Cool summer good news for B.C. berry crops

There could be one bright side to the cloudy weather this summer — the unseasonable cold may have saved some of the Fraser Valley’s berry crops.

Tom Bauman, an agriculture professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, said the extremely cold and wet winter and fall put perennial crops at risk.

"The root systems, when they are under water, are like us — when we don’t have air we can’t function and that’s the same for the plant roots," he said. "So the roots were greatly reduced and they have now been able to regrow."

The cool summer, he said, has allowed the roots to dry out slowly.

"If we would have had a dry and hot spike, which we normally get in early May, we would have lost entire plants," he said. "It would have been far worse than what we are seeing now."

But Bauman said the crops are not out of the woods yet — if a heat wave were to hit the West Coast now, he said, it would spell disaster for B.C. berry crops.

"If we go to 32 C or 35 C, we will lose most of our raspberries and we will also see problems with the blueberries."

So, unlike many West Coasters, Bauman hopes the forecast mixed sun and cloud continues.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/22/bc-berries-cool-summer.html?ref=rss