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SPRINKLE'S
BLUEBERRY FARM CLOSED FOR THE 2024 SEASON
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GO TO GUEST PHOTO GALLERY AT THE BOTTOM OF
PAGE June 22, 2023
We will plan to open Saturday morning the 24th at 7:00 AM till 12:00 noon, based on the weather. It looks like Saturday's rain is due around 1:30. If we don't get enough berries picked we may also open Sunday 7:00 to 12:00 noon. Check the web site for update. We opened 12 days earlier than last year which surprised us all. Thank you to all who faithfully watch this page and responded on short notice. As this was the 3 year in a row that we had early bloom freeze I am looking closely at possible reasons and solutions to the early bloom. Possibly the conventional practice of Pruning in February along with our aggressive nutrition and irrigation regiment may be partly to blame. Summer pruning has been a technique found to delay blooming by nearly two weeks. We may give this a try. That means we will be starting pruning as soon as Harvest is over. This is also when we need to start our propagation. First harvest was significantly lower due to the early bloom and late freeze. We will have our later crop to follow after this weeks rains. Maybe as early as the end of the the week so stay connected with us for updates. Please either bring small cash denominations or be prepared to use Zelle for payment.
We now have nearly 2000 bushes in production this year, nearly 800 more than last year the freeze thinning has served a good purpose. By reducing crop load the remaining berries are enjoying more growth vigor. We expect even larger and sweeter fruit. We are fine tuning our drip irrigation and fertigation program and the bushes are responding. Look at the short 8 min Video on the right showing how we monitor plant and fruit health by SAP analysis using a field refractometer. I will go into more details later as to why our soil sample reports may not have shown us that our irrigation water pH of 7.5 was a problem. Between the bushes we planted in our field and the ones sold we have already sold out of our nursery bushes for this year but are making plans to increase our propagation efforts. Lots of good things just around the corner. Keep checking in.
We have recently been certified by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as a Registered Nursery. I'm sure we can all agree that we are living in interesting and challenging times. High fuel cost and fertilizer costs are challenging for farmers. We are expecting to see significant production increases as our new bushes mature and realize we need to increase our number of pickers. For this reason we will not be raising our price on u-pick berries this year. We will hold the $2.50 per pound price this season. Our picking buckets will hold over 1 1/2 Gallons. So that you can gauge your Weight and price here is a picture of our bucket marked with Lbs and price.
If you are interested in the process of
restoring our field please view the YouTube Video on
the home page of this web site. I have spent about two years collecting
video shots that demonstrate how we propagated our bushes from our
existing best producers. I will share how we prepared the field for the
new planting and see our new fertigation system in operation.
We
are so thankful for your support which confirms to us that our ongoing
restoration work to expand our production is important.
We are getting
through this early dry spell with our drip irrigation and better managing
our fertilization with the Dosatron injection system.
Our new bush planting has been a surprise as well.
Now the grass mowing begins!
2022
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Pick
Your Own Blueberries in Forsyth County