Wild Blueberry Blog

NOAA Awards Calderwood Lab $3.5M Towards Development of Weather Station Network

University of Maine awarded $3.5M for new statewide weather network By Christian Harsa, December 9, 2024 (News Center Maine) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded the lab of the University of Maine’s Extension Wild Blueberry Specialist, Dr. Lily Calderwood, a $3.5M grant to install a statewide system of advanced weather stations, News […]

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Dr. Calderwood Featured in “Wild Foods” Maine Blueberries Video

Video: Wild Foods Maine Blueberries Produced by Wild Foods, November 23, 2024 Dr. Lily Calderwood, Extension Wild Blueberry Specialist and Assistant Professor of Horticulture at the University of Maine, joined Kevin Chap of the PBS travel series “Wild Foods” in the summer of 2024. In “Wild Foods”, Chap travels across the country to interview foragers, […]

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Mummy berry season is finishing

Mummy berry cups have dried up and will be gone in the Midcoast areas. In most Downeast areas the cups have dried up and are almost gone.  Cups that were seen in Blueberry Hill Farm in Jonesboro, May 10th, are dried up and new pinheads have not been seen.  With this past warm weather, the […]

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Mummy berry and cold temperature report for May 6th to May 10th

Mummy berry season Mummy berry season is starting to end in some areas.   If the cups are finished in your area, there is no advantage for spraying fungicides for mummy berry control at this time.  The secondary Monilinia spores on the dead tissues (mummy berry symptoms) are carried by pollinators to the healthy flowers to […]

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Mummy berry report for May 7th

All fields with weather stations had conditions for a Monilinia infection period overnight from May 6th to May 7th.  The fog started in the evening from about 6:30 to 8:30pm and continued until morning.  I do have reports of cups still present in the Midcoast and Downeast so there is a good chance this weather […]

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Mummy berry report for May 2nd to May 6th 2024

The rain caused conditions for Monilinia infection in most fields with weather stations from May 2 to the morning of May 6th.  Depending upon the field, there were one to four infection periods in this stretch of days.  If you applied fungicides on or after  7 to 10 days before these infection periods (April 22 […]

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Mummy berry-Monilinia infection April 30th to May 2nd

There were Monilinia infection periods at most weather station locations overnight from April 30th to May 1st and May 1st to May 2nd (please see table below).  The raining weather is continuing in most areas.  Pinheads and cups are still being found so there is still chance of infection.  Unless you have a late field, […]

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Mummy berry Report April 29, 2024

There were weather conditions for Monilinia infection in most of our weather station locations.  In most fields, the rain started about 7 to 8pm on April 28 evening and carried over to the morning of April 29th.   One area, around Appleton and Liberty, did not have Monilinia infection conditions.   Most plants would have been open […]

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Disease and cold weather report for April 24 to 26th, 2024

There were no infection periods on Wednesday April 24th to April 25th. The temperatures were too cold for infection.  Most fields with weather stations have experienced temperatures below 28 F this past week for multiple nights.  It is not clear what effect this may have on developing buds. The next chance for Monilinia infection is […]

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Cold Temperatures overnight from May 29 to 30th

There were cold temperatures recorded at some weather stations Downeast.  The other stations did not have as cold a temperatures overnight.  The weather stations are only one measurement in a field and other areas may have also dipped in temperature around them.  The temperatures below 28 F may cause damage to fruit.  Temperatures below 31 […]

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