“Cooler weather and shorter days add redness to the berries,”
It takes three years for cranberry plants to reach maturity and commercial production.
They grow on short vertical upright shoots. Each year new growth is produced from buds along the stem and/or the tip. The shoots contain either a vegetative bud or a reproductive bud (flower).
Cranberries can grow in peat or sand. On this farm sand is the growing medium. Water is essential for cranberry production, for irrigation, frost protection and harvest. Water is stored in ponds and canals. It is used throughout the farm and collected back in the canals and ponds.
There are five varieties of cranberries growing in the marsh: Ben Lears, Stevens, Grygleski, Bergman and Crimson Queen. Crimson Queen has been planted but not harvested yet.
Wildflowers grow in abundance around the edge of every bed. They try to attract and keep natural pollinators and promote bio-diversity.
The beds are constantly monitored for weeds, diseases and pests like black-headed fire worm.
Cranberries are dormant in winter and the leaves appear red. They turn green in late spring then in June the blossoms show up. There are several hundred to a thousand blossoms per square foot. The bloom period lasts for three weeks when natural pollinators and honey bees are busy visiting the flowers.
Despite all the photographs, the only times cranberries are in water is the night before harvest and for a late winter flood.
During harvest a mechanical picker carefully combs through vines and catches the fruit. The cranberries are lifted onto a conveyor and into a bin. They’re dried, then stored in boxes and refrigerated.
In October and November cranberries begin winter dormancy preparation. When the temperature falls to near freezing sprinklers continuously apply water to the vines. When the water freezes to ice it releases latent heat of fusion that protects the berries and buds from damage.
In winter the vines are covered with water that becomes a sheet of ice. It protects them from cold, temperature changes and desiccating winds.
A half-inch layer of sand is spread evenly on the sheets of ice. It will settle on the surface of the bed in the spring. The sand will ensure the shoots will set out roots. It also controls insects, weeds and disease.