Wild Blueberry Newsletter June 2024

Wild Blueberry Newsletter header graphic, text and a photo of blueberries and leaves

June 2024

Crop Update

What an excellent bloom season! This looks like a banner crop so far. Bloom is winding down and bee hives are being removed from fields. This rain comes at an important time when pin heads are forming and green fruit will begin to expand. A few people on my team were out sick this week so we collected phenology data but it is not posted yet. Once we have entered the data you can find this week’s phenology online.

Join us for the Blueberry Hill Farm Field Day on June 27!

We have an exciting lineup of topics including harvester efficiency and cleaning, fresh pack lines, pest and crop management, and climate change adaptation. There will also be an excellent home-cooked meal for lunch and time to talk with sponsoring and vending companies that help support this industry.

Date: Thursday, June 27, 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: Blueberry Hill Farm 1643 US-1, Jonesboro, ME 04648
Pesticide Credits: 2
Register online
Register by calling: Mary Michaud at 207.581.3175

Morning Session Agenda:

9:00 Welcome

9:10 – 9:30 Fine Leaf Sheep Fescue Control Herbicide Demonstration, Dr. Lily Calderwood and Jordan Parks

9:30 – 10:00 Drone Spraying Demonstration and Research Update, Patrice Sison, Active Intelligence, Dr. Lily Calderwood

10:00 – 10:45 Harvester and Bin Cleaning Demonstration, Lindsay Werner DACF and Logan Brewer Helena/BioSafe

10:45 – 11:30 Fresh Pack Lines, Ron Howard of Brodis Blueberries, Tim Clower of AMVT Line, and Travis Carini of Michigan Blueberry       Equipment Sales

11:30 – 11:45 Shade Over Wild Blueberry Experiment, Dr. Lily Calderwood

11:45 – 12:00 2023 Crop Year Nitrogen Study Results, Dr. Lily Calderwood, Abby Cadorette

12:00 – 1:15 Lunch Agenda: Food Provided by Angie’s Catering

12:30 – 12:45 Wild Blueberry Heritage Center Hall of Honor Awards, Kaysie Logan

12:45 – 1:15 Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine Update, Eric Venturini

Afternoon IPM Session Agenda:

1:00 – 1:45 Harvester Efficiency Project Update, UMaine Mechanical Engineering and Advance Manufacturing Center

1:45 – 2:05 Insect Management, Dr. Phil Fanning

2:05- 2:25 Disease Management, Dr. Seanna Annis

2:25 -2:45 Climate and Plant Physiology, Dr. Yongjiang Zhang

2:45 – 3:05 Climate Change Risk Planning, Dr. Rachel Schattman

Sincerely,

Lily