Hurricane, cold winter damages early blueberries; but late crop is promising

May 29-- May 29--BRIDGETON -- Both Nelson and Morris blueberry farms in Bridgeton have had a rough start on the year, losing major portions of their crop to cold weather, a clogged canal and -- ahem -- a certain famous September storm.

But blueberry lovers have good news too: the late crop coming in is looking just fine.

Nelson Blueberry Farm at 211 Blueberry Lane is celebrating its 80th year of operation by climbing out of the damage done by Hurricane Florence -- and more.

The farm took hits from just about every direction.

First there was the storm surge that brought briny water into the blueberry grove. That wasn't too bad, owner Debbie Gustafson said: the resulting flooding was too brief to seriously damage the crops.

But what the wind, rain and surge did the iconic metal building from which Nelson boxed, sold and shipped berries was a different story.

"The wind took the back of the building off," she said, depositing the roof in the Shell Station property across the road. "The whole building shifted off its foundation," while 13 inches of floodwater ruined much of what was inside.

The owners of the land the building was on refused to insure it, she said and so Gustafson had to replace it out of her own pocket. The new building is on her own land; in fact it is on the same footprint where the home she grew up in once stood.

As to the storm's direct on the crop, "the berries actually started blooming out," she said. "The leaves should not have started coming back until the spring."

But Gustafson did lose about an acre's worth of trees. "The (crop) in front of Food Lion lay in water for probably three months," she said. That was flooding rainwater flowing off NC 55, and wasn't briny, but three months under water killed the blueberry bushes there.

"The water on 55 don't go nowhere," she said. According to Gustafson, the water is supposed to drain into the Duck Creek Canal, but that canal is clogged from years on inattention and beaver dams. "It hasn't been cleaned out since 1955 when they dug it," she said.

Finally, there was the cold winter. "Frost, freeze; bees didn't pollinate because it was cold and wet and windy in April," she said.

As a result, the early crop "is probably about 10 percent of the crop that I usually have." Gustafson said she has enough berries to sell locally, but pick-your-own customers are frustrated.

"People want a lot of berries and don't understand why you're not open," Gustafson said. "It's because we have no berries."

Down the road a half a mile, the Morris Blueberry Farm is dealing with a bad early crop of its own. "We've got 85 to 95 percent damage to our early crop," farm manager Shannon Register said.

Morris, that has long run on an honor system for its pick-your-own crop, said she is currently letting people come and pick if they wish -- "There are some out there," she said of the early crop, "but you kind of have to pick through it."

In other words, grab a bucket but expect to spend some time if you want to fill your bucket up.

While the Nelson bushes were flooded only briefly, Register said her fields had nowhere to drain. And so nearly all the bushes sat in briny water for days, killing or damaging many plants.

Then came the frost that Gustafson had already spoken of. "The bushes were already stunted from the storm," Register said, "and when the freeze came it burned some bushes."

While the Morris barn also took some damage, it wasn't destroyed in the storm. Still, for this year they are packaging and selling from the barn that stands in the pick-your-own section.

Both farmers say the late crop will help make up for the disaster of the early crop.

Growers plant different varieties of blueberries: for Gustafson, the early berries are from a "High Bush" variety, a plant that, while it produces an early crop, is more delicate and easily damaged.

The second crop comes in with the Rabbit Eye variety -- the same variety, she said, that you can pick up at a garden center.

"My late berries, I have a very good crop on," she said.

Register said that Morris, too, will "have enough late berries to satisfy everybody."

Both expect their late crop to be ready for picking the first week of June.

For information on the incoming crop contact Nelson Blueberries at 252-637-2180 and Morris Blueberries at 252-361-5083.

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