Cooperative Extension: Maine Wild Blueberries

4.28.20 Mummy berry infections likely later this week, April 28

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There have been mixed reports of plant development  in blueberry growing areas. While some fields are past 40% F2 in the Midcoast and Downeast, there are other fields that are not there yet.  There are also reports of pinheads to cups in many fields in the Midcoast and Downeast.  We are getting warmer weather today (Tuesday) and on Wednesday and which will move development of the plants and mummy berry fungus along.  I think it is very likely we will have spore producing cups in most fields later this week.   We are forecast to have possibly one to two days of rain starting Thursday in blueberry growing regions.  I strongly urge you to check your field for plant development.  If your buds are close, you may get infection over this next rainy period. To check your plants, look at stems across your field to see what the bud development looks like. The most accurate method is to collect 20 stems and rate and count all of the flower buds and calculate your percentage of buds in F2 or over.

Please note the range of dates from these field observations!