Apr 4, 2012

MSU launches reformatted blueberry website

The MSU Blueberry Team has moved to a new format for information delivery, the Michigan Blueberry Facts website. The MSU Blueberry Team faced a dilemma in 2011. Grant funding for the MSU Blueberry Newsletter had expired. This free email and print newsletter was extremely popular with blueberry growers, but there was no funding to create and mail it out to growers. The old MSU blueberry website also needed updating to allow posting of new information. The solution was to reorganize the blueberry website to contain current information and to serve as an information delivery system.

Timely articles and scouting reports will be prepared for online delivery and posted to the MSU Extension News Fruit Page and on the Michigan Blueberry Facts webpage. You will no longer receive an email or PDF file each week. Instead, the blueberry information will be posted at the Michigan Blueberry Facts website. If you want to get an email alert when new articles are posted, go to the bottom of the page and sign up for the RSS feed. Or just check back regularly for new information. Please let us know what you think of this new format.

The Michigan Blueberry Facts website also contains an archive of all the past Michigan Blueberry Newsletters. These can be found by clicking on Pest Management and then on Michigan Blueberry Newsletter Archives. These will be a useful resource to read detailed discussions for insect and disease control. This season you may want to go back and find articles that were written not on the same date, but by comparing growing degree days or the growth stage of the blueberries when the article was written.

The new website also contains a listing of upcoming blueberry meetings and a way to contact team members directly using the Ask an Expert box. You can type in a question or send a comment and it will be delivered to the blueberry team member most qualified to answer.

By Mark Longstroth, Rufus Isaacs and Joy Landis, Michigan State University