Drought conditions are making berry picking yield little to no fruit

While severe drought conditions are making many residents are wishing for rain and cooler temperatures. However, farmers are doing the best they can with enduring the dry heat and tending to their plants.

Nathan Langer, the owner of Sweet Land Farm, said usually its a late frost is the first concern with growing blue berries. However, drought conditions can cause lasting damages to plants’ root system. “A lot can change between now and when the blueberries are actually ripe. If we get a hailstorm or anything like that, it could really change things.” Langer said. “Farming is trying to mitigate as many risks as you can or control as many things that you can control. And so we have a really big deer fence to keep out the deer we have drip tape irrigation to mitigate the risks of a drought.”

Diane Podgornik, the owner of Whoopsa Daisy farm, said an issue with growing raspberries are Brown Marmorated Stink bugs. “First of all, they need a mulch because that’s going to hold the moisture in. Get rid of all the other weeds that are sucking the water away. You really need to work on just getting the water to the plant you want. When it’s this dry, I just individually water every single plant and it’s just persistence every couple of days.” Podgornik said.  “If we keep getting in a drought year after year, I don’t know if I can keep up with all this watering. When I’m spending all my time watering and I’m not getting all my other tasks done. That’s probably my biggest concern. I’m running off well right now. So that is a concern for me.”

For other stories about how the drought conditions are making it difficult for residents in the Northland you can look here. For more information on berry picking you can read more here.