Author Archives: stef

Bees and pollination

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We talked a little bit last June about how Pine Island works with beekeepers to make sure the bogs are pollinated during the bloom period.

This year, Pine Island rented more hives in order to cover the new acreage we will be harvesting this year. A good fall harvest depends on a successful growing and pollination season, and cranberry growers, like many fruit growers, rely on honeybees and bumble bees to cross pollinate blossoms. Production and yield is directly tied to good pollination and subsequent fruit set. In addition, pollinators are important to native plants, which provide food and cover for numerous wildlife species, as well as helping stabilize the soil and improve water quality.

As it turns out, the weather has not been greatly beneficial for pollination. June 2013 has been the wettest June in recorded history in New Jersey (average rainfall for the month was 9.2 inches), thanks to numerous heavy rainfall events such as the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea. Another consideration in this year’s pollination effort is a worldwide “colony collapse disorder”, a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or honey bee colony abruptly disappear. According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, though there have been a number of claims, a cause or causes of CCD have not yet been identified by researchers. In order to protect their bee colonies, growers remain cautious and make sure their IPM best practices are bee-safe.

Fortunately, the wild bee and bumblebee population is up, and bumblebees will work in wet and/or windy conditions. Bumblebees have other advantages: they work faster, visiting many more flowers per minute. Their large size lets them carry huge pollen loads, allowing longer foraging trips, and achieving better contact with flowers. Larger deposits of pollen promote pollination as well as the formation of more uniform and larger fruit. Perhaps most importantly, bumblebees are naturally attracted to cranberry plants.

This is a consideration because on a cranberry plant, the anthers (the pollen-bearing part of the stamen) are shaped very differently from most other flowers, having an opening at the end of the anther, rather than splitting open to expose the pollen. This means getting the pollen out requires extra work by the pollinator. While some believe that honeybees are not as efficient at this task, single visits by pollen foraging honeybees can be enough to elicit fruit, especially in areas where weather during bloom is warm.

As you can see, bees are very important Pine Island team members, willing to do “whatever it takes” to maintain our environment and grow more fruit per acre!

Cranberries Austral Chile

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This week, Pine Island hosted the Cranberries Austral Chile (CAC) post-harvest board meeting. CAC, located in Frutillar, Chile, was founded in 1993, and Bill has been president since 2008.

While there are many similarities to North American cranberry operations, a cranberry farm in Chile also has practices and challenges that are unique to the area. “The climate is very different,” says board member Francisco Prado. “It’s not as humid in Chile as it is in New Jersey, so while we have problems with Phytophthora in areas with poor drainage, otherwise it’s not something we generally need to worry about.” One of their current post-harvest targets is improving water management and drainage; Bill points out that if irrigation and drainage are under control then the rest is just fine-tuning.

Chile also has a lot of heavy frost. While Pine Island’s frost season is typically April through the beginning of June, CAC handles frost from September to February, and sometimes even into March. (While CAC does not need to do a winter flood, September through December is their spring and summer.) Board member Victor Henriquez says, though, that the cold nights actually give Chilean cranberries a real advantage: “The temperature difference after nightfall is very high, and that makes a huge difference in color. We get a beautiful dark red color, which is a very attractive attribute for our concentrate.”

Water can be a challenge. “We have wonderful water,” Francisco says. “We’re close to the mountains so most of it is very clean and clear.” But there aren’t really any natural lakes like there are in New Jersey. CAC had to dig reservoirs, and they also have three big wells to fill them. It makes irrigation a bit more of an effort, especially when it’s dry. Last December brought its own particular challenge: 23 days of rain.

Heavy rains occurring during the bloom period and affected bee populations, causing worry about pollination. Despite that, this year’s harvest went very well! The CAC team began harvest on April 15th and finished May 23rd, averaging 6.5 acres/day with 7 to 8 harvest machines. The crop came in higher than the estimated numbers, which is excellent considering the weather conditions.

Of course, while rain was a problem for them over the summer, they do not have some of the typical weather problems Pine Island has had in New Jersey. “We don’t get thunderstorms or tornadoes like up here,” Victor and Francisco tell us. “Of course, we have earthquakes and volcanoes. It’s really a trade-off!”

*Chile photos by Cristina Tassone

Early summer

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In addition to the ongoing Boricua renovation, our Pine Island team is hard at work on many of our usual summer tasks.

Facilities and Equipment Manager Louis Cantafio is keeping his team very busy. Two equipment storage buildings have been built after the originals were demolished in the aftermath of the 2011 storm that took down the old shop. Another equipment shed by the packing house has been taken down and is being replaced with a larger, more efficient building. The team is doing ground prep for the new one. “We did the initial ground prep for the sheds by the shop, as well,” Louis says. “We’re very well situated to do that. Just raising the ground that small amount made a tremendous improvement; if we get a downpour, the ground’s high enough that we won’t get any water in the shed itself.”

In addition to the routine maintenance work on bog mowers and the harvesting machines, Louis is also training a new member of the equipment team: Miguel “Coco” Mercado, a recent graduate of BCIT and now, a second-generation full-time employee.

The facilities team, under the supervision of Mike Guest, is building the new pump houses at the Boricua renovation, redoing a staff apartment, and widening the doors to old pump houses in order to make engine repair and replacement more efficient.

While all of this is going on, other members of our team are hard at work on pest control. Team members Casey Koehler and Tory Haines spent the afternoon searching for and removing dodder at Telephone Line.

Dodder is a parasitic plant that is a very serious pest for cranberry production and can be challenging to control. In order to thrive, dodder must form a successful attachment to its host. Once a suitable host is found, it will twine around the stem. After attaching to the host, new shoots will develop and either attach itself many times to the same host or branch off to attack different hosts. Research has shown that sanding might have a helpful effect, but while that may reduce the infestation, it does not halt it. So our team removes dodder by hand. Hand-removal is time consuming, but effective in light infestations. Once the dodder has formed an attachment, it is clipped and removed from the area for burial.

Casey and Tory are also keeping an eye out for spotted fireworm larvae. Egg masses of spotted fireworm can be easily detected on the the upper surfaces of weed leaves, and our IPM teams monitor any changes, as the most effective control occurs when the larvae are in the early stages of development.

Most importantly, spotted fireworm can be controlled without harming the bee population, which is always a concern during the bloom period.

Boricua renovation

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Pine Island’s bog renovation team is moving steadily forward on the next stage of our Oswego project at the Boricua bogs, which we will be planting with Crimson Queen this fall. Like the rest of the bogs at the Oswego renovation, they had previously been planted with Early Blacks and had been productive bogs, but “…they were starting to become what we colloquially call ‘mutts’, which means they weren’t true Early Blacks anymore,” Bill says. “Production started to drop off. They were adequate and not necessarily terrible, but definitely no longer up to our standards.”

As we mentioned in January, part of the renovation includes new pump houses. We’ll be installing the larger size double-wall fuel tanks, which have the benefit of better environmental protection (always a concern with water management) and having to be fueled less often, which is more efficient. But first, the bog renovation team had to work closely with the facilities team to get the dog leg and suction line installed.

The installation is fairly straightforward: the team (Facilities supervisor Mike Guest, foreman Wilfredo Pagan, and team member Emmanuel Colon) places an eighteen-inch stone bed at the bottom of the canal. They place the screen (a PVC pipe with slots cut into it) on the stone bed, then add another foot of stones on top. “It’s so much more efficient this way,” says Wilfredo. “We end up using less water with this design, because we don’t need to raise the water as high. And it’s fun to watch!”

While the installation itself is straightforward, it does take some time to make sure it’s done right. The team works with the long arm excavator and a laser level to ensure that the stone bed is properly set, as well as getting into the bed and checking by hand.

Once it’s installed, the stone bed will act to filter out any natural debris that’s in the water, such as leaves, sticks, twigs, and dirt. The stone will stop any debris from entering the system and plugging the sprinklers.

While one team is working on the suction line, another team is installing the main irrigation line as well as laying out a plumb line at Boricua #1 and #2. Plumb line is installed to make sure the layout of the irrigation system is a true grid. Once that’s installed, the team will be able to put in sprinklers.

Bog Renovations manager Joe Colon says all that remains after this is land leveling so that the team can start mapping for the sprinklers and underdrain. “It’s a lot of acreage,” he says. “But we did a lot last time. We can definitely do this.” Wilfredo agrees: “We’re getting better at this all the time.”

Twilight meeting 2013

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This week, Pine Island Cranberry was glad to host the annual Cranberry Growers Twilight Meeting, run by Ray Samulis, the Burlington County agent for the Rutgers University Agricultural Extension Service. In contrast to the American Cranberry Grower Association’s Winter Meeting, the focus here is less research-oriented and uses a more hands-on approach to addressing timely topics of importance to cranberry growers. Included on the agenda were such topics as troubleshooting cranberry disease problems, identifying and controlling cranberry insects, and some hands-on discussion about bees, as well as a quick tour to a bog being studied by researchers at the Rutgers research station.

The discussion that had the most impact on Pine Island team members in attendance was Peter Oudemans’ presentation on new treatments for fairy ring, a disease which remains very difficult to control. Recent research has shown, however, that this time of year is the point where briars are starting to show symptoms of the rust that hosts the fairy ring disease. Rust is not yet carrying the fungus (which is the causal agent) but will become infected. If growers wait until August, the spores on the infected leaves will drop in the bog and could cause fairy ring to appear. So, according to Peter, spring is the optimum time to come out and clip briars. As Peter said: If we kill the top of the plant, the leaves will die, the fungus will die, and there won’t be a host for the fairy ring fungus to infect. It’s more expensive to treat than it is to prevent.”

Peter also brought a new tool: a thermal infrared camera which will be an enormous asset in reviewing heat stress, helping to optimize cooling in problematic beds. Pine Island team member Matt Giberson is especially interested to see how it can help with both scald and frost protection.

Next up was Cesar Rodriguez-Saona, with a brief talk on Integrated Pest Management. He gave everyone a rundown on sweeping and showed some samples of common cranberry pests, as well as a demonstration of traps and trap placement. The hands-on demonstration was particularly helpful for some of our newer team members in attendance. Kylie Naylor liked seeing them up close: “It’s one thing seeing them in a sweep net, but it’s really helpful to see them up close, especially at varying sizes.” She was also interested in the traps; having only used one type when she was scouting blueberries in her past work experience.

Also of tremendous interest was the talk by local beekeeper Dave Frank. Dave does this as a sideline hobby but is tremendously knowledgeable and even brought along some frames to pass around for everyone to get a closer look. He gave everyone in attendance a truly in-depth look at the average life-cycle of the honeybee and the important relationship between cranberry bogs and bee colonies. It was a very positive, informational presentation that was appreciated for its up-close look at something growers don’t always get to see.

Several members of our team were in attendance and found the discussion very useful. PIICM manager Cristina Tassone was particularly interested in the latest findings on fairy ring: “There’s no magic bullet and it will require some changes to our weed control program, but it’s a new approach that might get us further than direct treatment and definitely worth trying,” she says. She was also highly intrigued by the canopy experiments to keep young bogs cool by misting instead of full-on irrigation.

Mostly, though, as with the winter meeting, everyone really enjoyed the opportunity to meet with other growers. “It’s great having all the growers and key researchers together in one place to have a discussion,” Bill says. “You can get as much from just having a conversation over dinner as you can from the presentation. I got a lot out of the talk in the bog; it started out as a discussion about rust and fairy ring but then evolved into a discussion about red maple, which has been very much on our minds. It’s always been an issue, dealing with it has always been labor intensive, but talking with both the researchers and other growers gave us some ideas on how to improve our program.” Cristina agrees: “Bill and I had a really great talk with [local growers] Bill and Shawn Cutts about their new swan string reel. It’s that kind of opportunity that really makes the twilight meeting productive.”

“When the growers, researchers, and vendors all come together, we can come up with great ideas to apply to specific issues,” Bill says. “It helps us improve our process, it helps us improve our crop…it helps us become better growers.”

Renovation and progression

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If you’ve been paying attention over the past year, you’ll know that one of Pine Island’s core values is continuous improvement: doing everything we do better every day. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been taking you through our efforts at improving drainage, and part of that is making sure that the soil in our newer beds is doing what it’s supposed to do.

According to the UMass Cranberry Station: “Cranberry bog soil is unique in that it consists of alternating layers of sand and organic matter. Dead leaves accumulate over the course of time and sand is added to the bed surface every 2-5 years to encourage upright production and maintain productivity. In contrast to normal agricultural soils, cranberry soil requires no tilling, remains undisturbed over time, and little mixing of sand and organic matter occurs.”

However, with our Sim Place bogs, we’ve had to become, in Bill’s words, “bog doctors”: adding ditches, installing more underdrain, repairing existing underdrain, and replanting weak areas. “It’s making it better,” he says. “But we’re not where we should be.” While it’s not an ideal situation, “[t]he bogs at Sim Place weren’t very productive when we started. Anything they’ve been producing is a bonus. But we need to make a plan. What’s been working for us on the home farm is not going to work out there, because the soil isn’t uniform. We need to figure out what we have, and get ahead of it.”

This week, Bill sat down with GM Fred Torres, PIICM manager Cristina Tassone, team members Jeremy Fenstermaker and Matt Giberson, Dan Schiffhauer of Ocean Spray, Peter Oudemans of Rutgers University, and Joan Davenport of Washington State University in order to weigh some options and work on a plan for the next round of renovations.

The bogs at Sim Place have been of mixed construction, and the same methods that we’ve used at the home farm haven’t always worked out there. Papoose #1 has had several issues with drainage, partly due to the type of soil we added on top. You can see where our team has tried several different drainage improvement methods, such as underdrain at varying depths and adding a ditch just last fall.

We have been able to get this bog to dry out, but now we have to micromanage different growth stages of the plants we used to get the bog to fill in. Just as we do in Fishhead #1, we have established areas and rooted cuttings in addition to pressed-in vines. This map shows the different planting areas so when we irrigate, anyone will know where to let sprinklers run and where to shut them off.

Getting back to our discussion with the experts: the key to renovation is soil testing, which is required for optimum yield and quality of berries. The question here is: how deep will we need to go for a core sample, and how many samples should we take? Bill, concerned with layers for adequate drainage, commented that as long as we have two feet of sand plus the topsoil layer, what’s underneath doesn’t really matter. Joan, Dan, and Peter all agreed that it allowed for ideal underdrain installation as well as capillary rise (rise of water into the root zone).

Since consistent uniform texture is what’s needed, we will need to acquire the proper equipment, although we will be able to test the soil ourselves, Joan says. And fortunately, “even with gravel in some of these soils, they are so much easier to probe into than regular mineral soils,” she adds. “And should you run into clay, it’s wet enough that you won’t damage your equipment.” While this is not an issue on the home farm, Sim Place has a lot more variability, and in addition to drainage issues, the soil needs to be able to take the essential nutrients to help both new and established beds.

The end result of the discussion: we will need to make a 50′ x 50′ grid and take the soil samples. Once we determine precisely what soil layers we have, we draw up a plan and decide how we make the bed uniform in order to make the best decisions regarding irrigation as well as water filtration. The more efficient we become with our renovation process, the better our production.

Water micromanagement

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Continuing with our more in-depth look at Pine Island’s water management program, this week we took a look at our water micro-management program in our young bogs. Now that the lampinenometers and new underdrain have been installed, it’s time to start monitoring them.

Mechanical ditch cleaning has been completed for all the young bogs; Kelvin Colon’s team cleaned out pipes and unplugged underdrain endpipes where necessary. Every morning, he or supervisor Kylie Naylor head out to read the tensiometers and lampinenometers, as well as check the soil. (To recap: lampinenometers measure the water table beneath the cranberry bed to make sure there is a sufficient depth to provide water to the root zone by capillary rise while at the same avoiding oversaturation.)

Kylie’s major task has been creating the micro-maps for water management. “The young bogs are our high maintenance bogs, so they require a lot of care,” Kylie says. Fishhead #1, which took on a lot of water in the Labor Day storm and needed some replanting, has three different stages of plants: the established area, newer rooted cuttings, and broadcast cuttings.

In order to best map the areas that needed more attention, Kylie took the irrigation sprinkler maps and traced them. Then she went out and walked the entire bog and outlined each area: established plants, rooted cuttings, and broadcast cuttings. “Sprinklers will have to be on for less time on the broadcast than the rooted cuttings, and for less time on rooted cuttings than the established plants,” Kylie says. The next step will be tying a colored ribbon on the sprinklers in each area according to code on map. “That will give us an idea of what to watch; this way, we can shut off sprinklers by hand as necessary,” she adds. When Fishhead is done, she’ll be repeating the process at Papoose.

Last fall the team also sanded one corner of Fishhead by hand, in addition to sanding the area where the rooted cuttings were located, as there were spots that settled lower than other parts of the bog when the dam broke in the big storm. The team also put in some gravel to fill in washouts, which should hold better against erosion rather than sand alone.

Team member Vanessa DeJesus also put two tensiometers in Fishhead: one in the established area, and a new one in the broadcast area, in order to keep a closer eye on the moisture levels. “Younger bogs need a bit more attention,” Kylie says. “This tensiometer [in the established area] is reading at a six, so that’s good. And the water table reading is in the green area, so that’s okay, too.” She then demonstrates checking the soil by digging some up with her bare hands: “If it clumps and stays together, it’s getting moisture, but if it just crumbles then it’s a bit dry. You can’t just assume that the tech is working; you need to get a feel for the bog conditions as well.” The tensiometer in the broadcast area is reading as wet, which is good, because the area with the broadcast cuttings are pressed in an area that is sandier than the established vines.

The New Production team is also monitoring weather conditions. Since we’re expecting rain, Kelvin is monitoring the ditches so he can keep an eye on the water levels and then raise the ditches if necessary. It sounds counterintuitive to raise water levels during a rain event, but the team is trying to keep ditches higher in new plantings in order to prevent erosion; they will then drop the ditches after rain and level off in order to maintain the water table.

Water management at Fishhead was also tricky during frost. Harrison (an established bog) and Fishhead share the same pumphouse, but Fishhead wasn’t being treated for frost. So Kylie and Kelvin had to make sure the valves at Fishhead were turned off. If they weren’t, the plants could get watered when they didn’t need it, and it would also make extra work for Jeremy [Fenstermaker], who runs the Sim Place pumps during frost. “It made it extra important to work as a team and communicate with Jeremy,” Kylie says. “We did very well!”

It’s this commitment to teamwork, attention to detail, and care for the bogs and their surrounding environment that helps Pine Island grow more acres and more fruit per acre, year after year.

Underdrain – Water Management

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Drainage is another key element in Pine Island Cranberry’s water management program. In addition to having irrigation systems that reduce water usage, well-drained soil is necessary to keep a bog’s root system functional. Beds should be designed for adequate drainage, which is essential for good root development and aeration as well as prevention of conditions that can lead to the presence of Phytophthora, which causes fruit rot and root rot.

Kylie Naylor and Kelvin Colon have been in charge of monitoring soil conditions in our young bogs, and their most recent project, in addition to the lampinenometers, has been installing underdrain in bogs that tend to hold on to standing water. They laid the groundwork (so to speak) about a week or so ago by scouting out the areas with the most problems and then staking out the lines where necessary. Kylie also used foreman Jeremy Fenstermaker as a resource to finalize the plan.

The stakes are lined up according to the plan. Caesar Colon then backs the trencher up to the stake that marks the starting point, where Kelvin is standing as a guide. “The trench has to be deeper than the actual underdrain, and it’s also important to have the endpipe angled slightly down to avoid backflow,” explains Kylie. Once it’s set up, Caesar raises the trencher a bit. When it’s at eight inches, he uses the laser level to keep the trench level and the line straight. He’ll take the trencher to the far end, where there is another stake to help keep him in a straight line and make sure the team knows where to stop.

While the trench is being dug, the endpipe and the underdrain are set up. “Right now we’ve had time to stretch out the pipe while the trencher was being moved [from Panama to Savannah]. It saves time to have that done first.” It’s a pretty simple process: there’s a snap adapter on the endpipe, which a team member then connects to the underdrain and places in the trench.

In the meantime, another team member follows the trencher with a shovel, making sure things are level, with no hills. Once the drain is stretched out, he then follows the team members placing the pipe and covers it. It goes fairly quickly. The bigger the bog, the more people you need, but on an established bog they can do about 100 feet in ten minutes. The drains start to work just about that quickly, as well!

In the newer bogs at Panama, the team had to set down wooden planks for the trencher to run on, so it didn’t make ruts next to drains and cause more problems. This makes it necessary for another team member to go out and till the areas where the boards were placed. “It’s tricky,” says team member Casey Koehler, who has been doing this task. “I have to be careful not to tear up the plants, so it can take a little while.”

In addition to underdrain repair, Kelvin has been monitoring the areas in all the young bogs with standing water. He does whatever it takes to get the vines what they need: dig a trench, dig a hole to the existing underdrain, make sure ditches and pipes are clean, et cetera.


In this, as in everything else we do here at Pine Island, our team is constantly evaluating conditions and practices in ways that ensure both better decision making and optimal production.

Pine Island Cranberry – Drainage from Pine Island Cranberry on Vimeo.

Irrigating young bogs

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A good irrigation plan manages the volume, frequency, and application of water in an organized and efficient way. A clean abundant water supply is only the first step in Pine Island’s water management program; a detailed irrigation routine is also crucial to our goals.

A cranberry crop’s needs are met in three ways: rain, irrigation, and soil contribution. Unfortunately, farmers have yet to find a way to control the weather, so they must turn to the things that they can control. As it turns out, a study by Bruce Lampinen showed that for many weeks during the growing season, most cranberry beds were too wet. This can especially be a problem in the humid climate of southern New Jersey, and if not dealt with, can cause conditions favorable to fruit rot and root rot. Cranberry beds usually receive up to one inch of water per week from either rain, capillary action from the ground water, irrigation, or a combination of all three. But as conditions can vary from bog to bog, this does not always result in ideal soil conditions.

We have mentioned before our use of tensiometers in monitoring soil moisture. (From UMass: “A tensiometer is a sealed, water-filled tube with a vacuum gauge on the upper end and a porous ceramic tip on the lower end. A tensiometer measures the soil water potential in the soil. As the soil around the tensiometer dries out, water is drawn from the tube through the ceramic tip. This creates a vacuum in the tube that can be read on the vacuum gauge. When the soil water is increased, through rainfall or irrigation, water enters the tube through the porous tip, lowering the gauge reading.”)

How we measure soil moisture

Lampinen’s study showed that maintaining a water table beneath the bed a sufficient depth to provide water to the root zone by capillary rise while avoiding oversaturation in the root zone, irrigation needs can be met. In order to best measure this, he designed a water level float, or lampinometer, which can be easily assembled using parts from various hardware, plumbing, or garden supply stores, making it an economical choice for growers. The lampinometer is not only less expensive, it also requires less maintenance and is more sensitive to water table fluctuations. (Study.)

Vanessa DeJesus and Casey Koehler started working on the tensiometers two weeks ago. “I basically just make sure the plants have enough water,” Vanessa says. “If they’re looking a little dry, I notify Fred [Torres] and then they decide if they need to start the pumps.” The tensiometers are not infallible, she adds. “They’re mechanical; like everything else, you need to double check things yourself. Just in case.” She’s also training other team members how to do the readings: “I do a little bit of everything. So if I’m not available, someone else can step in. The more you know, the better.” Casey worked with Matt Giberson on measuring and installation and says the physical installation was a lot easier than the prep! (“It’s a lot of math,” Matt says. “Peter Oudemans helped us with the set-up, but once we learned it things went well.”)

Team members Kylie Naylor and Kelvin Colon have also been hard at work heading up this new project, which is currently focused on the young bogs. Young bogs have different needs than older ones, Kelvin says. “They tend to lose more water during the day because there’s no vine canopy.” It’s been a learning process for both of them as well. “We know all about tensiometers, but we’ve never tried anything like this before.”

Kylie explains that they’re looking at the wet and dry numbers and the range in between. “You also need to feel the soil, check the root ball and its moisture level. That will determine if we need to irrigate.”

Once the team began the lampinometer installation (“Matt and I spent two days learning about it,” Kelvin says. “It seemed complicated at first but once we got the hang of it things went smoothly.”) they set up a daily routine to monitor the young bogs. “We’re still putting them in,” says Matt. “But it’s going to be cool to see how they work.”

Kylie agrees: “Figuring it out helps build confidence, I think. Since you have to come at the [irrigation] problem from a different angle, you have to pool your knowledge and make judgment calls. It comes down to having your feet in the bog to know what you need to do.” And with Kylie and Kelvin heading up such a hard-working team, Pine Island Cranberry will continue to improve upon planning and performance!

Pine Island Team Profiles: Seasonal Team Members

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In addition to our hardworking full-timers, at Pine Island Cranberry we also have several dedicated team members who return every year to help us out through the summer into the harvest. We love to see them here, and these guys in particular come back early because they are exemplary workers who are reliable, flexible, and willing to do whatever it takes.

Israel Colon-Burgos is one of our top veterans and a true asset to the Pine Island team. He leads crews wherever he is needed and is Joel DeJesus-Rivera’s second-in-command on the Blue Team picking crew, staking out picking patterns. Each bog is picked in a specific pattern according to terrain, and the picking crew has to carefully move their harvesters around stakes which have been arranged by the team leader for maximum operational efficiency. Following this pattern allows for minimal damage to the vines.

Emmanuel Colon-Burgos, Israel’s brother, has been coming to us for six years, and came back early this season to assist Facilities Supervisor Mike Guest. He helped build the new well at Caley, and has excellent technical skills. During the harvest, he’s on the forklift crew at the packing house, which requires a lost of hustle. Emmanuel and his wife are expecting their third child in November.

Albert Torres is another long-term seasonal crew member. He was on the Blue Team gathering crew last year as well as heading up last year’s highly efficient fairy-ring team, which finished eight days ahead of schedule. Because of his crew’s dedication, energy, and effort, we were able to treat every ring at Pine Island for the first time ever: a total of 23 acres. Earlier in the spring he helped remove swan string; he is currently working on the frost team, and in addition, is an excellent cook for the seasonal crew.

Frankie Torres returned last year after a long absence, and we were glad to see him! He worked with his brother Albert on the Blue Team gathering crew and is a brand-new member of our frost team who’s doing a fantastic job. GM Fred Torres says taking him back wasn’t even a question: “He’s not afraid of hard work and he asks for help if he needs it.”

Eric Gonzalez-Perez has been coming to us for five years, and is currently working with the fairy ring team to try and help save some infected vines. During the harvest, he worked for the Blue Team picking crew, and this spring ably assisted foreman Kelvin Colon with quality control and mechanical issues at the Oswego planting. We’re pleased to see him back with us again!

Alejandro Colon is a weed control and bog maintenance crew leader due to his careful, methodical work, and is greatly trusted by his supervisors. And come fall, he is Caesar Colon’s number one assistant on the Orange Team picking crew.

Last, but definitely not least: Jose Cruz-Rodriguez, better known as Tito, is another fairy-ring crew veteran and driver on the Orange Team gathering crew. If you drive around the farm during the spring and summer months, you will see him planting, working on the sprinklers, installing new irrigation line, drainage, and anything else we have going.

Pride in their work and the willingness to do what has to be done when it’s time to do it does not only belong to our full-time team: our seasonal team shows us every day that they are proud to do whatever it takes to make Pine Island Cranberry nothing but the best.