The first thing to do is ask yourself: Is it a tactical or strategic decision? For many growersmachine harvesting can bea useful tactic to extend the season or do final cleanup after the pick crew moves on. It’s an ideal way to evaluate whether it might fit into your long-term plans. As a strategy, where most or all of the fruit is to be machine-harvested, you need to make a serious commitment to plan all the details then devote considerable resources to build the enabling farm infrastructure.

The more talent Patricio Muñoz can recruit to his lab, the quicker he can get new varieties out to you, and he just got a powerful magnet to attract that talent.

As a Florida blueberry grower, I have experienced first-hand the pressures of global competition on my business. As consumer demand for blueberries has grown, domestic and global production has also greatly expanded to meet the needs of what has become a year-round market here in the United States. My desire to address the many challenges our family business faces in this global marketplace is what drove me to participate as a member of the United Blueberry Task Force (UBTF).

New Five-Year Plan Sets the Course to Make Blueberries the World’s Favorite Fruit

CREDIT: Kasey Cronquist

 Fall and Winter Are Deceptively Important in Florida Blueberry Fields

Credits: Jeffrey G. Williamson, Professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida

Blueberry Advisory System Alerts Growers to Conditions Favorable for Anthracnose Fruit Rot

Credit: Dr. Natalia Peres, Professor, Plant Pathology, UF

Evaluating How Various Cultivars Respond to the Agent

Credits: Jacob Buck, graduate student; Jeff Williamson, professor; and Gerardo Nunez, assistant professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, IFAS, University of Florida 

Florida Growers Report Rebound After a Weak 2020

How to Combat Algal Stem Blotch and Fungal Leaf Diseases

With the blueberry season over and summer upon us, it’s time to get ready for the diseases that will be issues for Florida growers over the next few months. A good scouting tool to use in monitoring for disease in the field is the UF/IFAS Blueberry Growers Guide. Resources in this guide include a diagnostic key, descriptions of symptoms, disease/insect life cycles, suggested management practices, an image gallery, and links to UF/IFAS blueberry extension publications.

Tools Available to Growers

Summertime in Florida brings with it an important insect pest on blueberries — chilli thrips. This pest was first recorded in blueberries in Florida in July 2008, and typically feeds on new vegetative growth after post-harvest pruning. Damage on foliage can be significant when there are heavy infestations, and control can sometimes be challenging. Although chilli thrips are familiar to many growers, it’s a good idea to review what we know about it and the control alternatives that are available.

Basics of Nutrient Sources for Blueberry Fertilization in Florida

There are 17 nutrient elements essential for blueberry production. These essential nutrient elements include nine macronutrients: carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S) and eight micronutrients: iron (Fe), boron (B), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), chlorine (Cl), and nickel (Ni), which was added to the list of essential elements in 2004 (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS1191). 

With the 2021 Florida blueberry season behind us, Florida growers will begin to determine whether they will plant any new blueberry cultivars and/or remove any existing ones. The UF/IFAS blueberry breeding program has developed a new tool to continue its assistance to growers in this task – a cultivar module included as part of the UF/IFAS Blueberry Growers Guide app. 

How do your blueberries get pollinated? What information would help you better manage pollination on your farm?

Unprecedented is a word that oddly seems to be used with regularity when describing things related to the Florida blueberry industry.  In the past several years, we have seen unprecedented volumes of Mexican blueberries in the Florida window. Last year, there was an unprecedented global pandemic that affected distribution, and sales during that first week of April came to an unprecedented halt.  We have unprecedented weather events, and at times there have been unprecedented demand and challenges with the H2A program… the list goes on.

Every year Florida Blueberry growers approach the new harvest season with great anticipation dampened somewhat by a cloud of trepidation. There are so many factors at play that can move the outcome from good to bad that growers must be on their toes to steer their farms into and through the white waters of harvest season. We try to control what we can, but weather and the market can play havoc with our best laid plans.

Last fall, the University of Florida announced the release of a new southern highbush blueberry cultivar, Sentinel. It is an early, vigorous, high-yielding cultivar that has performed well in both North-Central and Central Florida, with no observed disease issues. It was not previously included in South Florida trial sites, but it will be planted at southern trial locations this summer. Also, machine harvest trials including this cultivar will begin next season. Sentinel has been tested in multiple flavor panels at UF, with tasters giving its flavor a high rating. 

Among the most important things I’ll do as head of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is identify leaders who make a great impact on Florida agriculture. When I got to hire my first department chair, I discovered two leaders. One was the guy who got the job, Chris Gunter. The second was Brittany Lee.

The table below lists suggested blueberry management items for April. Suggested management items for the entire calendar year are available in an EDIS publication, Calendar for Southern Highbush Blueberry Management in Florida (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HS/HS136300.pdf).

The virtual Spring 2021 Field Day on March 8. 

Florida Blueberry Growers Regroup After Troubling Trade Ruling

United States blueberry growers swallowed a bitter pill this winter after their plea with the U.S. International Trade Commission to stem the tide of imported blueberries.