ALLISON POTTER ALLISON POTTER
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Top: Ivanhoe Blueberry Farm cultivates 620 acres in Sampson
and Pender counties. Above: Each pollinated blossom on a
mature bush becomes a sweet blueberry, ready for harvest
(opposite page).
F e r T i l e G R O u n D
FOR BlueBerrieS
BY CHRISTINE R. GONZALEZ
Ideal soil conditions
make the region
perfect for
blueberry farming
UE TO COVID-19 restrictions,
the 2020 N.C. Blueberry Festival
in Burgaw has been canceled, but
blueberry farming and harvesting
continues to thrive as it has for many genera-tions,
undeterred.
Blueberry cultivation is, in fact, growing in
our region with North Carolina now farming
over 7,500 acres a year. New varieties of blue-berry
plants sprout up all the time.
But commercial farmers don’t just plant a
bush one year and expect a crop the next, or
even the next. Bushes are cultivated for two
years before they are planted in the field. After
the first year, there is sparse production, then
a bit more the next.
“It takes about five years for a plant to reach
full crop potential,” says Willie Moore of
Ivanhoe Blueberry Farm.
Moore is a third-generation blueberry
farmer. His father, uncle and grandparents
began their farm in Sampson County in 1941
on five acres. His family now has 620 acres
under cultivation in Sampson and Pender
counties.
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