03/28/2024
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By: Tonya Bockover

This year’s mid-March freeze did serious damage to the local blueberry crop here in Bladen County.

According to Bill Cline, Extension Specialist at North Carolina State University, typically frost protection occurs in April for our farmers here in the county. This year, it was a bit different.

The warmer temperatures in February plus the extreme lows temperatures in March made for a deadly combination, according to Cline. The freeze Bladen County received in March was a wind born freeze, making it impossible to protect with irrigation. The irrigation frost protection most farmers use are designed for still nights, Cline added.

Cline said, “Typically, frost protection is ran for three to four nights in April, when the temperature dips towards freezing. This year, our farmers battled the freezing cold 9 to 15 nights in March by running the irrigation systems.”

In speaking with some local growers from the area, the blueberry varieties hit worst were: Star, Oneal, New Hanover, Suziblue, Rebel and Emerald. These varieties look to be at about a 70-80% crop loss according to the Bladen County farmers.

The Legacy blueberries, which is a later variety, looks to be in better shape with only a 50% crop loss according to growers. However, the problem with the Legacy, according to a local grower, was that the pollination of the Legacy was interrupted by the irrigation frost protection. After the flower breaks, the bees have 5 days to pollinate, at which time this year, the flowers were covered in ice.

Cline has been on almost every Bladen County blueberry farm in the last weeks. He says statewide, there is about a 50-60% crop loss.
Many of the farmers are considering filing a crop insurance claim on their crop loss. They are weighting the choice of harvesting the poor crop or taking the insurance check. Many of the blueberry growers in the White Lake area met yesterday to talk about their crop loss.

You will most likely not see a change in price as a consumer this year, but you may see a shortage of availability at the market, according to Cline.

“It’s just heartbreaking”, said one local farmer, “we were set to have a record breaking crop in 2017.”

 

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