By Clint Thompson
One Florida blueberry producer expects full bloom by the end of this week. The timing is comparable to previous years, says Ryan Atwood, who lives in Mount Dora, Florida and farms 56 acres of blueberries and manages another 350 acres.
“I’m expecting to be in full bloom maybe by Saturday. There’s no such thing as a typical year, but typically the last week of January we’re usually at full bloom if things are right,” Atwood said. “I think we might be running two or three days late, but I don’t think it’s much more than that.”
Last week’s cold weather that froze much of the Southeast had little impact on Florida blueberries.
“We ran water this past weekend, but it was really the first event that we’ve run water all year. It was a pretty marginal event for us,” Atwood said. “To give you an idea, it was like 32 (degrees Fahrenheit). We made ice because the dew point was low, so the air was dry. They say this El Niño is cool and wet, but it’s typically not like those hard freezes. It’s been unseasonably cool for our area and it’s been plenty wet, but it hasn’t been cold like last year when it was like 24 at Christmas three days in a row. This year I think 32 is about as low as we’ve gotten.”
Separation Between Florida, Georgia
Maybe more importantly for Florida growers now, it does not appear that Florida and Georgia blueberries will be ready for harvest at the same time. That has not always been the case.
“It’s always good to have some separation between us and Georgia. I think from what it sounds like and the people I talk to, I think we’re going to have that three weeks of separation which I think is important just in terms of the marketplace and not being piled on top of each other,” Atwood said. “Like last year, I felt like we were a little bit on top of each other because we were late. This year I think we’re out of the way, so to speak.”