So much time goes into cleaning our blueberry bushes. We began the process in December. We have about 8 acres of Jersey blueberry bushes that have a case of the gall wasps. Long story short, a small hard ball like gall forms here on there on the blueberry stems. Oddly enough, not all blueberry varieties are affected by gall wasps. There is no known pesticide to remedy the problem but since we are soon starting the USDA organic process, of course we wouldn't spray. So, for now, the only option is to hand remove each gall before Spring arrives on thousands and thousands of bushes. It isn't a hard task, it just takes lots and lots of time especially when it's about 2-3 people only assigned to the task.
Another task is ripping the grapevines that have grown up and around into some of the Jersey bushes. Now this is a very labor intensive process.
We will not be pruning the Jersey bushes since we do love love love these bushes for the blueberry foliage it provides. The shape and flexibility is absolutely gorgeous. However, we will be pruning all of our Elliot bushes to add airflow and hopefully alleviate some of the SWDs...a fruit fly that loves blueberries.
Last week we were able to apply just in time for a government program that helps out farmer's that grow specialty crop. Kudos to The Floral Source for making an announcement regarding this program on their IG. Because of them we quickly jumped on the bandwagon even though we were on vacation. We are still waiting to see if we were approved.
On the Horizon?
-Successfully tackle all V-Day arrangements and February events.
-Introduce our "teenage chicks" to the rest of the chicken coop at the end of March as well as doctor a chick that has splay legs.
-Begin planting plugs in April and May using our paper pot transplanter tool from Never Sink Tool! We will be tackling this tool using a different approach than what it was designed for. The difference is that we will transplant our plugs that we ordered from Farmer Bailey's into the paper pot system. Hopefully the plugs will successfully root and we will then use the tool to easily plant thousands of flower plugs into our garden. Usually the process is started from seed right into the paper pots but we prefer to purchase our plugs.
-Test and trial a stinging nettle concoction to remedy the gall wasp situation on our Jersey bushes.
-Check on the bees to see if they made it thru this frigid winter.
-Contact a company in Indiana that can mentor and begin the USDA organic certification process for our farm.
From here on out I’ll end my blogs with a florist tip or farmers tip: My experience with preorders and Valentine’s Day is this: Seldom will guys preorder. They usually call day of to have flowers delivered. I am ready and setup for this scenario but also have a limit on the amount of bouquets I will make.
Till our next blog...now GO and start a garden.