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nafex - [NAFEX] Rain, blueberries, raspberrries, mold and mildew

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  • From: Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Rain, blueberries, raspberrries, mold and mildew
  • Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:02:53 -0400

I like hearing about other people's successes, it give me hope. :-)

This year was a mediocre year for my blueberries. I got lots of fruit, and I've never seen it larger, but only the midseason fruit was sweet. The early fruit (northblue, I think) was enormous, but almost flavorless. The midseason fruit got some sunny days, and was moderately large and delicious. The late-season fruit was again hampered by lack of sunlight.

On the other hand, it's been a fine year for the raspberries. They ripened as much summer fruit as expected, and seemed to be able to hang onto it, not quite red, until it was sweet, and the new canes are enormous, promising a fine fall crop. I was worried about grey mold, but haven't noticed a problem. Between the kids and the critters, we keep the plants pretty clean of old fruit, which I imagine helps.

Not fruit, but perhaps related: I've had trouble with powdery mildew on my peonies and on a winterberry (a sort of ornamental deciduous holly) for the last two years. This year I sprayed the winterberry and some of the peonies with milk, after noticing mildew on the winterberry. I just sprayed once.

I haven't seen any progression of the mildew in the intervening month. Maybe it's just been too cold for it, as even the unsprayed peonies look good. (But the peonies are all in a line, and I did spray the most susceptible one, which might reduce the spore population.) And the winterberry has some tender new growth (all that rain!) that looks clean. Not a proof of efficacy, but I think I'll go out and spray a little more milk. Milk is cheap.

Ginda
eastern MA, zone 6



On Aug 2, 2009, at 9:03 PM, Alan Haigh wrote:

I wasn't trying to brag things up- it's just that this year is actually setting up to be quite the fruit growing disappointment if the rain doesn't slow up. I said "of course" about the blueberries because everyone out here is getting a great crop of them and the point is that even in bad seasons some things do very well. Also it's interesting to me to find out that blueberries can actually perform so well in this ridiculous weather.

We can grow many kinds of fruit here but I'm hoping even an Iowan might find some benefit from my observations. You learn the most growing things in adverse conditions. If you want to be jealous of someone, I suggest you focus on a grower living in the state of California. We Easterners have to work pretty hard for our fruit.

This is spoken with a light heart, I hope you know.

<Well that's all I have time for now- got to go pick another gallon of
blueberries before they drop. Of course they've been absolutely great.<
Ya know, Alan, there are just some things the rest of us don't want to know

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