Stop the rot: blueberry research in the US

A Michigan State University scientist has received a $3.95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to develop strategies for implementing and maintaining effective management practices for blueberry fruit rot.

Timothy Miles, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, is leading a team of researchers in addressing ways to improve blueberry quality while limiting their loss before, during and after harvest.

The USDA-funded project, part of the USDA’s Speciality Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), is called “BLUE DYNAMO: An Interactive Platform to Deliver Blueberry Disease and Horticultural Management Strategies for Fruit Rots”.

Due to their health benefits, blueberries are sometimes referred to as “little blue dynamos”, but in this case, “BLUE-DYNAMO” is an acronym that stands for “Building the Latest Understanding in Extension — Disease Management that Yields New and Meaningful Outputs”.

Two common fruit rot diseases that alter the quality and yield of blueberry crops in the US are Anthracnose fruit rot (AFR) and Botrytis fruit rot (BFR). AFR shows itself by wilting blueberries and producing spore masses that appear as orange speckles. BFR typically occurs in cooler temperatures and presents as grey mould on blueberries and other crops.

Much is already known about these diseases through previously conducted studies; however, according to Miles, advancements in technology and joint action across the US will propel current knowledge forward and address stakeholder needs.

Objectives of the research project include:

• Learning how management techniques impact the onset of fruit rot.
• Applying molecular tools to accelerate the time it takes to detect fungicide resistance in pathogens.
• Generating cultivar-specific fruit quality models to predict fruit vulnerability to rots, and using optical-imaging technology to filter and sort blueberries vulnerable to fruit rot.
• Providing efficient ways growers and field specialists can access information drawn from the conducted research.

A website is being designed that will allow for materials to be uploaded for educational and outreach purposes, making findings and recommendations easily available.

“Anything we find using this grant — grower information, important publications and other resources related to fruit rot — will be in here,” Miles said. “We may also build this into more than just information about fruit rot because it’s supposed to be a portal growers can use to gain knowledge on how to manage blueberry diseases.”

Other MSU researchers included in the grant are Josh Vander Weide, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Horticulture; Yuzhen Lu, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (BAE); and Cheyenne Sloan, a blueberry and small fruit educator with MSU Extension.

The team will observe how pathogens develop in relation to weather conditions and the maturity at which they’re picked.

Fruit rot often develops while the blueberries are packaged. “That’s why sometimes when we buy blueberries from the store, they’re mouldy within a few days. The likelihood that this occurs depends on the cultivar, as well as when they’re harvested and how far they’re shipped,” which is why they sometimes rot a few days after purchase. This depends on the cultivar, as well as when the fruit is harvested and how far they’re shipped,” Vander Weide said.

After harvest, the researchers will use the latest technology to sort blueberries, separating ones that have been infected or are more likely to become infected with fruit rot based off certain qualities of the fruit.

Image credit: iStock.com/Pavel Samsonov