THE EXCLUSION NETTING; a STORY worth hearing about

In 2021 Rockingham County Conservation District in partnership with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, awarded Stark Farm with a Conservation Innovation Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Services for a cost sharing project to install Exclusion Netting over the existing patch of 340+ blueberry bushes.

Stark Farm are growers of no spray blueberries.  We are proud to say that we’ve never sprayed our bushes with any pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides.  We are the first blueberry farm in New Hampshire to install Exclusion Netting (fine mesh netting) over its entire crop.  This netting protects our blueberries from invasive insects, in particular, Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD).  SWD is a vinegar gnat from China and Japan.  SWD was first discovered in New Hampshire in 2011.  In 2012, this pest caused over 1.5 million in crop losses in NH.  SWD females are capable of laying their eggs within ripening fruit and can go from egg to egg laying adult in 10 days.  This cycle can quickly infest fruit with larvae and destroy our entire crop within weeks.

As a result of our SWD Exclusion Netting installation we have been able to continue farming organically and never spraying our crop.  The Exclusion Netting has been 100% effective in keeping SWD from entering our blueberry patch.  We continually monitor our SWD insect traps which are located inside our patch to ensure larvae free fruit.