BVT Interview with Grower: Jim Roofener of Oak Acres Nursery, Oregon скачать в хорошем качестве

BVT Interview with Grower: Jim Roofener of Oak Acres Nursery, Oregon

Ryan Dragoo, BVT’s Territory Manager for the Pacific Northwest, interviews Jim Roofener, owner of Oak Acres Nursery in Oregon. Below is the text transcript of Ryan’s interview with Jim. ------------------------ Ryan Here I'm with Jim Roofener from Oak Acres Nursery, an organic blueberry farm out in Forest Grove, Oregon - just outside of Portland. We worked this year with Jim on all 20 acres that he has out here. Jim, how long have you been growing out here for, started this blueberry field? Jim Six years. This section of the field is six years old. Ryan You've got some younger plants too down there, don't you, as well? Jim We do, yes. Ryan And how old are those? Jim We planted on one year cycles, so they run anywhere from 4 to 6 years. Ryan Is there more than one variety out here, or is there just one variety out here in the field? Jim Only legacy. Ryan Nice. How did you end up finding out about BVT and our technology, getting a hold of us? Jim Well, we were suffering from mummy berry, and through research on the internet, I just searched for solutions for mummy berry and several websites came up. Yours was one of them, and so I contacted you through the website. Ryan And we started working together. Jim We started working together from there. Yeah. Ryan Prior to this year, what was your biggest problems, disease and pressure wise, throughout the field? Jim Some botrytis, but mostly, it was, the biggest pressure was mummy berry. Ryan And what percentage in the past was your mummy berry disease pressure? Jim I think when it peaked last year, in sections of the field, it was as high as 25% or higher where it initiated its impact, and less as you get through the field. Ryan From this year I see that you are in your second pick going through it. What have you noticed percentage wise this year for your mummy berry disease? Jim I think 5% or less. Ryan You were talking about how there is also some secondary infection that can happen to some of the limbs... Jim With the new growth on the leaves and that's non-existent this year. The first pick, the fruit size was really, I call it enormous compared to the past. And the second pick here is kind of normal. What we would normally expect. Usually, the second pick is quite a bit smaller. Ryan Yeah. Jim So far so good. Ryan The weight of your palettes this last time you went through, could you discuss that with me? There was a normal weight versus what the weight you were getting in, at the warehouse. Jim Normal weight is approximately a 1000 pounds and I got a call from the processor letting us know that they were weighing in excess of 1100 pounds and his initial reaction was that we were overloading the flats and was worried that the berries were going to be smashed. And we looked, that wasn't the case at all. We didn't have any of that going on. So just the pure weight, sugar content of the product was higher and just a lot more weight. My granddaughter had found a berry in the field that weighed 7 grams by itself. Ryan That's always a nice deal. Jim She's on a mission to find big berries. Yup. Ryan This coming year do you see us working together again, and then, if anybody else had any issues like this, would you recommend the BVT system to them? Jim I would highly recommend the system, and we planned to go next year as well. I'd say more than anything, it impacted the cost. Ryan oh yeah. Jim The cost that we were incurring battling the mummy berry before this year was enormous compared ‘cause in order to test it, we pretty much curtailed any spraying, anything that we were doing before. We didn't do it. Ryan Oh right, really? And you were even doing manual clean-up too at the same time, weren't you, in the spring? Jim We were, but not this year we didn't. Ryan Yeah, which that saves a whole lot of your labor and managing people obviously, at the same time. Jim Yeah, the cost per acre is minuscule with the BVT versus doing things manually, trying to put the other products on that were just not effective at all. Ryan Yeah. Jim With organics, we don't have a lot of options. Ryan Correct. Jim And we tried every option out there and it was, in my opinion, like putting water on the plants. Ryan Well, I want to thank Jim for being out here and giving us your time. I really appreciate everything you've helped me out with this year and being a really, really great customer and I look forward to working with you in the future. Jim Yeah, you too. Ryan Thank you.