Blueberry
-
How much acid can be used to clean out drip lines in blueberries? A link is provided at the bottom for a calculator to assist you. I asked Dr. Erik Smith this question and here is his response: “I used 100 meq/L for the alkalinity and the initial pH of 7.0. The final pH is the…
Posted in: Blueberry -
The below information is from Dr. Phil Brannen: “I had a question concerning whether fungicide application(s) would be warranted ahead of or following potential cold damage over the next few days, especially cold damage to southern highbush. While cold damage can increase both Botrytis and Botryosphaeria infection and subsequent disease issues, it is hard to…
Posted in: Blueberry -
I attended a blueberry training earlier this week in Gainseville, FL. We stopped at Island Grove nursery and toured their farm. In the below picture are 2 year old Meadowlark blueberries. In order to get fertilizer through the plastic mulch they cut slits in the plastic and use special equipment to blow fertilizer through each…
Posted in: Blueberry -
Blueberry rust is starting to show up, it is likely to increase over the next month or so. This is relatively early. Growers need to be scouting for rust in susceptible varieties. Susceptible Highbush Varieties: Jewel Rebel Farthing Primadonna (under high pressure) Emerald (under high pressure) Fungicides for rust control are Pristine, Quash, Indar and…
Posted in: Blueberry -
From Phil Brannen: Based on the best information we can derive from the literature at large, cold-damaged, exposed tissue (leaf and early bloom development) is more susceptible to mummy berry blighting, such as we observed in 2013 in many locations (90% losses in some cases). The blighting aspect of the disease basically wipes out whole…
Posted in: Blueberry -
Calibrating airblast sprayers is something that’s often not done, or done improperly. Why is this important? Most pecan growers assume the sprayer is calibrated at 100 gallons per acre (GPA). Consider if it’s actually 81.4 GPA (as in the below example). The sprayer is filled to 1,000 gallons and enough chemical is added to the…
-
This is very important information for our blueberry growers that want to spray every other row with an airblast sprayer. Based on the results of this research trial spraying every other row or middle cannot be recommended. From Dr. Phil Brannen: Last year, I visited a blueberry site with significant mummy berry pressure in one of our south Georgia counties. …
Posted in: Blueberry -
Does healthcare reform apply to farm labor “guest workers”? By Sheldon J. Blumling, courtesy Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association | Southeast Farm Press H-2A guest workers have become an integral part of many agricultural operations. As growers prepare for complying with the healthcare reform employer “play or pay” mandate in 2015, there appears to be…
Posted in: Blueberry -
Many producers have heard about using lime sulfur for exobasidim. Some questions have been asked about using it early. According to Dr. Phil Brannen, we can’t say for sure that lime sulfur would not have activity against Exobasidium during this timeframe, but we do not have research data to support that an early-dormant application will…
Posted in: Blueberry