Cold spring not expected to impact blueberries

Cold, wet weather in the early part of the spring on P.E.I. is not expected to have much of an impact on this year's blueberry crop.

"The blueberries seem to be immune to early or late springs," said David MacNearney, past president of the P.E.I. Wild Blueberry Growers Association.

In 12 years of growing on his West St. Peters fields, said MacNearney, the crop has been ready within a day or two of the same mid-August date every year. Because the plants are mostly wild, he said, there is a lot of genetic diversity in the field, and they seem to tolerate a large range of conditions.

The spring did get off to a bad start, he said.

"We've had a couple of frosts and very poor pollination weather so that can all negatively impact the crop," he said.

Bees weren't flying much in the cold, wet weather of the early spring, but MacNearney said, but they have been making up for lost time in the last week.

Blueberries march by their own timetable, he said, and you never can tell what you're going to get.

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