The 11th North American Blueberry Workers Conference: An Introduction

The 11th North American Blueberry Workers Conference: An Introduction

The 11th North American Research and Extension Workers Conference (NABREW) was held from July 25–28 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. NABREW has been a key educational forum for blueberry researchers, extension educators, and industry leaders since the first meeting in 1960. This conference included about 120 representatives from 12 states (California, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas) and 10 countries (Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, South Korea, and the United Kingdom).

The wide participation reflects the tremendous growth of the blueberry industry over the last few decades. Today, the total acreage in North America is at about 40,000 ha, an increase of nearly 50% over the last 5 years (Brazelton, 2009). Highbush and rabbiteye blueberries have become a major international crop, with 16,200 ha in South America, 7,300 in Europe, 2,000 in China and Japan, and 1,200 in Australia and New Zealand. Lowbush blueberries are harvested from over 60,700 ha of natural stands in eastern North America.

The conference included oral and poster presentations, and ended with a one-day tour of the Michigan blueberry industry. Sessions included reports on regional industries, breeding and genetics, cultural practices, genomics, pest management; organic production, and post-harvest handling. Dr. Charles M. “Mike” Mainland set the stage for the meeting with the keynote address, “The History of North American Highbush Blueberry Culture.”

In the talks and posters on breeding and genetics, work was described on the development of parthenocarpic types, the use of tetraploid intersectional hybrids, the effect of frost on the rabbiteye fruit set, the fruit development period in southern highbush cultivars, new southern highbush cultivars, the stability of transgenes in blueberry, and recent advances in blueberry transformation. These presentations provided valuable information on the current status of blueberry breeding work, particularly in the southern U.S., and announced that transgenic technologies are available for blueberry improvement when the Industry is ready for them.

In the presentations on blueberry culture, we were told about the industries of Texas, China, and South Korea, unheated plastic house culture in Japan, continuous versus conventional fertilization, the lateral transfer of water in blueberry bushes, effects of gypsum rate on lowbush productivity, nutrient distribution in rabbiteye blueberries, and the effect of rootstock on highbush growth. A number of posters and papers were presented on pollination biology, including the pollinators of southern highbush versus rabbiteye blueberries, commercial bumble bee pollination of lowbush, and a comparison of the effectiveness of bumble bees and honeybees as pollinators. Several reports were made on post-harvest research, including the effects of harvest date on the taste and post-harvest life of late varieties, the extraction and analysis of pectins in blueberries, and the effect of two types of clamshells on post harvest quality. The anthocyanins in blueberry species and their health benefits were also discussed.

For the first time, a NABREW meeting included specific sessions on organic production and genomics. In the organic section, nitrogen release patterns from organic sources were described, along with the effects of organic management on plant health and soil biology in Michigan, disease control options for organic blueberries, and the efficacy of organic control of the mummy berry in Maine. These talks and posters served notice that a small but strong niche exists for organic blueberry production, and that numerous scientists are committed to making these systems work.

In the genomic session, a number of molecular resources were described, including expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries, EST-based molecular markers, genetic linkage maps, transcriptome sequences from fruit, flower buds and leaves, and almost the whole sequence of the diploid blueberry. Spacial patterns of pollen flow in lowbush blueberries were also described, along with evolutionary relationships in the Vaccinium section Cyanococcus. It is clear from these papers that, in the not too distant future, blueberry breeders will be using genomic information and marker-assisted selection in their improvement programs.

Several blueberry outreach programs were described at this meeting, including presentations on growing blueberry knowledge through social networks, real time weather and pest management information systems, and a web-based educational outreach program for the whole blueberry industry. These talks represented a particularly strong effort being undertaken in the southern U.S. to catalogue existing information on the culture and health benefits of blueberries and made it readily available to growers and consumers.

A full half-day session and many posters were devoted to blueberry pests and their management. Presentations included the effect of nitrogen on stem blight and aphid population density, strategies for controlling Monilina blight, status of spotted wing drosophila in California, IPM for fruitworm control, and the use of bumble bees to vector biological fungicides, as well as blueberry gall midge in Michigan, anthracnose fruit rot resistance, Phytophthora root rot resistance, blueberry maggot management in North Carolina, blueberry silver leaf in Chile, and insecticides to control Japanese beetles.

On the last day of the meeting, there was a tour to show off many new developments in the Michigan blueberry industry, as well as some of the older production areas in the region. The tour was designed with relatively short travel time of approximately 30 minutes between stops to allow plenty of time visiting the different tour stops. Highlights of the tour included: (1) a mature planting of Liberty and Aurora, two new Michigan State University varieties; (2) new plantings of ‘Bluegold’, ‘Draper’, and ‘Liberty’ in several different management systems; (3) older fields of 40 years or more of ‘Jersey’ and ‘Bluecrop’ blueberries; (4) a tour of a modern blueberry processing facility; and (5) a demonstration of new blueberry harvesting equipment. The harvester demonstration was a particular highlight, as dozens of participants hustled behind the machine with their cameras clicking.

A number of companies and organizations provided support for the meeting. These included: U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, MBG Marketing, BEI International, Michigan Agriculture Experiment Station, Michigan State University Extension Service, Marrone BioInnovations, BRANT, BioSafe Systems, The Blueberry Store, Fall Creek Farm & Nursery Inc., and TRICKL-EEZ Company.