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Using Shade Cloth on Blackberries: Status report on an on-farm SARE 2014/15 Project

This report details a SARE 2014/15 project using shade cloth to improve the quality of blackberries in the Southeast. The project aims to reduce heat stress, improve fruit quality, and mitigate frost damage.

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Using Shade Cloth on Blackberries: Status report on an on-farm SARE 2014/15 Project

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  1. Using Shade Cloth on Blackberries: Status report on an on-farm SARE 2014/15 Project Walker Miller The Happy Berry Inc. Six Mile, SC

  2. Problem: Provide quality blackberries for late summer/fall harvest in the hot Southeast • High temperatures are associated with red, white and aborted drupelets • Dr. Clarks Observations of beautiful fruit in the Pacific Northwest suggested an association with cooler temperatures • Stanton and others reported floral incompetence at 95 degree days and 72 degree nights on primocane-fruiting berries • Viability of pollen - duration stigma receptivity SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  3. Opportunity: Piedmont area of the upper Southeast characteristics • Elevations of 800 to 1000 feet + – cooler? • Late fall frost events – Long term aver. Nov. 1 • Thermal inversion east side of Lake Keowee • Wind machine • All equal a potential long harvest window • Israel researcher indicated similar problem with high temps was addressed with shade cloth • Shade cooling • Shade reflectance of heat in light frost events SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  4. Objectives 2014 • Develop shade cloth support structure • Would work on steeply sloped terrain • Enable tractor • Middle mowing, • Air assisted spraying • Directed weed management spraying • Uses local available supplies • Retractable and deployable (snow, hurricanes, etc.) • Verify shade cloth anticipated impacts • Lower high temps • Improved quality berries • Reduced heat loss in frost events SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  5. The trellis system • Approximately 1000 feet of row ~ 10 rows on 10 ft centers • 500 feet Black Magic 500 feet Prime Ark • Trellis • 26 - 4x4 treated 12ft & 20, 3 Ft Anchors ($400) • High tensile Wire 1000 ft ($25) • Top rail chain link fence 1100 ft ($1200) • Hardware – 26 and 34 lag screws, 24 - 45 degree connectors, 17 end caps 26 “u” straps ($75) • 400 ft 14 gauge electric fence wire and 30 strainers ($100) • Total In round numbers $1800 For project or $7850 per acre SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  6. Trellis continued SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  7. Shade Cloth – Pak UnlimitedChuck Hearn, York SC phone 877 726 2968 • Aluminet 50% shade (Plant where individual cloths cut, taped and grommeted is in Toccoa Georgia) • Case of blind leading the blind • Ended up with 13 cloths • I designed the system not understanding how the shade cloths are made what widths work for them • What we got did not fit and we had to add additional wires took a really long time to sort it out • Total cost including grommets every 5 feet, hooks, Zip ties $3046 dollars approximately 10,000 sq feet Just shy of ¼ acre • Black 30% cost would have been $1952 dollars SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  8. Temperatures • Shade Cloth up by July 25, 2014 • NOAA Temp box up by August 13, 2014 with mercury thermometer in shade and in sun • NOAA Box temp not much different in shade than in sun • Second thermometer added out-of-box August 18 – 8 records/day • In Shade In Sun • In box – out of box In box – out of box • Hi – low hi - low hi – low hi – low • 68 103 67 94 67 101 66 • See Problem SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  9. Temperatures out-of-box • Number of days out-of-box temperature • Lower in sun 69 Days, in days obs. made • Same “ “ 11 “ “ “ “ “ • higher “ “ 11 “ “ “ “ “ • Frost days out-of-box temp in shade • Lower in shade 0 Days, in days of frost (fall) • Same “ “ 0 “ “ “ “ “ “ • Higher “ “ 9 “ “ “ “ “ “ • Who amongst has not experienced significant cooling in the shade of a tree? This does not hold true for “Aluminet Shade Cloth” SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  10. Temperatures in NOAA box • Number of days in-box high temp different than temperature in the shade • Lower in sun 42 Days • Same “ “ 32 “ • Higher “ “ 14 “ • Number of days in-box low temp different than temperature in the shade • lower in sun 57 Days • Same “ “ 27 “ • Higher “ “ 7 “ • In-box temps suggest “Aluminet Shade Cloth” did not reduce high temps; ie cooler in the sun • But strongly suggest Shade Cloth did increase night time temperatures SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  11. Temperature bottom line for Aluminet shade cloth • Aluminet Shade cloth appears to increase both day and night time temperatures • Based on Stanton and others warmer temperatures • Would decrease flora competence resulting in more distorted fruit • It suggests that shade cloth could extend the season by reducing light frost event • Stanton and others indicated that number of flower petals, sepals and leaf out growths on sepals were phenotypic indicators of flower competence SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  12. Floral competence using phenotypic indicator ^ ^ Normal Flower Sepals with leafy outgrowths SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  13. Floral competence using phenotypic indicators • We examine 10 freshly open flowers each morning counting petals, sepals and if there out growths on sepals on both Black Magic and Prime Ark • A normal flower got a rating of 1. Therefore 5 petals, sepals and no out growths • For each additional petal, sepal and the presence of out growth (yes or no) would get and additional count • For example a flower with 6 sepals, 7 petals and an out growth would be rated as 5 • The 10 flower ratings would be totaled and average # is reported for each day SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  14. Floral competence using phenotypic indicators • 47 days out of 72 days Black Magic flowers were “closer to normal” than Prime Ark SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  15. Other significant observations • In late October Number of Prime Ark Flowers declines while Black Magic Continues blooming SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  16. Other observations • Blackberry Etch and Broad Mite Note fine etching which when drupelet swells, cracks - mainly on Black Magic Note downward cupping leaves worse on Prime Ark SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  17. The End - Questions Retracted for winter/sun East – west rows SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  18. Background Literature • Vincent, C. I., Garcia, M. E., Johnson, D. T. and Rom, C. R. Broad Mite on Primo Cane Fruiting Blackberry in Organic Production in Arkansas. Hort Technology, August 2010 20(4) pp 718-723 • Stanton, M. A., Scheerens, J.C., Funt, R. C., and Clark, J. R., Floral Competence Of Primocane-fruiting Blackberries Prime-Jan and Prime-Jim Grown at Three Temperature Regimens. HortScience Vol. 42(3) June 2007 pp 508-513 • Clark, J. R., Demchak, K., Finn, C. E., Lowe, J. D., Pomper, K. W., and Crabtree, S. B. Black Magic (APF-77) Primocane Fruiting Blackberry. Journal of the American Pomological Society 68 (3) 2014: pp 163-170 • Clark, J. R., and Perkins-Veazie, P. APF-45 (Prime Ark 45)Primocane-fruiting Blackberry. HortScience 45(4) 2011: pp670-673 SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  19. Post Script • The Happy Berry Inc. is a small family farm that markets directly to the consumer through pick-your-own and pre-picked on-farm sales (65%), at approximately 4 local farmers markets within 30 miles of the farm (30%) and a few Road side stands at the bequest of our customers(<5%). Farm objectives are to be economically viable, ecologically sound and socially responsible, mainly to our local community. We believe that crops should be perennial and made to last. In the future energy intensive transport will be rationed and reserved for foods can not be produced locally or where local food production is more carbon intensive than long distance transport. As noted in the last slide of this presentation we are investigating use of living shade and canopy management as slow follow-on to this project. Something is going on as berries observed in the first year had no white drupelets, were pretty by local standards in both varieties. The shade cloth approach is more carbon intensive and as our ecological thinking progresses we are considering substituting nut pines for Loblolly and Longleaf pines now planted. Pines are non epicormic thus enable canopy management. SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

  20. Post Script Continued • The negatives of on-site canopy/shade management will be, labor of canopy management, competition for sun and water, wind management from wind tower during inversion frost events and general increase in complexity of the production system (for example blackberry psyllid management and greater bird perching/depredation). • The positives are passive frost protection, more carbon sequestration on site and consequent increase in cationic exchange capacity, slowing down rain storms thus more water deposition on-site, reduced ripe fruit loss through reduce wind in violent summer storms, greater onsite diversification improving habitat for predator prey relationships, greater soil genesis through deep root extraction of minerals from bedrock, circulation of nutrients like P and K and cooler temperatures. SARE#FS13-276 "Shade Cloth For Fall Bearing Blackberries"

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