Spring Newsletter 2024
This edition features updates from the UDSA, Update from the Northwest Berry Foundation, our latest industry fact sheets, and industry announcements.
Optimizing Nutrient Management for Organically Grown Blueberries East of the Cascade Range
Northern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) production east of the Cascade Range is an important contributor to the national supply of organic blueberries. However, native soil conditions are alkaline, have high free calcium content, and low in organic matter. Although growers amend soils to lower pH and provide organic matter, these soil characteristics influence nutrient cycling and availability. Growers need data-driven guidelines on how to optimize nutrient management for their unique growing conditions, but few studies have been conducted in this important region. This project addressed that need with an emphasis on organic nitrogen fertility practices by evaluating the effects of commercially available organic nitrogen fertilizer sources applied at low, medium, and high rates on blueberry yield, fruit quality, and various plant and soil variables. Organic fertilizer nitrogen mineralization dynamics were also characterized via a laboratory incubation study at different temperatures.
Trials of Advanced Raspberry selections to evaluate suitability for IQF processing and to promote adoption
A new cultivar, ‘Cascade Premier’, and an advanced selection, ‘WSU 2188’, were compared with industry standard cultivars under commercial production and processing conditions. The cultivars were evaluated for Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) processing quality, yield, pest tolerance, disease susceptibility and winter hardiness. ‘Cascade Premier’ was compared with adjacent, similarly managed ‘WakeHaven®’. ‘Cascade Premier’ yields were limited at one location by cane botrytis, which reduced the numbers of fruiting laterals. ‘Cascade Premier’ generally produced fewer, but larger fruits than WakeHaven®. Under warm conditions favoring rapid ripening, ‘Cascade Premier’ produced IQF quality fruit when harvest intervals were short enough (less than 3 days), but became too soft for IQF processing at longer harvest intervals.
Taking proof of concept to wide-scale field use: The OSU high- performance dendrometer
During the duration of this project researchers refurbished the electronics of all 32 dendrometers and manufactured carbon fiber parts for the new 3 spring design. Two deployments were completed, one at the beginning of the summer and one in mid- summer. The deployment in mid-summer included 3 devices with a new 3-spring design to improve stability over the original 1-spring design from previous years. Researchers worked closely with engineers to implement a data-cleaning algorithm, which removes statistically significant outliers and removes skipping or incongruencies in the data due to bumping or other mechanical disturbances. While effective it is still being improved, live updates are transmitted via 4G LoRa telemetry once every four hours. Measurement data is stored on the SD card at the original 15-minute interval. To further investigate the dendrometer and the 3-spring design, researchers performed off-season experiments in a greenhouse. Researchers continued to develop 4G telemetry capabilities for rapid evaluation of plant water status and device functionality.
The effect of soil parameters on plant-parasitic nematodes of wine grapes in Washington and Oregon
Plant parasitic nematodes are costly pests that cause global crop loss of over $100 billion dollars. Previously it was thought that the large populations of ring nematode in Oregon and Northern root-knot nematode in Washington vineyards were caused by differences in soil characteristics. It was found that soil texture had no influence on both types of nematode population growth. It was found that Northern root-knot nematodes that live inside of the roots thrived in acidic (low pH) soil more than alkaline (high pH) soil. It was found that soil pH had no effect on ring nematodes that live outside of the roots. Also generated was a computer model to automate nematode egg counting. These results will help generate parasitism risk maps, helping wine grape growers make better vineyard planting decisions, and will increase the speed with which scientists can identify plant parasitic nematode eggs.