I spent one day this weekend hanging out with friends from outside the PNW. Like I do with every outing during the summer, I tote along a half flat of some berry or another because it’s easy and delicious. Clearly I’m taking the bounty of our region for granted because everyone was floored and raving about eating the blueberries I brought.

The heatwave is upon us! Remember the one good thing this heat is doing is helping us battle SWD. I haven’t spoken about this particular concern for a couple weeks so why not provide you with an update.

The heat from the third week in July dropped SWD pressure last week. The incredibly dry conditions in the region are also helping drop the pressure.

We’re in the down swing of harvest in most berries. I say this every year but it’s going fast. We have a glut of blueberries coming in right now and the price is dropping. That being said, I have a few suggestions for getting through the rest of harvest.

As a platinum sponsor perk we’re providing information on an event opportunity at Fall Creek® Farm & Nursery, Inc:

High chill commercial blueberry growers are invited to a unique learning and networking event hosted by Fall Creek®

As a platinum sponsor perk we’re providing information on an event opportunity at Fall Creek® Farm & Nursery, Inc:

High chill commercial blueberry growers are invited to a unique learning and networking event hosted by Fall Creek®

We’ve got some fine growing weather and not so fine fruit rot weather. There hasn’t been enough rain to see much on split blueberry fruit but fruit rot in all berries is showing up sporadically. Add the sunburn from the heat a week ago and you have some ok but not great fruit quality to work around.

There is more to life than SWD so I’m literally forcing myself to not put SWD front and center for yet another newsletter. Instead let’s do what we do best: complain about the weather and project fruit impacts related to said weather.

It’s kind of awkward to be quickly surrounded by folks at a field day after someone hands me a bruised strawberry asking what the problem might be. I’m automatically opening and finding larvae like it’s a first grade show and tell experience gone wrong.