what happens in each season on a cranberry farm

What happens on a cranberry farm?

Cranberries are harvested in one of two ways, wet harvest or dry harvest. Most cranberries are wet harvested when the field is flooded, but a few are dry harvested with a mechanical picker, to be sold as fresh fruit. When fields are going to be wet harvested, the field is flooded.

Do cranberries grow in the winter?

Interestingly, cranberries are harvested in fall, but the plants persist over winter. What happens to cranberries in winter? Cranberries go semi-dormant in their bogs during the cold months of winter. In order to protect plants from the cold and possible heaving, growers typically flood the bogs.

What season do cranberries grow?

Cranberries are a unique fruit. They can grow and survive only under a very special combination of factors. These factors include acid peat soil, an adequate fresh water supply, and a growing season that extends from April to November.

How does cranberry harvesting work?

Wet Harvesting

Cranberries have pockets of air inside the fruit. Because of this, cranberries float in water, and thus, the bogs can be flooded to aid in removal of fruit from the vines. ... By this action, cranberries are dislodged from the vines and float to the surface of the water.

Why do cranberry fields have to be drained as soon as the harvest is finished?

After harvest, bogs are drained, raked, and reflooded. Water protects the shallow-rooted cranberry vines from frost during the cold winter months. It also protects highly flammable bogs from fire and kills the larvae of potential insect pests.

What state grows the most cranberries?

Most cranberries come from Wisconsin and Massachusetts

The United States is the world's leading cranberry producer, followed by Canada and Chile.

Can you eat raw cranberries?

cranberries are insanely healthy ~ they're low calorie, high fiber, high in vitamin C and cancer fighting antioxidants. you CAN eat them raw! Pulse them into a relish, or blend up into a super nutritious smoothie. ... fresh cranberries are good for so much more than sauce…just scroll down and see!

Do cranberries need full sun?

Cranberries grow in low, wet, acidic areas, or in highly organic, acid soils in full sun. They won't grow in regular garden soil, because it probably is not acidic enough and does not support the right mycorrhizae (fungi that live symbiotically with plants and help them take up nutrients).

Where are Ocean Spray Cranberries grown?

Ocean Spray is an American agricultural cooperative of growers of cranberries and grapefruit headquartered in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. It currently has over 700 member growers (in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Florida, British Columbia and other parts of Canada, as well as Chile).

Are cranberry bogs salt water?

Plants that grow in bogs have to contend with a host of unfavorable conditions, but the cranberry plant's durability allows it to survive in this habitat. For example, cranberries need fresh water to survive. Of course, the fact that bogs consist of mostly acidic water represents a challenge to the plant.

How do you take care of a cranberry plant?

Water, but do not over saturate. Water regularly so soil stays moist to the touch for the first year while cranberries establish themselves. Mulch is recommended. Ground growth works best for cranberries but they will grow in wide pots filled with ericaceous soil mix as above.

Why are cranberries good for you?

Many people consider cranberries to be a superfood due to their high nutrient and antioxidant content. In fact, research has linked the nutrients in cranberries to a lower risk of urinary tract infection (UTI), the prevention of certain types of cancer, improved immune function, and decreased blood pressure.

Do you need to soak fresh cranberries?

When using fresh cranberries, if you are not adding them to a baked good you will need to cook them on the stovetop. It is important that you don't overcook them or they will turn to mush, and will also turn bitter. ... For added flavor, soak the cranberries in fruit juice or liquor instead of water.

How much do cranberry farmers make?

The middle half received between $570 and $1,269 per week. The lowest-paid 10 percent of wage earners received less than $358. The highest-paid 10 percent received more than $1,735 per week.

Why are the cranberry fields flooded?

Flooding is so important in cranberry cultivation that bogs where flooding is not possible are no longer considered profitable. Cranberry growers use flooding as a management tool to protect the plants from the cold, drying winds of winter, to harvest and remove fallen leaves and to control pests.

Is Cranberry a tree?

Neither. The American Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a low-growing, vining, woody perennial plant with small, alternate, oval leaves. The plant produces horizontal stems or runners up to 6 feet (2 m) long.

Why are cranberries so bitter?

There is a good reason for this. The cranberry is both sour and bitter. ... The compounds in cranberries that make them taste so brutal are an antioxidant family know as tannins. From an evolutionary perspective, fruits are sweet in order to attract animals that proceed to eat them and distribute seeds.

Do cranberries grow in water bogs?

The short answer is no. They don't grow in water, but water does come in to play with their harvest. Cranberries actually thrive in what known as a bog, or an area is characterized by an acidic peat soil.

What is the cranberry capital of the world?

It may surprise some to learn that Bandon, with its temperate climate and crashing surf, is an ideal place for growing cranberries, and it has grown to a center of production since the berries were first commercially grown here in the 1890s.

Is there a cranberry shortage 2020?

Cranberry crops fall short this year, but producers still look ahead with optimism. Even though the cranberry harvest in Wisconsin and nationwide fell short of 2020 projections, growers are feeling good about what the holiday season will bring.

Can you grow cranberries at home?

Can you grow cranberries at home? Yes, and now the question is how are cranberries grown in the home garden? The first thing to determine how to grow cranberries is the pH of your garden soil. Cranberries are a member of the Ericaceae family and, as such, are best suited to a soil pH of less than 5.