By Sharon Omahen


University of Georgia

Recent rains across Georgia have the state’s blueberry
growers holding their breath as to whether they’ll make a profit
this year.

“Wet weather like this keeps us from picking fresh berries,” said
Joe Cornelius, president of the Georgia Blueberry Growers
Association. “We can pick (berries for processing) when it’s wet,
but not berries for the fresh market, and the fresh bring a
higher price.”

When it comes to blueberries, it’s not the volume of rain that
growers fear.

It’s not the volume that hurts

“What hurts is the duration that the berry skins are wet,”
Cornelius said. “If they stay wet 24 hours, you’ll have problems,
36 hours you have serious problems, and 48 hours you’re in big
trouble.”

The wetness causes the berries to split open, making them useless
to growers and consumers.

“The berries that split are eaten up or blown out or torn up by
our picking equipment,” he said. “So you don’t get any dollar
value out of them.”

On his 184-acre Manor, Ga., farm, Cornelius has already lost
profits because of the rain.

“It’s costing us now in fresh and frozen berries,” he said.
“Another three or four days of this and we are going to lose out
completely.”

About 60 percent of Georgia’s blueberries are sold to the frozen
market and 40 percent for the fresh market. Most Georgia berries
are exported across North America and into parts of Europe,
Cornelius said.

State grows two types of berries

Around 90 percent of Georgia’s blueberries are rabbiteye
varieties that are harvested from late May to July or early
August. The rest are southern highbush.

“You can’t tell by looking at the berries which type they are,”
Cornelius said. “But there are differences in flavor. The
rabbiteyes have a little tougher skin and a little more texture.
The key is to keep either type on the bush as long as possible to
produce a better-tasting berry.”

Before the rains hit, Georgia growers were enjoying the best
early crop they’ve ever had. Production was higher than normal in
southern highbush blueberries this season, but the dollar value
was down, Cornelius said. The rabbiteye production was promising
before the rains came.

“The latest crop reports show the 2003 farm gate value of Georgia
blueberries was $26.7 million,” said Scott NeSmith, a University
of Georgia horticulturist. “In 1990, there were just 3,200 acres
of blueberries in Georgia, and now there are just shy of 8,000.”

New varieties bred to help growers

NeSmith works closely with Georgia growers as the state’s
blueberry breeder. He tests potential new varieties on Georgia
farms across the state. Those tests’ results have yielded better
varieties for Georgia growers.

“We’ve increased Georgia’s blueberry season significantly over
the past six to eight years with new southern highbush
varieties,” he said. “What makes our breeding program so
successful is grower input.”

Growers tell NeSmith what qualities they need in new varieties,
and he works to breed them into a new release. In the past two
years NeSmith released two new rabbiteye varieties and just
released a new southern highbush variety.

“The new highbush, Palmetto, has good flavor and quality and
produces medium-sized berries,” NeSmith said. “Farmers will also
like the fact that it can be harvested in late April to the first
of May, which gets their berries into the fresh market even
earlier.”

Cornelius says he and other growers try to be realistic in their
requests for new varieties.

“Each variety has good and bad traits, and Scott works to
increase the good and decrease the bad,” he said. “That’s what we
need.”

He chuckles at the input a grower once gave a Florida breeder.

“A friend of mine told a plant breeder once, what we need is a
berry you can throw up in the air 10 feet, let it bounce to the
concrete, roll 20 feet, and then put in a cup and sell,”
Cornelius said.