Blueberries in the United States: A Cultivation and Harvesting Overview

Blueberries, derived from both wild plants and cultivated varieties, hold a prominent position in the agricultural landscape of the United States. With an annual production exceeding 200,000 tons, the nation stands as the world's foremost producer of these nutritious berries. The economic significance of Vaccinium corymbosum, commonly known as the northern highbush blueberry, cannot be overstated, underscoring its pivotal role as a food crop.

The blueberry industry in the United States is primarily concentrated in ten states, each contributing significantly to the overall output. These states, spanning the geographical breadth of the country, include Oregon, Washington, Georgia, Michigan, California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Minnesota. Among these, Washington emerges as the leading producer, boasting a staggering yield exceeding 160 million pounds annually. This achievement is underpinned by the extensive cultivation of blueberry bushes across the state, encompassing over 18,000 acres of land, with a distribution of 55% in western Washington and 45% in eastern Washington.

Cultivating blueberries demands meticulous attention to soil acidity, with optimal conditions facilitating fruit production as early as the first year post-planting or establishment. The diversity of blueberry varieties, encompassing both highbush and lowbush types, underscores the adaptability of this crop to varied environments. Maturation typically occurs 50-65 days after blossoming, marking a crucial stage in the harvesting process.

Post-harvest handling is a critical phase in maintaining the quality and freshness of blueberries destined for consumer markets. Upon harvest, meticulous sorting and grading processes are employed to ensure uniformity and eliminate undesirable specimens. This involves the utilization of flotation-type washers to cleanse the berries before manual inspection for quality control.

Packaging plays a pivotal role in preserving the freshness of blueberries, with standardized container sizes such as 473ml or 946ml ensuring convenience and consistency for consumers. Following packaging, blueberries are refrigerated to temperatures between 32°F and 35°F, extending their shelf life to a remarkable 4-8 weeks. This meticulous approach to temperature control safeguards the integrity of the berries, culminating in a product that maintains its nutritional value and flavor profile from farm to table.

In conclusion, the cultivation and harvesting of blueberries in the United States epitomize a blend of agricultural innovation, technological advancement, and stringent quality standards. From the vast expanses of Washington's blueberry fields to the meticulous packaging processes, every stage of production underscores the nation's preeminence in blueberry cultivation and underscores its status as a global leader in agricultural excellence.
Blueberries in the United States: A Cultivation and Harvesting Overview

Cranberry Harvesting Methods

As spring gives way to late spring, cranberries begin their transformation, shifting from a vibrant green to a pale white (with a touch of yellow) and eventually maturing into a vivid red as the growing season progresses.

In the second week of August, before cooler nights have a chance to coax out their red hue, fully mature white cranberries are gathered. These white berries possess a more delicate flavor compared to their red counterparts. 

The window for collecting red cranberries spans from mid-September to early November, offering a rich harvest season. Two principal approaches are employed for cranberry harvesting: the wet method and the dry method. 

Wet cranberry harvesting involves flooding the bogs with water, causing the berries to rise and float. This allows machines to efficiently shake the berries loose, collecting them from the water's surface. This technique is the prevailing choice for cranberry gathering, particularly for berries destined for juices, jellies, and dried fruit. Thanks to the air pockets within cranberries, they naturally rise to the top, streamlining the harvesting procedure. 

Conversely, the dry harvesting method foregoes flooding the bogs. Instead, specialized machinery resembling lawnmowers delicately "combs" the berries off the vines. These gathered berries are then collected on a frame. Following this, the harvested fruit is transported to fresh fruit receiving stations. Here, it undergoes meticulous grading and screening, based not only on color but also on bounce ability (as softer berries lack this characteristic). Cranberries collected through dry harvesting primarily cater to the demand of the fresh fruit market.
Cranberry Harvesting Methods

Fresh blueberries

There are three main types of blue that are native to the Eastern United States:
1. “Highbush”
2. “Lowbush” and
3. “Rabbiteye”

Most fresh market blueberries are from highbush plants and most processed blueberries are from lowbush plants. Highbush blueberries together with the other commercial blueberry species are ranked as the second most economically important berry after strawberries in the U.S.

Once the fruit is harvested, storage temperature is the most important postharvest factor affecting the keeping quality of the fruit. Fresh blueberries keep best at 32 °F and 85% relative humidity. Blueberries for fresh market should be plump, firm, uniformly blue; free from moisture, trash, and decay. The best harvest maturity is pH 3.43 - 3.73 and soluble solids of 10 - 15 percent.

Fresh blueberries are available year-round to U.S. consumers due to regional growing areas in the U.S. and imports from other countries.

Manual harvesting is best for high quality fresh market fruit and it is most important for growers of blueberries to provide top quality fruit. Fresh market fruit is generally harvested by hand. This allows selection of ripe fruit with little bruising. Pickers carry five-quart collection buckets on their belts. When filled, the worker will empty the buckets or exchange it for empty buckets with a harvest supervisor.

Blueberries for the fresh market are air cleaned to remove debris. All berries are then graded and sorted. Fruit destined for the fresh market are packed in clear plastic clamshells.

It is estimated that up to 40% of the fresh berries are used for culinary purposes and the remainder are eaten fresh.
Fresh blueberries

Harvesting blueberries

Blueberries are one of very few fruits native to North America, which continues to be the largest producer of them in the world. They should harvest when they are fully colored and handling should be minimized as they are very delicate and damage easily and the bloom on the fruit surface can be destroyed.

The berries are very small and have to be picked by hand and hand harvesting of highbush blueberries is labor intensive and requires as many as 1150 hours of labor per hectare.

To get the highest quality berries, harvest 4 to 6 days after the berry turns completely blue. If picked earlier, the berries will not be as large and the flavor will not fully developed.

Over the row, self-propelled vibrating machines have been developed for harvesting   blueberries. The use of mechanical vibratos nearly triples worker productivity and reduced harvesting cost by 55%.

Even though the picking cost is lower for mechanically harvested fruit, more berries are picked per hectare by hand and they have a higher value.

Harvesting blueberries, low bush blueberries like there are in Maine, was accomplished using a tool called a rake. A rake is an odd shaped tool that has a handle. Low bush blueberries require the harvester to get drown to ground level.

Mixtures of soft ripe and hard ripe fruits should be avoided as the over-ripe ones can speed deterioration.
Harvesting blueberries

The Wild Blueberry Harvest

The Wild Blueberry Harvest
August into September is a special time of great activity. The season lasts from four to six weeks, and the berries must be harvest during fine weather while they are dry.

It coincides with school holidays, so many school children and students are able to work on the blueberry fields and earn a good wage.

Plenty of blueberry farms still rely on hand rakers who are paid for piece according to the weight or volume they harvest.

Some pick into a standard box or basket and this is the unit by which they are paid.

Crew bosses supervise the operation in the field and are paid according to the weight picked by the rakers under their charge.

Machine harvesting has become the norm on blueberry barrens or large, relatively level fields with sufficient acreage to justify the capital expenditure. This has been possible since the 1980s when the removal of weeds using herbicides became de rigueur.

All sort of machine have been tried.

One of the most successful and widely accepted of these larger machines is the Bragg harvester.

Mounted alongside a tractor, this harvester operates on the same raking or combing principles as the hand held rakes. It needs just one skilled tractor driver to operate it.

These harvesters enable blueberry growers to harvest their crops more economically and are invaluable where it is difficult to find sufficient people willing and able to harvest the crop by hand for as mutually agreeable rate of pay.

These machines have, however left a large number of Native American workers without their traditional summer jobs.

Most wild blueberries are grown in areas that also rely heavily on tourism especially in Maine. The harvest provides a time of celebration for tourist and local communities alike.

There are blueberry festivals which have a carnival atmosphere with games, procession and other entertainments.

Individual quick frozen (IQF) berries are frozen as they pass though a tunnel though which freezing air pumped as the berries are blown through.

By the time fruit reaches the end of the tunnel it is frozen. From this stage the fruit is either packed ungraded or it is color sorted to remove those that are unripe or other impurities.

Modern laser technology is being used to remove over 99 percent of unwanted material and can cope with more than 8,000 Lbs. (3,600 kg) an hour passing down the line.

Rejected fruit is blown out by a steam of air form a jet ejector, which is activated as the laser detects it.

IQF fruit has a shelf life of two years when stored in a suitable freezer. Bulk freezing of clean-washed, air dried fruit without using IQF methods results in a pack with mixed quality fruit, much of which has frozen as a mass instead of an individual berries, but it is suitable for sale to some processors for juice production.
The Wild Blueberry Harvest