John Wood's Blueberry Page:

As a kid, I remember being awakened many a morning to the sound of "Get up! we are going to the barrens to pick blueberries".This would be 4-30 to 5 am when I would much rather be sleeping. This was back in the forties and when your father said "Get up!" you got up!.After breakfast we headed for the Garden of Eden barrens by horse and wagon, over very rough and crooked trails until we came to the area which was burned last year and now producing berries,beautiful blue berries as far as the eye could see. The last year we picked, I would be in my late teens and for several days I picked seventeen (eight quart)buckets of berries a day,approximately 200 pounds.(This was by hand, no rakes then!)This shows the berries had to be plenty in order to do this.(Others were doing as well also.)The powers to be at that time couldn't see the potential of the blueberry. The burning was stopped and the barrens planted in trees. Last year the immature trees were harvested because of disease and now we have a mess, no blueberries or trees (what a pity!).Enough of that, I will show some pictures and explain from bushes to blueberries. This picture shows a cluster of blueberries as they grow on the plant,very mouth watering,don't you think?. I will show you how the blueberry grows to look like this. Blueberries are a native berry to North America. In 1615 Sameul de Champlain saw Native Americans harvesting wild blueberries along Lake Huron.They used blueberries for food and medicine, and held the blueberry in very high esteem.Click on HEREand read the page on growing lowbush blueberries in Nova Scotia prepared by (N.S.Dept. of Agriculture and Marketing), also for an excellent page on the history of the wild blueberry from the Maine area click on Jasper Wyman & Son

"From Woods to Blueberries"

Abandoned farmland which has grown up in forest is now being cleared and turned into blueberry fields, such as shown in these pictures. The trees are harvested,then later on all brush and bushes are removed and stumps may be cut at ground level if land is quite level.If ground is rough, stump removal and land levelling by excavator or other means is necessary.I am showing a picture of the G.F.MacDonald & Sons Excavator that I had hired recently to rake the brush into piles for me to burn.Scott MacDonald is the operator.(Click on picture to enlarge).March, 2000 Some land needs drainage which adds to the cost but if necessary, really pays it's way.

"Burning vs Mowing"

Blueberries primarily spread by rhizomes or underground runners. These runners give rise to new roots and stems. All roots arising from the same rhizome system have similar characteristics and are referred to as clones.Pruning these plants either by burning or mowing on alternate years will dramatically increase the yield.I prefer burning a new field the first time as this prunes the small plants to the ground where a mower will miss. After the plants become more mature the mower will prune all the plants at a cheaper cost, but I like burning every so often as I think it reduces the chances of blight and insects.(my own feelings).

"Pollination"

Blueberries cannot grow without being pollinated. The size and number of blueberries grown in a field for a particular season are proportional to (among other factors) the amount of cross pollination done by bees. The ideal situation occurs when wild bees exist near the field and voluntarily cross-pollinate the plants. Unfortunately, this doesn't always occur. So blueberry growers have to buy bees and place them at particular places in the field.We must watch where we place these bee hives as the bear population increases the chances of hive destruction increases. The entomology department at the University of Maine was interested in studying how many of which breed of bees should be placed where in order to maximize the blueberry crop. A blueberry patch is actually a group of stems of the same genetic makeup - that is, they share the same color, initial number of seeds, potential rate of pollen/nectar production, number of flowers on one stem, size of flower, etc. For an egg to be germinated into a seed, some pollen must be placed in a flower, from a different blueberry patch. The number of these fertilized eggs determines the size of the berries and even determines if berries grow at all. This cross pollination occurs because of bees. The bees visit the different flowers to get pollen and nectar. They collect the nectar for energy and collect pollen to feed the larvae. As they jump from flower to flower in search of nectar, they inadvertantly drop some pollen. If this pollen is from a blueberry patch of different genetic make up, an egg can be germinated. As you can see, the bees traveling patterns, as well as its ability to extract pollen and nectar are vital to the pollination process. The three types of bees most commonly used are The leaf cutter, The bumble bee and The honey bee,

"Harvesting"

Now the harvest begins. We dig out the string and string rows 4-6 feet wide. The pickers arrive, each picker is given a rake and a bucket and are shown a row to pick. It is up to the individual how much they pick. I have had pickers pick 1300 pounds a day to others picking 20-30 pounds. When the pickers fills their bucket, they bring it to the tallyperson, have it marked, dumps berries into boxes and return to pick another one. ( I pay by the bucket full. Some others pay by the pound). I also bought a Bragg mechanical harvester for some of my fields. I think there will always be a need for some hand pickers but getting your fields levelled and using a mechanical picker is the way to go. (My opinion only).On the right is a mechanical harvester. To get a better and larger view, click on the tractor, also a picture of Fred Rhyno who operates the harvester, my grandson Craig who looks after the berries as they are picked and yours truly who does the bossing. On the left is a picture of a modern hand rake, in the old days they didn't look as good and they weren't as sturdy,Now if you wander What the heck is a Tabbutt Rake? In an old shop in the hills of Sugar Hill a Mr. Abijah Tabbutt fashioned the first blueberry rakes from saltboxes over 114 years ago. Back in those days a blueberry rake sold for about .35 cents.

" To Market"

As the berries are picked and my truck is loaded in the field,I head for the receiving depot (approximately 5-6 miles) where they are unloaded onto pallets, weighed and loaded on a trailer to go to the processing plant. I head back to the field for another load. At the receiving plant, the trailer is loaded, the tractor comes, hooks on and they are gone to the processing plant in Oxford, Nova Scotia. This is the end of my story, Hope you enjoyed it. I would be pleased to hear from anyone either by E-mail or sign my Guest Book.Thanks for your patience. John

Here are some pictures of Blueberry Pickers and Burners:

Oxford Frozen Foods
Rainbow Farms Limited
Merrill Blueberry Farms
Wymans Maine Blueberries
History of Lowbush Blueberry in Nova Scotia
Manitoba Blueberries
Brad's Berries (Very good page)
WBANA
Growing Wild Blueberries
Growth and development of wild blueberry
Wild Blueberry fact sheet
Wild Blueberry NetworkInformation Center
Blueberry Recipes
The Development of the Industry
Washington County Maine Area
Growing Highbush Blueberries
Cultivated Blueberries
Growing lowbush blueberries in New Brunswick
Cancer Fighting Properties in Wild Blueberries
Lowbush Insect fact sheet
Guide to Weed Control for Lowbush Blueberry Production in Atlantic Canada
2001 Weed Control Guide for Wild Blueberries
Roundup for Weed Control in Wild Blueberries
Growing Lowbush Blueberries in Nova Scotia
Levelling Land in Wild Blueberry Fields
Pollination of Honey Bees in Blueberries
Managing Honey Bees Hives in Blueberries
Protecting Honeybee hives in Wild Blueberry Fields

This guy will get you if you try stealing my Berries.

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