Nova Scotia’s blueberry growers have a little bit more optimism heading into next year’s season after an unprecedented drought.
Janette McDonald, the Executive Director of the Wild Blueberry Producers Association of Nova Scotia says the summer of 2025 was so dry it led to a 55 per cent reduction in the wild blueberry crop in our province.
“Which resulted in berries that were shriveling and dropping off the plants and were unharvestable,” says McDonald. “It was just a lot of stress and worry and really just it wasn’t a great feeling.”
However, because of the moisture we had this fall, she says, they’ve shifted their mindset back to something a little more positive.
“More snow would be great. A nice blanket of insulation,” adds McDonald.
She says the freeze/thaw periods that we get are worrisome when it comes to plant damage and whether plants will rebound or not.
Financial help
A lot of the association’s blueberry growers lost a lot of their crops from the drought.
To mitigate the financial loss, they have asked the province for some help.
“To pay bills that [our growers] have. Two years of inputs into crops…things like pollination, fuel, pesticides and chemicals used to manage weeds and pests and disesase.”
Climate Change
After the floods in 2023 and the drought in 2025, McDonald says extreme weather is hard to plan for, especially since wild blueberries grow on their own.
“For a crop like wild blueberry, it’s a little bit more of an unknown. We can’t just replant something if the plant dies,” explains McDonald.
She says it will involve a lot of research and things like mulching, mowing and different types of management.
“What can we do to really protect the industry and move it forward? We’re looking at those types of things.”
