black hairs), then no matter how wet the weather you are not going to get enough Botrytis to be a problem. Other plants to look at for symptoms are dying red sorrel leaves or flowers on other plants. Remember dead flowers on blueberry also occur with mummy berry infections which will be showing up at this time.
Below is the risk of Botrytis infection to use as a guide to look for infection in your fields. Most fields have minimal to low risk of infection at this point. If there are no blooming clones in your field, the risk is very low. Please check your field for bloom. I do NOT know the status of bloom for fields with weather stations.
| Field | Possible risk for Botrytis rain ending May 24 | Possible risk for Botrytis, rain ending May 27 |
| Waldoboro | minimal | minimal |
| West Rockport | low | minimal |
| Appleton/ Hope | minimal | moderate |
| Searsport | station down | station down |
| Ellsworth | low | minimal |
| Bluehill | low | minimal |
| Aurora | low | minimal |
| Eastbrook | moderate | none |
| Deblois | low | none |
| Columbia | low | minimal |
| Montegail | low | minimal |
| BBHF, Jonesboro | low | station down |
| East Machias | minimal | minimal |
| Crawford | low | minimal |
| Cooper | minimal | high |