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New England Agricultural Statistics Service
- - - a field office of the
      National Agricultural Statistics Service
      United States Department of Agriculture

Aubrey R. Davis, Director  Phone: (603) 224-9639
22 Bridge St, 3rd Floor      Fax: (603) 225-1434
PO Box 1444             Internet: http://www.usda.gov/nass/
Concord, NH 03302-1444    E-Mail: nass.nh@nass.usda.gov
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                      Maine Wild Blueberries
     			    July 2004 

July 30, 2004

The following is an abbreviated version of the report.
The entire document is available as a PDF file on
the Internet through: http://www.nass.usda.gov/nh/
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A special "THANK YOU" goes to approximately 400 Maine 
Wild Blueberry growers and processors who have helped 
us by completing the wild blueberry survey during July.

SIGNIFICANT DROP IN WILD BLUEBERRY CROP EXPECTED

Maine's 2004 wild (lowbush) blueberry crop is expected to total 
52.0 million pounds, based on grower reported condition of the 
crop through mid-July. This forecast would place total 
production 35 percent below last year's output of 80.4 million 
pounds, and 17 percent below 2002 final production. 

Growers reported that crop prospects are below average this year 
due to a number of factors.  Extreme cold temperatures and 
inadequate snow cover led to significantwinter kill on the 2004 
wild blueberry crop.  Cool and rainy weather during the spring 
of 2004 caused poor, spotty pollination in many areas.  Mummy 
berry is prevalent for the third consecutive year.  Growers
reported fungicides had limited effect in combating the disease.

Rains during July increased berry size and improved plant 
strength in some locations.

Wild Blueberry Comments 2004 by County, 
As Reported On The Grower Survey

Cumberland, Kennebec, Oxford: Winter damage, flea beetle, and 
no blooms in most of the field. Moderate winter injury observed, 
berries look small, some blossoms end, mummy berry noted. 
Starting to get mummy berries, have lots of turkeys in field, 
overall conditions of field improved over last three years. Heavy 
winter damage, large insect problem. Little snow cover coupled 
with sub-zero temperatures and strong northwest winds in January, 
destroyed nearly 90 percent of fruit buds for this crop. I expect 
animal and bird (turkeys, crows) damage to what few berries 
remain. No snow; some tip damage; very short plants; worst 
pollination weather imaginable. Lost a lot to winter kill. 
Berries medium size, plenty of moisture; now expect insect 
problems. Wet spring, and wet  weather during pollination. 
Bees had a lot of cold and wet weather during pollination. 
Season looks to be below average. Hancock: Winter damage appears 
to be considerable in 2004, and a rainy spring prevented the bees 
from full time work. Crop looks bad this year. Wet foggy weather 
during bloom. Bees could not work. Tops of most plants winter 
killed.  Severe blight. Poor prospects. A cold winter and very 
wet spring produced a light bloom and kept bees from working. 
Moisture is adequate but I expect a reduced crop in this area 
for 2004. Extreme winter kill and cold damage due to lack of 
snow cover. Adequate moisture. Moderate mummy berry disease (not 
treated with fungicide) minimal insect problems. Huge winter kill; 
no snow and unusual cold and rainy spring. Maybe 10 percent winter 
kill; blossom blight and fungus; very few berries, but what few we 
have are better in quality.  Winter kill, too open and cold. Deep 
frost. Cold and damp during pollination. Blossom blight, mummy 
berry, very wet May and June for poor pollination. Winter damage. 
To cool for bees to pollinate. Doing some picking of the berries 
for sale by road-side to maintain the fields. General prospects - 
crop great, market sour. Didn't think this year's crop would be 
good. Crop looks ok. Frosted June 1, lost blossoms (light frost), 
heavy rains and cold during pollination period. The spring was 
too cold. Heat in 2003, no coverage of snow in winter of 2003/04. 


		- Page 1 of 3 Pages -


No snow cover; plants look good despite cold winter. Pollination 
reduced due to cold/rain. Weather hurt crop - no sun. Very light 
crop. Berries look bad/spotty/small/white. Doesn't look like a 
good crop, not very good pollination due to rain. Winter kill 
renders the field not worth harvesting. Not much more than 25  
percent of a normal crop, average is 4,000 pounds/acre. Looks 
terrible this year; awfully small, way behind, still green a 
lot of winter kill, frost, not enough snow. No sun, bad winter. 
Knox:  A lot of mummy berry. Considerable winter kill because 
of little snow and severe wind chill. Rainfall slightly below 
normal; some blight but little insect damage. Ripening fast. 
Looking good. Fruit fly may be a problem. A lot of blight; some 
winter damage. Some saw-fly presence on adjacent field that is 
non-bearing. Do not expect crop to be as large as in past couple 
of years. Light winter damage and some mummy berry damage. Fields 
do not look good. Wet spring, no  bees. Monilinia Blight disease 
hurt much of the crop, too.  Did not have much winter kill and 
they didn't have a good pollination season either. No snow cover 
last winter; too much rain and not much pollination this spring 
hurt the crop. Quite a lot of winter kill and mummy berry damage. 
Expect some blight damage from damp cold weather. This year's 
crop needs sun. The pollination was bad this year because of the 
cold and wet weather. Very cold weather; little snow. Very little 
sun for pollination; a lot of rain and cold. Winter damage high -- 
at least 30 percent plus disease high and insect low on most 
fields, some fields over 50 percent. Quality appears good at this 
time; too cold and wet during pollination; was dry for a while 
in June; recent rain given adequate moisture for now. Thinks 
the crop will be about one-third less than what he  in 2002. 
Monilinia Blight and cool damp weather during pollination; hail 
on July 2; span worm patches; what else could go wrong? Very 
light winter damage, good moisture, no insect problems, extreme 
mummy berry disease. Winter injury reduced crop 10 - 25 percent. 
Monilinia blight reduced crop 5- 15  percent. Pollination was 
poor due to weather. Fields and vines were very wet and cold 
during the months of June and July. Pollination was poor because 
of weather.  Expect harvest yield will be below that obtained 
in year 2002 for the same fields. Reasons due to poor 
pollination and winter kill. Had cold spell of windy winter 
weather on bare ground resulting in winter kill in some areas. 
Also, cold, wet, spring resulted in blight and poor pollination. 
Said that this year is poor. The spring was bad and because of 
all the rain the bees didn't come out, but the berries are on 
the large side. No snow cover; very dry 2003 summer. Rain, fog 
during pollination so spotty pollination. Bumble bees work well 
resulting in some area good fruit set. We really had problem with 
mummy berry, a wet spring causing problems for the bees to work. 
We looked at the field on July 4th and there was not one blue 
berry so they will be late to ripen and they look very small. 
Poor pollination weather. Lincoln: Cold spring affecting 
pollination. Have one patch of berries that look beautiful, yet 
another patch right beside it with hardly a berry on it. It looks 
like a very poor year. The crop will be 20  percent less than a 
normal year. 2003 was a  burn year. No blueberries harvested. 
2004 crop was frosted. Spotty set; there has been a lot of new 
growth on top of the bushes, so harvest will be a challenge. 
Prospects are extremely poor; heavy winter kill; poor 
pollination due to wet weather. Penobscot, Piscataquis, Waldo:  
Things seem to be about average. There was extensive winter 
damage from inadequate snow cover and cold January temperatures. 
Pollination weather was poor. Winter kill, mummy berries and a 
poor pollination period. Cold spring and winter hasn't done well, 
killing back on plant My fields are spotty. One looks good and 
the other spotty. Very wet and muddy here. Moisture to date 
plentiful; pollination reason poor but normal; bees on site a 
week late; mummy berry heavy crop loss about 15 percent some 
thrip present; some winter damage. We had a lot of winter kill, 
mummy berry, and span worm. Feels like we have less than half 
a crop. Looks real bad. Cold winter not enough snow cover when 
bee's should have been out pollinating it was wet and cold. The 
blossom was average. Then we had frost this spring, damaging the 
flowers and they fell off. Some bushes have no berries at all. 
Blight damage; rain during pollination. Patchy frost kill; 
plenty of rain in June. Very little winter damage but enough 
to keep the bloom a little below heavy. Very good pollination. 
Good amount of rain so far. Not much indication of disease. Do 
not know about insects yet, but it has never been very bad. The 
prospects are very good. Winter damage from light snow cover and 
cold temperatures. Bad pollination season, with cold and damp 
conditions. Light blossom and general prospects does not look 
good. Mummy berry prevalent; good pollination; I see the effects 
of too much moisture. A typical year. Many operations were 
skipped because of health problems. Sprayed late because of soft 
surface. Looking poor; 40 percent less than a normal year. Damage 
due to lack of snow and extreme cold last winter. Spring had bad 
pollination season due to the rainy weather. There was winter 
kill on those areas open to the northerly winds. There will 
probably be half of what there was two years ago if I can keep 
the wild Turkeys out. Washington:  We had extensive winter 
damage and some blossom blight. Weather was not good for 

		- Page 2 of 3 Pages - 


pollination. We have had adequate moisture and now need sun 
here. Insect damage is slight. Poor weather for pollination. 
Moisture good, but too wet for bees to work. Heaviest winter 
damage in over 40 years of growing. Lots of moisture which 
caused lots of fungus.  Very poor weather for pollination; wet 
and cold. Looks like the poorest crop ever! Ten percent winter 
damage. Average crop. Too much moisture. Actually, the crop is 
very hard to judge at this time. The blossoms were between 
something and nothing. Blight problems and poor pollination due 
to cold, wet spring. Major winter damage.  Plenty of moisture. 
Some mummy berries. The season will be two weeks behind. Very 
light pollination. Winter injury and disease will reduce crop 
to less than 40 percent of average. Some blight. A lot of clover. 
Large amount of damage due to blight, also bushes small due to 
lack of moisture. Severe winter damage plus three light frosts 
in lowland got what few blossoms that were on the bushes. Spotty 
crop; a lot of winter damage; cold and not much snow cover. Poor 
crop this year; too small to harvest. No problems at this 
juncture. Due to lack of snowfall, winter damage was heavy. At 
pollination time, weather was wet and cold preventing bees from 
working during bloom time. There was a problem with pollination, 
winter kill, and the bears. Winter kill, some blight, weeds and 
grass. Winter kill and too cold. Substantial winter damage. Too 
wet during pollination. Winter was bad. Bees didn't come out to 
pollinate and increased amount of Blight disease because of all 
the rain. Winter kill reduced one field by 70 percent of its 
fruit buds. Widespread mummy berry infection. Open winter kill. 
Poor pollination; may not harvest. Much blight; no insects this 
year. Cold winter, no snow, cold wetspring. We have a problem 
of mummy berry spreading through the field this year.  Angel 
hair grass is spreading from surrounding grower's fields. Cold 
winter, no snow, wet spring, poor pollination. Winter took a 
toll, plus wet weather and a lot of blight. A lot of winter 
damage; plants above the snow got hit hard. A lot early blight; 
a lot of weeds this year. The lack of snow this winter hurt this 
years crops. Moderate winter kill due to poor snow cover. Too 
much winter kill; too much rain, no sun, no bees. Lot of winter 
damage and poor pollination. There was much winter damage and 
a bad pollination. Median quality of berries, average moisture. 
Mummy berry 20 percent. Severe winter damage. Lost over half 
the crop. Bad winter damage, lot of disease. Really bad year; 
no sun; too much rain; a lot of winter kill; poor pollination.  
Some blight. Mummy berry and blight damage.  No snow cover last 
winter.  Cold spring. 30 percent winter kill.  To early to 
estimate the size of the berries. To early to say quality of 
berries.  Good available moisture. Few disease and insect 
problems.  General prospects about average.  Just  a little bit 
of winter kill.  Optimistic.  Berries are slow to ripen. A lot 
of winter kill and a lot of blight. Crop looks like due to poor 
pollination. Mummy berry severe.  Cold wet weather during 
pollination. Bumble bees were only ones working.  A lot of 
winter kill, poor pollination, cold wet spring. Winter damage 
was bad. Too much rain.  Expecting poor prospects. Looking like 
a bad year, cold wet spring, bees weren't pollinating. Severe 
winter kill and mummy berry. Tiny berries, spotty growth. Heavy 
blight  and mummy berries. Real small crop in Maine.  General 
prospects, looking about average. Low pollination, too cool 
and wet. I had notable winter damage. Very poor pollination 
season. A lot of winter damage, very wet, berries are small. 
Poor pollination; some mummy berry. Bloom heavy, set of fruit 
are heavy and size of berry are large. There may be a little 
winter kill and everyone says lots of blight. So far, lots of 
rain. Insect problems are very light. Cold wet spring, poor 
pollination. I did have 30 percent winter damage and we had 
very poor weather for pollination. I also have some botrytis 
on my crop. Rainfall should swell berries up as we have had 
plenty of rain. Too much rain... Winter kill; fields are two 
weeks behind, lack of pollination; too wet for too long; 
disease; mummy berry. Extreme winter injury, bud counts 
indicate 37-80 percent damage, very poor pollination, poor 
weather for  bees. Extensive winter injury (guess) 35-50 
percent. Cold, wet weather during pollination. Suspect that 
plants passed fertility before bees got cooperative weather. 
Looking really bad, poor pollination year. Winter kill at 25 
percent. Good moisture. Excessive winter injury.  Excessive 
blight and disease. Crop down 40 percent from average. Too 
much rain this spring and the bad winter hurt much of his 
wild blueberry crop. Severe winter kill expected to reduce crop.

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*****************end of report*******************************