2.1.2. Airport and Baxter Wild Blueberry Fields in Deblois, Maine

The Airport and Baxter fields are adjacent to each other (Figure 1c). These two fields are part of the commercial blueberry fields owned by Jasper Wyman and Son in Deblois (longitude: −68.0001◦ N, latitude: 44.7350◦ W), Washington County, Maine, USA. In terms of agricultural management, these two fields are historically treated equally except for irrigation. The Airport field is irrigated during the growing season, whereas the Baxter field is non-irrigated. During the growing season from May to September, the Airport field was irrigated when needed with Nelson Full-Circle Impact sprinklers (Walla Walla, WA, USA) uniformly across the field. The irrigation system was set to ensure 0.5 to 1.0 inches of water supply per week by compensating natural precipitation. The area of the Airport field is 77 acres (0.31 km2), and the Baxter field is 39 acres (0.16 km2). These two fields were selected to understand and differentiate the effectiveness of current uniform irrigation practices in a single production region with the same climatic conditions.
