ELLSWORTH — The mild winter and early spring are pushing Maine’s wild blueberries into bloom ahead of schedule, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, according to David Yarborough, blueberry specialist at the University of Maine Extension Service.
The good news is the early bloom could lead to a very large crop. If the weather reverses, however, a killing frost could decimate the plants, he said.
“It’s happening quicker than we wanted it to,” Yarborough said Tuesday. “Generally we don’t see blueberry bloom occurring until the second or third week of May, but we have lots of area in bloom now. That’s because we didn’t have much frost in the ground and spring occurred very early.”
“It looks like at this point the potential for a very big crop or a very big disaster if we get a big bloom and we go back to normal weather conditions and it frosts out,” he said. “A killing frost could decimate the blossoms.”
“It really depends on the summer weather conditions and moisture,” Yarborough said.