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cover story A most unusual year


Warmweather was early and persistent, giving berry industry a big jump-start and creating some problems.


By Tom Baumann I


f we even had a winter (can anyone remember?), it sure was done early.


The Haskap crop bloomed in February and early March and we started picking the first few fruit on the first of May, with commercial harvest finishing by May 21. Strawberries were starting to ripen in the fields in mid-May and commercial harvest began around May 25, with the first fruit stands popping up a good two weeks prior to normal.


We picked the first raspberries in early June — unheard of!


The blueberry season also started commercially in mid-June to late June rather than in the same period in July.


So why is that? Looking at the weather records, the trend was not terribly unusual. We had enough rain; some months were a bit drier, some normal or a bit more. We had some serious wind storms and beginning in April we had hail, heavy downpours, lightning and thunder.


Temperatures, however, were ever so slightly higher and we didn’t have any cold spells after temperatures started to rise in February, despite the odd radiation frost overnight when there were clear skies above. As a result, plants started growing roots, and later above-ground shoots, far earlier than normal. We started out about seven weeks early because of relatively warm temperatures in January, February and March, with April setting all sorts of records for many cities. Now we are told a medium-to-strong El


GRANT ULLYOT


Business got off to a brisk start for many fruit stands this year. Here, Chris Courtemanche of Fresh Quality Produce serves a customer at her farm in Yarrow.


Nino is parked off our coast, which meant warmer temperatures were expected for the summer too. It sure came to pass, with spring turning to summer and summer turning to a California summer.


Rainfall was near average, but May showed only 4 mm and June only 11 mm of precipitation at Vancouver Airport and even less elsewhere. This heightened the fire season risk, with drought conditions everywhere. Where irrigation is not available crops were shrivelling up. Where irrigation is used, most apply appropriate amounts of water, but some a bit too much — root systems actually reduce when soils remain too wet. This manifests itself in the drying up of the top growth, looking like plants are too dry and unfortunately triggering more watering.


Crop by crop to the middle of July


Strawberry: Growth started very late in comparison with the other crops as the root systems were not keeping up with the top growth.


However, once the soil warmed enough, the plants became more balanced and we had a decent crop despite big differences between fields and varieties.


Cropping in the eastern Fraser Valley started in late May and by mid-June was done already. Fruit size may have been a bit less than normal, but the sunshine really brought out the flavour and sweetness — the main reason why consumers prefer BC strawberries. The day-neutral crop is next to come on and we will once again have strawberry fruit on select farms until mid-October. Raspberry: Buds developed unevenly from the get-go (primarily in Meeker) and most plants looked a bit under the weather. However, later on these laterals did grow out (with some help from the growers) while flowers were plentiful and the weather superb for the bees to work, meaning that the eastern regions are the furthest advanced. We were looking at a very


respectable potential yield, but again British Columbia Berry Grower • Fall 2015


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