ABSTRACT

In the early part of the 21st Century most berry fruit is available year round in markets throughout the world. Wholesale prices, however, may vary greatly depending on season, production factors, and market conditions. In North America peak production of highbush blueberries occurs in July and August, but prices on world markets tend to peak later, in October and early November before southern hemisphere fruit becomes widely available (Figure 1). This suggests that there are opportunities for northern growers to use a combination of in-field maturity control and postharvest storage techniques to extend the marketing period for their berries into the mid-Fail to capitalize on high market prices. A number of strategies are needed in order to maintain availability of fruit in late October and early November. First, cultivars that produce mature fruit relatively late in the season must be selected. Then, it may be necessary to manipulate fruit maturity in the field, and finally storage techniques must be devised to maintain fruit quality until the target marketing period. While a range of cultivars are available to pro-

duce fruit from early to late season, there is little information on in-field techniques to control maturity. Plastic tunnel culture has been used to provide early fruit from southern highbush blueberries (Sampson and Spiers, 2002). Bal et al. (1993) have reported the use of row-covers to delay maturity by up to 3 weeks in The Netherlands. Shutak et al. (1956) reported that reducing the light intensity incident on developing fruit delayed ripening, suggesting that shading might be used to extend the harvest season. Still, the concept of using row covers on selected cultivars in combination with post-harvest storage methods to extend the marketing season has not been reported.