This article was first published in the Spring 2023 Blueberry News, vol 12, issue 3, p.31
The southern highbush blueberry growth habit is a multi-stem bush with cultivated varieties ranging from upright to spreading. The upright varieties like Meadowlark and Farthing tend to have narrower crowns, which lend themselves to more efficient machine harvesting possibilities. Most harvesting machines rely on movable catch plates that conform to the crown as the harvester passes down the row, with wider crowns allowing a larger gap and more fruit escaping the harvester to be lost to the ground. Upright varieties have become popular with growers for this reason and as labor costs continue to increase and labor availability continues to be challenging, to say the least.
Chilli thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) has emerged as an invasive insect pest of specialty crops in Florida, including in strawberry, blueberry, citrus, peppers, and ornamentals. Something to note here is that these insects are commonly called thrips (singular and plural), and the term “thrip” is an incorrect reference to this group of insects. Based on recent field studies, strawberry plants had more than seven times the fruit yield when treated with an insecticide, spinetoram, compared to untreated fields severely infested with chilli thrips. Infested strawberry fruits appear bronzed and cracked and are considered unmarketable. This pest, native to Southeast Asia, migrates into the crop fields from surrounding areas, but little is known about its whereabouts during the off-season. It was assumed that S. dorsalis may have been spending their summer months on other crop hosts, since this is a polyphagous pest (feeding on various types of plants). This information is crucial since increasing the understanding of the non-crop habitats can assist with the management of this severely damaging agricultural pest.
Here I am in the middle of March penning my letter with fresh memories of my time visiting with fellow growers at the Spring FBGA Meeting and Field Day at the University of Florida Education and Research Center in Citra. I’m happy to report that most growers I spoke with are quite optimistic about the season as we enter the main blueberry harvest. Although growing blueberries is much like selling real estate, where performance is naturally local, the general trends are tracking toward a big increase in volume over the tough 2023 season. It’s nice to see Florida growers will likely reap the rewards of their tenacity and hard work as they climb back from the damaging weather and economic shocks that plagued us last year.
The University of Florida blueberry breeding program has released two new southern highbush blueberry cultivars that should be available to growers in 2025. These cultivars were selected for the evergreen production system and have performed very well in on-farm trials in both South-Central and Central Florida. They are both early season producers with very high yields, very firm fruit, excellent flavor, and good evergreen foliage. These new releases are “FL17-141” and “FL19-006.”
The Florida flower thrips (Frankliniella bispinosa Morgan) are a pest of southern highbush blueberries in Florida that are present during bloom. Larvae and adults feed on all parts of the flowers (ovaries, styles, petals) and developing fruit. Feeding damage can reduce pollination of the injured blooms, and therefore the quantity and quality of fruit produced from those blooms. Adult females can also cause indirect injury to fruit when laying their eggs inside flower tissues (Figure 1 c). The newly hatched larvae create holes in the flower tissue when they emerge, resulting in scarring of the fruit.
January – March
We spent the past three winters in a La Niña pattern, which favors warm and dry weather in Florida. This year, a mature and strong El Niño pattern is present in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is expected to continue during the winter and spring seasons. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is the interannual fluctuation of the atmosphere–ocean system in the equatorial Pacific and it has three phases: warm phase (El Niño), cold phase (La Niña), and Neutral.
With a wet El Niño winter forecasted for Florida in 2024, growers should focus on plans to minimize and manage flower and fruit fungal diseases. Anthracnose fruit rot and Botrytis blossom blight are the most prevalent and significant winter and early spring diseases in Florida.
The Blueberry Advisory System (BAS) is a weather-based alert system that signals Florida blueberry growers when environmental conditions are favorable for the development of anthracnose fruit rot (AFR) and provides other data to help growers manage this disease.
Virtually all blueberry fields in Florida are subject to late winter or early spring freezes, which can cause serious reductions in yield. This is a list of activities for freeze preparation. The list was originally published by Mike Mainland in the North Carolina Blueberry News, Vol. 7, No. 1and has been modified by IFAS faculty and FBGA board members.
Untimely late winter and early spring freezes are one of the most problematic and yield-limiting phenomena that routinely impact blueberry production in Florida as well as other southeastern states. If you grow blueberries in Florida, it’s a pretty safe bet that you will need to protect your crop from freezing temperatures during the upcoming pre-bloom, bloom and/or post-bloom periods. I can only think of one year during the last 25 when we did not need to run overhead irrigation to freeze protect our blueberry research plots at the Plant Research and Education Unit in Citra. However, in a different year, we had to run overhead irrigation on nearly 20 separate nights. One truth about Florida’s winter weather is that it is consistently inconsistent. This article will review information that growers will likely want to consider when making decisions about freeze protection this coming year.
I started this letter listing a bunch of threats facing Florida Blueberry growers in 2024. As I penciled my list, I began to realize I was being too negative and had no business inviting my fellow growers to a pointless pity party. After all, as I write, the excitement of a new year is right around the corner. Now is the time to look on the bright side, and I submit the glass is half full and we have many reasons to anticipate a prosperous season. I’m going on the record that I’m optimistic about the 2024 Florida blueberry crop and its potential for a big improvement over the past few years.
Happy New Year! At The Blueberry News, we like to start the year with optimism and hope.
Blueberry gall midge larvae feed on blueberry floral bud tissues, causing brown lesions, and bud death and abortion (Figure 1). When there is heavy gall midge injury, the bloom will typically be lighter since many of these buds will abort, resulting in decreased fruit set. It should be noted that poor fruit set and excessive dropping of undeveloped green fruit can also be caused by poor pollination.
