Author Archives: stef

Bog renovation

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While the 2012 spring planting was being completed, we had already turned our attention to our latest project: renovating our Oswego bogs. Bog renovation is a time-consuming and capital-intensive but necessary project that will increase both yield and quality by improving bog and irrigation design.

Earlier this year, our team first redesigned the layout, deciding how to best work with the surrounding water resources for maximum land use efficiency. They reshaped some beds, removed the old vines, and did the initial leveling to prep the soil.

We’ve previously stated that the three things most important to growing cranberries are water, water, and more water. Currently, the team is hard at work on the irrigation improvements. They’ve begun ditching, which, as we spoke about last month, ensures adequate water flow for both flooding and drainage. Effective bed drainage is critical, especially in New Jersey, where the humid climate can provide a favorable environment for Phytophthora cinnamomi, a known cause of root rot.

According to Joe Colon, Pine Island’s bog renovations manager, we have replaced over twenty of our wooden floodgates with a newer PVC design. While some of our wooden gates have been in use for almost seventy years, the new design will have even greater longevity. They are also easier to install and repair, which will in turn be easier for team members to make the most efficient use of their time.

Other improvements to the water system besides new gates and rebuilt ditches include the relocation of the pumps. As part of our irrigation redesign, and with the redesign of some of the beds, it was necessary to make some changes in order to maximize water flow to the pump. Relocation of the pump houses is also helpful for improved access, both for refueling and repairs.

Even though planting is not scheduled until November, weed control has already become necessary. There are already briars appearing in some of the beds scheduled for planting in 2012-2013 even after rotovation (mechanical tilling of the soil). The current plan is to rotovate again, and then flood in order to keep them from taking root.

Bog renovation is a key component to maintaining Pine Island’s core values of continuous improvement, continuous growth, and protecting the environment. Increasing production over time through bog renovation and decreasing the time to achieve full production is essential to accomplish our growth objectives.

Team Development

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One of our strategic drivers at Pine Island Cranberry concerns People/Knowledge sharing. People are our greatest asset, and strengthening our ability to develop and retain our team members will help us effectively continue our tradition of excellence. To achieve our objectives, we must deliver results; this requires effective communication. This week, we held one of our regular safety meetings for both our full-time and seasonal team members, in order to both keep them updated and to make sure we are all on the same page before harvest begins in the autumn.

Cristina Tassone, our PIICM manager, stresses that it is important that our team works together in a safe manner to achieve our goals. Safety always comes first; it is each team member’s job to check the safety board first thing every morning.

We have recently discussed how important it is to effectively manage heat conditions for the bogs; it is equally as important when you’re out working in it. The very first thing each team member needs to do is stay hydrated and wear a hat. For other safety concerns, each team member has also been provided with a bag containing a pair of gloves, ear plugs, safety goggles, and dust masks.

In addition to the safety refresher, Cristina outlined our team targets prior to harvest. One of our pressing concerns involves weed control in the bogs. Management has targeted removal of dewberry and maple from the bogs by September 17th.

Dewberry, according to the USDA’s IPM website, is a “very persistent plant that competes with cranberries for light and interferes with harvest” while “red maple trees…invade beds as windblown seed.”

Cristina also outlined some harvest changes, due to the ongoing Oswego renovation.

Ultimately, it is important that the Pine Island team “works together in a safe manner to achieve our goals,” as Cristina previously noted. Close collaboration among our team members contributes to our mission and our vision, and, as always, allows us to live our core values daily.

New planting: updates

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One of our April blog entries was on planting bogs at Sim Place. Planting was completed in May, but continuing care for the young bogs is under the supervision of Tug Haines, the fifth generation of the Haines family working at Pine Island and currently serving as a foreman in our PIICM program.


Once the plants are in, it is important to monitor the young bogs frequently to ensure that they are rooting well and remain healthy. Last week, Tug met with Bill, PIICM manager Cristina Tassone, and Dan Schiffhauer of Ocean Spray to check the bogs and discuss their nutritional needs.

The consensus was “so far, so good”; we’re not getting much leaf drop and the plants seem to be thriving. We’re not seeing many runners yet, but according to Schiffhauer, that’s just fine. “You don’t want kudzu,” he says. “The important thing the first year is for the roots to establish before they start running, and that’s what we’re seeing.” The PIICM team will continue to watch color and leaf size on the new growth in order to determine fertilizer needs and then modifying the plan if necessary. As soil and nutrition consultant Dr. Joan Davenport always reminds us: “It is ineffective to put fertilizer onto the beds until the root mass around the [new plants] is at least the diameter of a standard #2 pencil.”

As with the established bogs, heat is also a consideration. A ride with Tug overseeing the young bogs is very much like a night monitoring for frost; we check for the bog temperature (the thermometer is protected by a shade canopy for more accurate readings) and soil moisture before deciding if running the water is necessary.

You cannot always rely on tensiometer readings, however; you also need to get out in the bog and check for yourself. On her last visit, Joan also noted that “when leaves are young and tender, relying strictly on the tensiometers could result in a false sense of security about what the plant water demand is.” Yesterday the soil seemed particularly hardened and dry, so Tug decided to run the water for a couple of hours. Again, as with frost, it’s not just as simple as turning on some sprinklers. Once the irrigation is going, it may also be necessary to let more water in from the reservoirs to keep the pump supplied.

Then, of course, we ride around to monitor both the soil and the equipment in order to fix any possible sprinkler malfunctions. “You have a little more margin for error than you do with frost,” Tug says. “It’s urgent, but you don’t need to move quite as fast.” He needs to make sure the sprinklers are both running at capacity and rotating completely in order to get the best cooling effect.

Even on young bogs, however, maintaining a balance is crucial in order to avoid phytophthora. If it infects and damages the root system, it could take more than one growing season for the bogs to recover.

signs of phytophthora in established bed

effects of phytophthora on roots

One of the strategic drivers to achieve our mission is increasing production over time through bog renovation and decreasing the time to achieve full production, which is essential to accomplish our growth objectives. And, like everything else we do here at Pine Island Cranberry, the key to achieving our goals is attention to detail. All of the things on this week’s tour shows our drive to be the very best and the amount of attention to detail that implementing our strategy takes.

Heat

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As we have mentioned here before, the key to growing cranberries is water.

Cranberries need about an inch of water each week during the growing season (either via rain or irrigation), preferably early in the morning or at night, in order to avoid losing it to evaporation. We irrigate for two reasons: first, to keep the vines healthy and productive, and second, to protect them from the heat. Keeping them cool helps protect the bloom, the fruit, and the vines themselves. And while it’s crucial in the hot summer days, cooling may also be necessary in May, before the uprights (short vertical branches) acquire their protective waxy coating.

Once the fruit is formed, it’s important to keep them from what we term “scalding”. Scald occurs when the temperature is high but the dew point (humidity) is low; as Dr. Peter Oudemans likes to say, “When people are comfortable, the cranberries are in trouble.”

When humidity is low, the applied water will readily evaporate and cool the fruit. During the day, if temperatures get up to around 95 degrees, we will turn on the irrigation in order to cool the bog down to the 80s. We’ll run the pumps for about an hour or two, depending on variables such as wind, temperature, and humidity.

How we measure soil moisture

There is also a distinct difference between sending water through the root system and keeping the bog cool. The trick is avoiding complications from too much moisture, which can cause conditions that are welcoming to fungi such as phytophthora, which causes root rot. Vines shouldn’t be damp all the time; it’s a balancing act to keep the fruit at optimum growth conditions while avoiding oversaturation. The key to walking the tightrope is constant evaluation and always being aware of bog conditions.

As always, the bottom line is that we are growers: maintaining a successful balance of heat protection and soil moisture allows us to achieve our core values of growing more acres and more fruit per acre. It’s what we do and who we are.

Ditching

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We’ve talked before about how crucial good water management is for a successful cranberry operation. One of the most important tasks for irrigation and water management is ditching. The ditches surrounding every bog must be kept free of debris in order to ensure adequate water flow for both flooding and drainage.

First, a crew goes out to clear by hand; this is to make sure that the area around the actual irrigation pipes are cleared and visible. It’s easier to prevent damage than it is to repair it.

Alejandro Colon

Then, someone does the really heavy lifting with a machine. Pictured here is Rick Zapata, a Pine Island foreman who has been a part of our team for almost 38 years.

Rick Zapata

In general, the practice is simple but time-consuming. The machine moves slowly along the water line, removing the debris that has accumulated over the winter and placing it along the dam.

The debris will eventually be removed with a front-end loader.

Cleaning the ditches is important for two reasons. First, it helps maintain the proper moisture level in the soil. Second, and most importantly, removing water from the bogs quickly is urgent in case of a big rain event. Its importance was never more evident than last year, during the heavy rains of Hurricane Irene. Thanks to upholding Pine Island Cranberry’s core values of doing what we need to do when we need to do it and caring for the place where we live, work, and grow, we lessened the impact of the hurricane. Proper attention to detail by dedicated team members like Rick ensures that those core values are lived and not just hollow words.

Bees

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One of the more important elements in the Pine Island Integrated Crop Management (PIICM) program is ensuring adequate pollination; flowers that are not visited by bees rarely produce fruit. To this end, we work with Fruitwood Orchards and other New Jersey beekeepers to temporarily install hives during the bloom period, usually at the end of May/beginning of June depending on the weather.

According to Jeremy Ham of Fruitwood Orchards, they ordinarily work the bees beforehand so that not a lot of maintenance is necessary; they’ll typically lose some after blueberry season, but for the cranberry farmers Fruitwood will put in more brood (eggs) and a new queen. Pine Island uses them strictly for pollination, so extra work with the bees is not usually necessary; however, the beekeepers return every week to pull the honey.

Research has shown that honeybees are competent at pollinating cranberry flowers as long as the weather remains satisfactory, according to the USDA. The recent heat wave bears this out. Going out with employee Timothy Haines to count bees, he states that he has rarely been stung. “On really hot days all they care about are the flowers,” he says. “It’s when things get overcast that they rise up a little.”

Counting bees is a necessity in order to make sure there are enough to cover the blossoms; to do this, Timothy sets a timer for ten minutes and then counts every bee he sees actually on the bloom. On this particular day at Blueberry Hill, he counts 126. “That’s good,” he says. “You want to have over a hundred.” The more bees, the more pollination, the greater the yield come harvest time.

All of us on the Pine Island team, including our vendors, do whatever it takes to ensure that we achieve our mission: to grow more high-quality cranberries at the lowest cost. By bringing in the bees at exactly the right time, we live our core value of continuous growth by producing more fruit per acre.

From the outside in

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Pine Island Cranberry prides itself on providing opportunity for people who have the drive to learn, develop skills, and achieve a better future, from the bogs to the main office. Instead of going out onto the farm this week, Bill decided to keep things in-house.

Our controller, Joann Martin, has been with us for over a year now and has become an indispensable member of our team. A licensed CPA and a true professional, Joann not only deals with bills, taxes, and balancing the books, she also helps with databases, IT, and anything else that needs to be done. She resides in Atlantic County with her husband and their two children.

We knew going in that Joann would be a good fit; she has worked in the past with Jen Romeo, our go-to for Human Resources. Jen is Bill’s niece and grew up on the farm. She has been working with us in her current capacity since 2007 (though she started much younger in the blueberry packing house as well as helping her grandmother with payroll) and has made herself essential through her endless patience and good nature. Jen is in charge of all matters dealing with personnel, and in her spare time is enjoying working on her recently-purchased home.

Debra Signorelli, the newest member of our office team, has already fit in so well that it feels like she’s been here for much longer. Debra is the pleasant voice you’ll hear most often when you call, as well as keeping track of everyone’s schedule, setting up meetings, keeping us in printer cartridges, and in general making sure everyone gets what they need, sometimes even before they need it. Debra resides in Vincentown with her two daughters, Christen (our former intern) and Jorden.

Stefanie Haines has been the company webmaster since the site’s launch in March, but has been employed part-time since 2007, filling in wherever she’s needed. Currently her main job consists of following employees around with a camera and writing blog entries. When she’s not at work, she raises her three children and deals with the lifelong disappointment that comes with being a Philadelphia sports fan.

As with everything else at Pine Island, our office staff takes pride in doing everything we do better every day, whatever it takes.

Plant nutrition

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One of the goals of our Pine Island Integrated Crop Management (PIICM) program is to continuously improve our decisions: we often do this through learning opportunities via advice from specialists.  Last week, we had a visit from Dr. Joan Davenport, of Washington State University. Joan, a former researcher for Ocean Spray, works with Pine Island Cranberry to provide guidance on fertilizer, water, and nutrients, as well as general PIICM management.

Joan comes to work with us at this time of year, as adjusting nutrition is most vital just prior to bloom (and again in late July/early August for bud set) in order to help production for the current as well as successive years.

Joan goes out into the bogs with our PIICM manager Cristina Tassone (as well as Dan Schiffhauer of Ocean Spray) in order to best determine the nutrition needed for optimum crop yields and quantity. Another one of the keys to our PIICM program is giving vines the nutrients they need, when they need it; the amount of fertilizer to be applied is determined by variety, soil conditions, and past practices, requiring constant evaluation of current conditions, history, and trends. Nutritional needs are different for young vines as opposed to established plantings, as well.

Joan’s expertise as a soil scientist with a specialization in perennial fruit crops is invaluable to our PIICM program. In established beds she looks for growth as well as amount and color of old leaves from as far back as two seasons. This means that it is critical to keep accurate, detailed records on past practices.

After surveying both new planting and established beds, Joan will send us a report with her findings and suggestions for scheduling and fertilizer amounts. We use this report as a guideline as we continuously evaluate crop conditions throughout the growing season.

Efficiency in action

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One annual spring job here at Pine Island Cranberry is dealing with a disease that affects cranberry vines called fairy ring. With the assistance of Dr. Peter Oudemans of the Rutgers Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research, we have developed a treatment which needs to be applied in May. After two years, early indications are it’s working.

Our team, consisting of Jose Cruz-Soto, Brandon Morales, Alberto Torres, and Jose Cruz-Rodriguez, had a target date of June 1st to get the project done; instead, they finished eight days ahead of schedule. Because of their dedication, energy, and effort, we have, for the first time ever, been able to treat every ring at Pine Island, a total of 23 acres.

Jose Cruz-Soto

Brandon Morales

Alberto Torres

Jose Cruz-Rodriguez

In addition to the above team members, our intern Christen Stroehlein (a Rutgers student majoring in nutritional sciences) mapped out and measured fairy rings with help of aerial photographs. This greatly increased our team’s efficiency and ability to reach their targeted goal ahead of schedule.

Thanks to everyone’s exemplary demonstration of our core values, chief among them protecting the environment, continuous improvement, and doing whatever it takes, Pine Island Cranberry steadily maintains our mission and vision: to continue our tradition of excellence and to be the most efficient producer in the world.

Pine Island Team Profile: Joe Colon

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This week, we’re profiling our bog renovations manager, Joe Colon, who has been with Pine Island Cranberry for over forty years. Bog renovation is key to our mission: to continue our tradition of excellence by growing more high-quality cranberries at the lowest cost. Joe is in charge of every facet of the program, from planning to moving earth to irrigation installation, right up to the point where the bog ready to plant.

Joe started with us full-time in November of 1971, and has done just about every job we offer (among them ditching, frost management, and even blueberries), with the exception of scouting. Bill Sr took notice of his skills and initiative, particularly with irrigation, and asked him if he wanted to have more of a role with renovations. “I couldn’t say no,” Joe recalls. He ended up working very closely with Bill Sr, and always speaks of him with admiration. “He was patient; a good teacher. Excellent with numbers. . . he could calculate anything.”

Joe believes in having the right tools for the job. One of Pine Island Cranberry’s core values is “continuous improvement” and to that end, Joe says that our constant upgrade of machinery and acceptance and use of new technology makes his job that much easier. “The better technology you have, the more you can get done,” he says.

When asked for his favorite part of the job, he laughs and said, “Everything!” When pressed, he elaborates: “I love it. I love all of it. But especially when we’re waiting for the harvest, when the vines are in and you can see the berries growing. Grading? I’m not satisfied. Planting? Not satisfied. But when that first harvest comes in, that’s when I’m happiest.” He laughs again and says, “That’s when I tell Bill [Jr], ‘these are yours now; I’m turning it over to you’.”