Flower occurence in a 2012 planting of four half-high blueberry cultivars in eastern Newfoundland as affected by surface mulch type

Citation

D.B. McKenzie*, S.C. Debnath, P.L. Dixon, and G.A. Bishop. 2016. Flower occurrence in a 2012 planting of four half-high blueberry cultivars in eastern Newfoundland as affected by surface mulch type. CSHS Annual Conference, Montreal. July 2016. p38

Résumé

P19- Flower occurrence in a 2012 planting of four half-high blueberry cultivars in eastern Newfoundland as affected by surface mulch type
D.B. McKenzie, S.C. Debnath, P.L. Dixon, G.A. Bishop
St John’s Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Bldg. 25, 308 Brookfield Road, St. John’s, NL, Canada A1E 0B2. Email for corresponding author: david.mckenzie@agr.gc.ca
Commercial half-high blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L. x Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) producers on the Cochrane soil series in eastern Newfoundland have suffered major crop losses in new plantings due to frost heaving and waterlogging. These high silt soils are prone to compaction and often have intermittent perched water tables caused by a shallow hard pan. Highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum L.) is not native to the Island of Newfoundland but producers are evaluating half-high blueberries as a new U-Pick crop. A field experiment was planted in 2012 at St. John’s using four year old commercial half-high cultivars from four maturity classes (Bluetta – early, Reka – early to midseason, Chippewa – midseason, Bonus – mid to late season). These were assessed for plant establishment characteristics under three surface mulch types (sawdust, wood chips, and black plastic). The experimental design was a cultivar x mulch type factorial complete randomized block design with five plants per plot and five replications. The field site was deep tilled and tile drained, raised beds 30 cm high were prepared, and twin drip irrigation lines were installed in the root zone on each side of the plants for scheduled fertigation and irrigation. Due to intermittent snow cover, winter damage each year was moderately severe on upper stem flower buds and leaf buds. Plant flower occurrence in the first two growing seasons was near zero for Bluetta and Bonus, low for Reka (12 %) and moderate for Chippewa (55 %). Blueberry plant flower occurrence on sawdust (12 %) and wood chip mulch (12 %) was less than half of flower occurrence under black plastic mulch (28 %). Assessment of flower occurrence and berry yield will continue through the 2017 production season.