By Clint Thompson
The blackberry season did not transpire the way one Florida producer had hoped. Matt Parke, farm manager of Parkesdale Farms in Plant City, Florida, will give it one more season or change his approach to producing the fruit in the future.
“Volume was off; probably half the volume of last year. I did get them to go to sleep, but I think it was missing some chill hours. I’m going to give it another go this season. If we don’t have it figured out by that season, we’re probably going to rotate that ground back into strawberries,” Parke said.
“We did alright last year, and I thought that was the upside where we’re going to see it steadily increase, but this year we had half the production we did year prior.
“There’s a lot of money that goes into training them things. If you can’t make money on a regular schedule, to me, it might not be worth it.”
Parke enjoyed production success in previous years, collaborating with scientists at the University of Florida institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to manipulate the production process. However, the biggest help will be when UF/IFAS breeds a variety that is more suited for his region’s environment.
“Until we have a variety that’s made for central Florida, I think it’s going to be pretty tough using these Arkansas varieties when we don’t have the cold weather to make them perform. They’ll still perform, but we have so much money invested and the costs of labor are so high that it’s not equaling out,” Parke said.