With Harvest Season Done, Wild Blueberries Growers Wait Out the Winter
While the busy season for Wild Blueberries in Maine and Canada recedes into the past, the promise of harvest time lingers in the minds of growers even during the coldest winters. Wild Blueberry plants are dormant during these cold months as they wait for spring warmth and sun, and while farmers may not be active in the fields, they remain occupied in other ways by the next harvest.
Most Wild Blueberries growers spend little time on the barrens during the winter unless they are engaged in expanding fields or posting farm land to ensure protection from snowmobiles. Farmers and their families often take up seasonal work such as tree harvesting, wreath making, or cutting wood, or spend time working in other businesses. They also take advantage of the off-season by attending meetings and seminars to maintain knowledge of farming techniques and regulations, or by traveling to farm shows in search of equipment and supplies or to purchase bees.
While growers remain off the fields, many factors conspire to affect summer blueberry yields on the fields. Because Wild Blueberries are grown on a two-year cycle, each year, half of a grower’s land will be prepared for harvest in the coming spring. This hearty plant naturally thrives in the challenging winters that characterize its indigenous climate, but winter damage, along with spring frosts that can imperil plants during the bloom period, nevertheless remains one of the biggest threats for growers.
Most importantly, fruit-bearing plants require the protection of a blanket of winter snow cover to emerge in the spring ready to bear fruit. High snowfalls that occur early in the winter create the best conditions. “Snow is the poor man's fertilizer,” said Greg Bridges, of Bridges Wild Blueberry Company in Calais, Maine. “It keeps the frost out of the land and prevents damage to the roots and stems.” In addition, quick temperature changes, both up and down, are a risk factor that can endanger the sometimes vulnerable bud. Fortunately, coastal growers enjoy the mitigating influence of the ocean, which helps lessen hazardous spikes in temperature.
While blueberry rakes and harvesting machines sit motionless, bees – critical to a successful pollination period — wait out the season as well. Bees native to Wild Blueberry farming areas also thrive with healthy snow cover. For the many growers who do not rely on local bees, pollinators destined for the northeast in the spring overwinter in warmer climes, ensuring that their colonies remain healthy and strong in anticipation of a vigorous bloom after all the snow and ice has cleared.
Read more about Wild Blueberry growing and harvesting.
