The Cultivation of Half-High Bush Blueberry under Organic Farming Condition

• Marge Starast (1,2), Kadri Karp (2), Ele Vool (2), Ulvi Moor (2)
• (1)University of Tartu, Institute of Botany and Ecology
• (2)Estonian Agricultural University, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 64, 50412 Tartu, Estonia
  E-mail: starast@eau.ee
• The Third International Conference onIPM Role in Integrated Crop management and Impacts on Environment and Agricultural Products. 26-29 November 2005, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

For century's decades, blueberries maintained popularity in the North America, with a thriving commercial business in the Northeast USA and Canada. Today, blueberries are grown commercially in South America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and South Africa. Blueberries contain number of beneficial photochemical contributing to health. These include: antioxidants, anthocyanins, bacterial inhibitors, folic acid, vitamins A and C, carotenoids, ellagic acid, and dietary fibers. The goodness of this little fruit, they are becoming more and more popular. It is important to use methods of blueberry cultivation that don't decrease quality of this valuable fruit. The aim of the study was to find out the influence of organic farming on production and yield quality of half-high bush blueberry. In the trial two half-high bush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum x Vaccinium angustifolium) cultivars 'Northblue' and 'Northcountry' were used and 6 different cultivation technologies (mineral soil without mulch (control); mineral soil with peat mulch; mineral soil with sawdust mulch; ground mixture (mineral soil + peat) with peat mulch; ground mixture (mineral soil + peat) with plastic mulch; mineral soil with plastic mulch) were employed. The blueberry experiment was carried out in South Estonia in 6-year-old blueberry plantation. The gap between the plants was 0.7 m and the space between two rows was 1.5 m. our results showed that the half-high bush blueberry was grown best when peat was used (ground mixtures and peat mulch). Average yield of blueberry plant was 56…1136 g. Significantly higher yield was obtained from variants with peat. The berry weight of cultivar 'Northblue' was 1.2…1.7g and of 'Northcountry 0.4…0.8 g. Using plastic mulch decreased weight of berries.