Blueberry Fungus Found In Some Maine Fields

Blueberry growers in Maine are finding evidence of a leaf fungus that has devastated crops in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and can only be cured by burning the fields. Valdensinia leaf spot spreads easily and quickly in damp weather. It causes leaves to drop off the plant and interrupts the normal cycle of bud set for the next season.

Seanna Annis, a blueberry pathologist at the University of Maine, tells the Bangor Daily News that not only will the fungus damage many fields this year, if it goes undetected in larger barrens, it could destroy the crop next year.

Annis said the blueberries are unaffected and can be eaten, but those fields must be burned to halt the spread of the fungus to other, healthy fields.

Source : WBZ