Strawberry season a week late due to weather, says U-Pick owner

The owner of a strawberry U-pick in Fredericton says wet, cold weather has delayed the opening of his operation by a week.

David Walker, whooperatesSunset U-Pick, siad the season normally begins the last week of June, but pickers began picking Wednesday.

He said strawberry plants only produce fruit in the second year. The blossoms are clipped in the first year so the plants produce more runners the following season.

"Towards the end of April we take the straw off and the little buds start to come out from the crown and grow. And of course this year, we had a cold wet spring and that just occurred a little bit later than normal."

Despite the bad weather, Walker said this season is an improvement over 2018.

"Last year we had a severe frost on June 4 and then again on June 7 which wiped out about a third of our crop."

Walker said he was prepared this year to irrigate for a few nights to prevent the frost from killing the blossoms, but it wasn't necessary.

No more predictions

Walker said he's done predicting what kind of a year it's going to be until after the season is over.

"Then I can tell you what kind of a year it's been. In three weeks time I'll be able to tell you that."

Despite the late start, Walker said the strawberries are looking good and are ready for picking.

"When it's had conditions like we've had, cool and wet, sometimes the fruit is not as sweet as it could be," he said. "But three or four days of warm weather and they'll certainly ripen up and they'll sweeten up as well."

U-pick operators have to watch for the risk of the fruit moulding, said Waker, especially after cold, wet days. He added it takes up to 12 hours of leaf wetness before the rot organism starts to cause mould.

"And once you get beyond 12 hours then that mould, those spores start to spread around."

But Walker said a few dry days have helped prevent that from getting too bad.

"We've picked a few the last few days for ourselves and I haven't seen that so fingers crossed."