Blueberry Producers See High Yields, Good Market

By Ms. Susan M. Collins-Smith

This year, Julie Bounds was expecting a bumper crop of blueberries. What she could not anticipate was the excess amount of rainfall her family’s blueberry farm would receive.

“In the last few years, we’ve had drought and a tornado, so we do have a bigger crop than we’ve had the last couple of years. But we’ve also gotten a lot of rain. We’ve had over 11 inches just this week,” Bounds said on June 17.

Bounds, who runs Bounds Blueberry Farm in Wiggins with her husband Dennis and his brother Robert, pointed out that large amounts of rain at once make the berries softer and not as sweet. It also hinders farmers from getting into the fields to pick their berries, especially if they use mechanical pickers. The Bounds use a mixture of handpicking and mechanical pickers to gather their berries.

This untimely rain has been the biggest challenge for growers across the state, said Eric Stafne, fruit and nut specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

“Overall, the crop looks good. The rain has just recently been a problem, mostly in June. We did not have a late freeze so that was good news for our growers,” he said. “The severe cold we had this winter seemed to have no negative effects.”

While high amounts of rain can make conditions more favorable for disease and prevent timely disease treatments, Stafne said he has not seen anything out of the ordinary when it comes to diseases.