Lol. Easy big guy. Was saying your pictures of the area and activities make me jealous.

Man I’m sorry I misunderstood, plus a little edgy here lately.

No big deal, I get it.

carry on!

You’re welcome to come by with or without your boat. July,Aug,Sept are best and we have room at the house and at the dock. CDA,PEND and PRIEST are all close.

Last load of plants shipped out to FL last week.
24 million plants (60 semi loads) hand graded and packed in 26 days!



As the last load hit the dock in FL, the first loads were off the irrigation and established.

Curious....so do you harvest berries in ID then at the end of the season harvest the entire plant and ship to FL to grow additional berries?

The Idaho farm is a plant nursery. No fruit is produced there, they are grown in a way that discourages fruit production and maximizes runner tip production. The tips root in and make new plants. More plants make more new plants and so on. In late September the commercial growers in FL are ready to start planting their fields for fruit production. The plants have to have a certain # of chilling hours (below 45*) to be productive for the fruit producers. This valley was chosen because it has a unique micro climate. Regardless of how hot it gets in the afternoons, it usually will get chilly after sunset. The short growing season and arid summer climate also means there are no
large scale fruit or veg crops in the vicinity to host pathogens. Fruit production in FL is a winter thing. So the freshly dug bareroot plants are shipped at 34* to Fl and planted in the warm October weather and they think it’s spring. They quickly start blooming and produce fruit steadily from around thanksgiving until around Easter. By then its getting too warm in FL and Ca begins to dominate the market. The fields are then destroyed and prepared for the next season. Nothing is carried over for the next season at either location, everything starts fresh annually.

Hoodoo, is this what you do for a living?
Sort of your connection to the area?

Yeah. I’ve been a berry grower in FL for years. Most of our plant stock sources were Ontario, Nova Scotia, NC mountains and Michigan. All had occasional disease problems as all these operations were prior potato, tobacco or veg farms. The nursery side of the business was attractive because of the relaxed pace (up until harvest time).
It also provided a tax deductible way of getting away from the FL summers.
After leasing small irrigated fields for a couple years from a wheat farmer adjacent to the CDA airport some larger tracts of farmland with senior water rights became available in a narrow valley about 20 mi north. Isolated from any real ag and abundant chilly nights made for a clean, robust transplant that became known in the FL for commencing fruit production two weeks earlier than the eastern plant sources. Meanwhile I had stopped growing fruit in FL and taken a position of overseeing a corporate farm op for Wish Farms. For several years I sent nearly 100% of the Idaho plants to that location which created a high demand scenario within the industry that continues today.
Other companies have since moved to Idaho but so far have chosen more traditional ag areas in the southern part of the state. The lack of local ag infrastructure is a hurdle here in the north panhandle and the short growing season are challenging but workable most seasons. Another cool thing with this side of the industry is it’s all contract growing, so you’re not just dumping your product on the market hoping for the best.

Sounds like a great operation! Relaxed pace and being a business owner usually don’t go together.