The wild blueberry harvest is due to begin later this week or early next week with growers hoping warmer temperatures will help ripen the berries.

Also, recent showers helped the native plant — a $250 million industry in Maine — but not significantly, according to David Yarborough, wild blueberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension,

“The problem is it was showers, not a heavy rain,” Yarborough said. “It is still incredibly dry out there. Those who do have irrigation are using it.”

The rain is needed to plump up the berries and the sun is critical in ripening the fruit.

“Things have not developed quite as quickly as we had hoped,” said Yarborough in terms of high temperatures and rain.

“If it’s cool and dry it’s not as much of an issue,” he said. “But if it’s not with no rain that really puts a lot of stress on the plant.”

Yarborough said companies that process blueberries dictate when the harvest begins.

Almost 100 percent of blueberries are sold frozen. A small fraction of the fruit harvested by small growers is sold fresh.