- Georgia Blueberry Grower uses Pine Bark as Growing Medium
Special Correspondent
“I could see the writing on the wall as far as growing tobacco goes,” Sears said. “So, I was one of several growers who came upon blueberries as a possible alternative crop.”
The problem was, blueberries really didn’t do very well on “used soils,” or those fields where tobacco was once grown, Sears added.
In cooperation with the University of Georgia Extension, Sears was one of several growers who began experimenting with amending the soil with pine bark mulch. The pine bark is very readily available, as it is a byproduct of the local pine lumber industry. The cost of the pine bark varies with the price of fuel as it is also used to fuel area power plants. As the pine bark breaks down it adds very much needed organic matter to the soil.
Sears lives near Nahunta, Georgia, part of the coastal plain that was created the last time the ocean receded, a couple hundred thousand years ago. That makes the white sandy soils relatively new in comparison to the soils in much of the U.S. Because they are new soils they haven’t accumulated the organic matter many growers take for granted.
Sears grows two basic varieties – the rabbiteye and the southern highbush. The rabbiteye, the easier and more profitable variety to grow, doesn’t begin producing until Memorial Day, at the end of May. The southern highbush begins producing as early as April 15. The problem for Sears and other growers was that even with the addition of the pine bark mulch the southern highbush wasn’t producing high yields. University of Georgia Extension agents worked with Sears and other growers to lay out beds of pine bark six to eight inches deep before they planted the bushes directly into the mulch.
The southern highbush plants in the pine bark beds are doing quite well, Sears said. But, creation and upkeep on the mulch beds isn’t easy or inexpensive. That’s why Sears has 35 acres of blueberries, but currently less than an acre of producing berries in the mulch beds. Sears has several more beds in their first year of planting and he is preparing several more to plant. He plans to have about five acres of the southern highbush growing in beds of pine bark mulch in the next couple of years.
Blueberries planted in the mulch beds are planted much closer together, Sears explains. He normally plants in rows 12 feet apart with the bushes six feet apart, whereas bushes in the mulch beds are planted in rows five feet apart with only a three-foot spacing within the row.
Growing the berries so close together and in a bed makes it more economical to try and prevent bird damage using netting, Sears said. The cedar wax wing migrates through the area about the time the southern highbush ripen. These birds literally cleaned out his crop one year.
When he installs the beds, he also puts in overhead sprinkler irrigation instead of the drip irrigation he uses with other plantings. The overhead sprinklers provide irrigation and frost protection for the early bearing southern highbush.
While the southern highbush is much more labor and capital intensive to grow, Sears said there is a pay-off. When the bushes begin producing in mid-April the blueberries will fetch 10 to 15 times as much as the rabbiteye blueberries do in late May.
“There isn’t much blueberry production in Florida, so we are able to come on the market after Chile is done producing and before any other growers in the U.S.,” Sears said.
The early berries are harvested by hand. Up to this year Sears picked most of the berries with the help of a couple high school boys.
“One of the reasons I was reluctant to expand was the need to hire migrant labor to pick the berries,” Sears said. “But, it will be necessary with the new plantings.”
Sears markets all of the berries through the Michigan Blueberry Growers Association (MBG). After he gets them picked into lug boxes he delivers them to another grower who acts as a collection center for MBG. This grower packs the blueberries into clamshell packages and flats to sell in grocery stores around the country.
The later rabbiteye blueberries are harvested mechanically with a harvester built by BEI.
Most of the later berries go for processing after they are delivered to a cooler and distribution center in Alma, Ga.
Even though he owns a tobacco quota and several hundred acres of farm ground, Sears never farmed on his own before. Instead he leased out the acres and the quota to other farmers.
The blueberries started out mostly a hobby, but with the increased high-density plantings, Sears said he may have created himself a new career just in time for his retirement. Sears and his wife currently own and manage several nursing homes.
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