Tag Archives: bog renovation

Planting 2015 – Haines variety

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Our 2015 bog reno is done and for the grand finale, our team finished with the inaugural planting of the new Rutgers Haines variety!

From Integrity Propagation’s April release:

The Haines™ Cranberry Variety…resulted from a 1999 cross between the Crimson Queen® variety as the seed parent and #35 as the pollen parent. The #35 variety is an unpatented variety from a ‘Howes x Searles’ cross from the 1940s USDA/NJAES Cranberry Breeding Program. Haines variety was one of 138 progeny of this 1999 cross, made at the Philip E. Marucci Center for Cranberry Research in Chatsworth, NJ. Haines variety was initially selected for its very high yield potential, mid-season ripening, large round berry (averaging about two grams per berry) and uniform fruit color. In 2007, the Haines variety was selected for further testing in advanced replication selection trials in Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. The plots continued to exhibit the variety’s consistent high yields with mid-season ripening. Haines has also exhibited less fruit rot than Stevens in these plots.

“We’re putting Haines in on a ten acre bog, but since it’s a new variety, stock is still low, so we ended up planting 8 acres and will finish in spring,” explains New Production Manager Mike Haines. “Those eight acres only took two days, with an average of 4.25 acres a day. That’s really good. And we did it with no late nights; we worked from 7 to 5:30 and our numbers were up from the previous record of 3.5 acres/day.” When asked why, he says, “There are lots of reasons. Every year, there are mistakes you learn from. That’s one improvement. The land is well cleared; there were no stumps that can cause a momentary halting of the process. We concentrated on having both planters make the longest passes possible through the bed, which means we have to make fewer turns, which increases our efficiency.”

Planting a new variety is not without its challenges! “We finished up with hand planting, and I was pretty nervous about going back and forth between the Haines bog and the Mullica Queens,” Mike says. “Making sure we didn’t create any inadvertent hybrids was a little nerve-wracking!” He is hopeful for the expected higher yields and increased rot resistance, as well: “If you have your name on it, you especially want to get good results.”

*Photo credits, top and bottom photos: Nadine Haines.

Bog renovation 2015 – planting

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Planting started last week on the latest bog reno project, and it’s moving along faster than ever! While in previous years we’ve started the fall planting after the harvest, we moved that forward in 2014 in order to take advantage of the weather, the longer daylight hours, and the increased team availability.

There are two methods of planting: conventional propagation, which means pressing mowed vines or prunings directly into the bogs to be established; and rooted cuttings, which means planting plants with roots already established. Pine Island has used both methods in the past; however, this year we will be using rooted cuttings. Another concern with planting is implementing an irrigation program, both with ground water and sprinklers, that provides moisture for vine growth without causing excessive soil saturation, which can lead to favorable conditions for phytopthora, which in turn can lead to fruit or root rot. Pine Island uses both ditches and sprinklers for irrigation. During the early spring, after the winter flood is removed, irrigation is usually covered by our frost protection program. However, concerns for adequate soil moisture should not be forgotten during frost season. Several warm, sunny days without rain or frost irrigation can result in the need for irrigation. Checking the soil yourself is extremely important; tensiometers are good, but it’s important to learn the hands-on method, as well.

So far our teams are averaging about four acres per day, which is fantastic. “So far the weather’s been with us,” says New Production Manager Mike Haines. “But another big change is with our equipment.” In the past, our planting team would have to first lower a cage containing the rooted cuttings into the new beds, then team members would need to manually switch the trays from the cage to two carts, each attached to a separate tractor. “Bob Shinn designed a different kind of wagon for us where we can actually put the cage right onto the wagon,” Mike says. “This eliminates a step, plus we can fit more on each wagon, so one tractor can serve both planters. A smaller crew and fewer pieces of equipment means planting more acres per day. We planned for 19 days of work, and we’ve definitely shaved a couple days off. I just hope the weather keeps cooperating!”

The rest of the process remains the same: rooted cuttings are taken from the cart and loaded onto the planter. Team members seated on the planter drop the vines into the carousel and then the vines are distributed into the pre-dug furrow. The planter is followed by other crew members, who make sure that the vines have been placed correctly.

And in about three years, we should see some great results!

Getting ready!

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Autumn will be here quicker than we think, and to that end, our team is working hard preparing for the upcoming harvest!

Bog Renovations Manager Steve Manning is getting ready to start planting next week. “I have the guys out there right just touching up some stuff,” he says. “We’re land-leveling at the Warehouse reno and we’re fixing all the ditches. We also still have some sprinklers to install, which has to be finished before we put the plants in.” He has also followed up with his research into erosion control. “There’s a team at Black Rock putting in coconut mat all along the edges to act as erosion control, so hopefully it doesn’t wash out. Even if it only works about seventy percent of the time it should make a huge difference. There’s nothing more disheartening than getting something fixed just before a storm comes along and tears things up.”

Our much-missed seasonal team is also beginning to arrive, and have started performing other prep tasks such as weed control, while our equipment team is making sure all of the harvest equipment is in good shape! “A lot of minor repairs, mainly,” says Louis [Cantafio]. “Most of what we’re doing is preventative maintenance. During the season we’re always running hard, so everything gets oil changes, new plugs, and anything else they need for a standard tune-up. And we’re ordering parts in because things are going to break and we need to have them back up and running right away.”

Pine Island Team Profiles: Steve Manning

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Pine Island said farewell to Bog Reno manager extraordinaire Joe Colon back in December, and in February, Steve Manning came on board! Steve comes to us from over twenty years in the construction business, and has stepped right up to the challenge of renovating dozens of acres for 2015 and beginning the process for our 2016 phase.

“It’s been a busy season,” Steve says. “We’re just about finished at Turf and we’re in the process of installing the suction lines at Black Rock. We’re installing some additional drainage so we can widen the dams for tractor trailers, and large portions have already been land levelled. I’m expecting to flood Black Rock so we can settle everything and assist dirt compaction, and we’ll be land levelling at Warehouse next week.” He expects to be planting in about five to six weeks so we can have it all finished before harvest.

“I’m enjoying it a lot,” he says. “My previous job was construction, and I did a lot of what I’m actually doing here: clearing land, putting in roads, installing water mains. The difference is that now I’m always at the same job site, which makes things a little easier. I like working outside, and I have a good team.” He also sometimes forgets to eat lunch, which he says means he’s really liking the work. “I’m glad I made a move.”

GM Fred Torres is pleased with Steve’s work. “Steve works hard, and he plans ahead,” Fred says. “He plans for equipment, he plans for labor, all of it. He’s all about improvement, and is always looking for ways to make things better.” He’s also proven to be flexible when necessary. “It’s a big farm, and a lot goes on. Sometimes we need to change direction pretty quickly. If I have to move guys to another job temporarily, Stev will make do with who he’s got and change direction if he has to. He’s a team player all the way through.”

Look for more from Steve as our renovation progresses!

Renovation updates: pump houses

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Our team was ready this week for the next step in our Black Rock renovation: installing the new engines at the pump houses! This part of the reno is handled by our Facilities/Equipment team, and they certainly have a lot to do.

“Whenever we renovate a system, everything gets replaced new. All new irrigation, all new underdrain, all new water control structures,” explains Facilities/Equipment manager Louis Cantafio. “The old engines come out and get completely rebuilt; they were definitely old enough to replace. We’re also pre-gaming a little bit for the automation process. It’s a little more efficient for our team to work on this at the shop rather than going engine to engine out in the field. Because when the reno team is ready to set main line, the engines must be there already. We don’t ever want to hold up the reno team; the stuff they depend on has to be done ahead of time.” Then once the engines have been set up, Facilities Supervisor Mike Guest can put the buildings up.

Welder Fred Henschel has been working on the aluminum fixtures for the new pumps. “I started these a few months back,” he says. “When the old ones come out, I do try to recycle some parts in other projects, but with these we like to try to keep everything new. We don’t want to have to worry about a line going bad because it rotted away in only a couple of years.” Nonetheless, he likes to be prepared, and is also making a few spares, just to be on the safe side. It’s not much like work, according to him: “I just like to build stuff, really!”

With seven systems to take care of, that’s a lot of work, but the equipment team is up to the challenge. “It’s all about preventing downtime for other departments,” says Louis. “They shouldn’t be held up because of equipment.” And now that everything is installed, our reno team can move on to the next step: installing the main lines!

Bog renovation – spring update

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Our team is still working hard on our 2015 bog renovation plan, hitting all their targets and moving as fast as they can! New Bog Renovation Manager Steve Manning definitely has his hands full: “We should be putting in the irrigation at Black Rock next week. Jorge [Morales] is screening sand for Warehouse, and Junior [Colon] is at Turf leveling the ground to get ready for the sand over there.”

Other major overhauls to Turf include removing a dam and getting ready to build a new pump house. “We’re shifting the pump location to the other end, though we haven’t built the pad yet. We’re also rearranging dams so that only one canal will be up at the top of the system, which should make it easier to control the water,” Steve says. This time of year, between frost and re-planting, has made things a little challenging for him, but hiring subcontractor Wayne Sweet has been a big help as far as supplementing labor and equipment. The team has even gotten a head start on the 2016 renovation, with old vines being hauled out already.

The beautiful weather has been a help, but also a hindrance, Steve says. “The weather’s been good and we’ve been moving fast, but we really could use a little more rain.” The dams, which can fall apart in too much rain, can also start to crumble if they get too dry. So our equipment team put together a “water truck” in order to keep the moisture level just right: whatever it takes to keep the Hydremas happy!

GM Fred Torres is pleased with the progress. “I think reno’s going well. A lot’s getting done now. Weather’s been good, equipment’s running. We’re working on pump houses, installing the main line, all that’s falling into place, and we should be done in time to plant in September,” he says. “This time of year there’s a lot to do for reno, and a lot going on at the farm…we have frost, and planting, and all the other jobs, and sometimes we have to add or take away people. But Steve understands that. It’s a bit of a challenge, yeah, and there’s a lot to do. But you can get it all done. If you work together, if you communicate, if you manage the people, you can get it done and hit the targets. Everything falls in place.”

Gate installation

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Renovation on some of the bogs in the Black Rock system is going well! Last week we spoke briefly again about Pine Island’s #1 question: “where is the water coming from, and where do we want it to go?” This week, our team addressed that question by starting the removal of wooden floodgates and replacing them with our newer PVC gate design.

Longtime team member Wilfredo Pagan (35 years!) is in charge of this operation, which is going very smoothly considering the unexpected weather. “Pipe gates are better,” he says. “They’re easier to install, and they last longer, too.” First, though, he has to set up the laser level in order to make sure the gate is set up correctly. The team will be able to put the new gate in at the same depth as the old one. This is where they have to be careful; if it’s not even the two parts of the new gate can shift over time since they’re not one solid piece of pipe. “Once you put them together, the only thing holding them is dirt and pressure,” Wilfredo says. “If you have a situation where the canal is deeper than the ditch, you have to measure at the top of the dam and set it so the uprights are level with it. If the canal is lower than bog and you don’t adjust for it, it can wash out underneath.”

In the meantime, Junior Colon has been on the excavator making sure the water’s been blocked off in both the canal and the ditches. “Once that’s blocked off, we can start digging,” he says.

After the water is stopped, it’s time to start digging up the dam. “We go right down to the top of the boards on the old gate,” says Junior, “and then we have to continue to dig behind it to get the turf out and make sure the water’s all gone.”

Once the excavator clears out the dirt around the old gate, it’s time to lift each side one at a time to put the chains on for easier lifting.

The old gate then gets lifted onto a waiting tractor and hauled away.

Once the new gate is installed, the team will fill the dirt back and then haul in turf to patch the sides before crowning the dam and moving on to the next gate!

Turf renovation

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Winter is here, and our team is staying on task: the water is on, sanding has begun, and bog renovation continues!

CEO Bill Haines said earlier this year: “We’ve known that the Early Blacks are our weakest variety and eventually need to be entirely replaced, and decided to become more aggressive about it. By 2022, we’ve targeted 769 acres of Early Blacks to be replaced with hybrid varieties.” He also pointed out some results already taking place at Panama, finished in 2012. “We’ve already had a lot of great fruit after only two growing seasons,” he said. And Panama #6 had a record crop this year.

One of the more involved renovation projects this year is at Turf bog, across the street from our main office. First, we built a new end dam roadside in order to keep water from creeping near the road at harvest time. Our team has also removed a center dam, are moving gates, and will be relocating a pump house, all in order to improve our water management. Remember, the key to this business is where the water is coming from, and where we want it to go! And since the team is there digging already, they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to remove the main line in preparation for upgrading the irrigation system.

GM Fred Torres says: “Bryan [COO Bryan vonHahmann] sat down and calculated how much of the center dam we needed to take out to make the bogs at Turf one bog, and now we’re using that to build the base for the pump house. Relocating the pump house is going to improve efficiency a lot. Building it this way also has the advantage of killing two birds with one stone: since we decided to get rid of the dam in the middle, we can reuse it elsewhere and save ourselves some hauling time.” We are also able to use some of it at the Black Rock renovation, where we will also be enlarging the pump house bases. “The pump houses are going to be be replaced, with new fuel tanks on the outside,” Fred says. “”So they’re going to need more support.”

Another time-saver has been the addition of two more Hydremas: “They are going where other dump trucks can’t, as well as doing it twice as fast,” says Bryan. The Hydremas can carry twice as much, which means our already highly skilled drivers (Rick Zapata, Blondie Cruz-Rodriguez, and Caesar Colon) can get the job done in short order!

When it’s ready for planting, we’ll be using Mullica Queen again, which is one of the new Rutgers varieties (a later variety that gets picked toward the end of the season) and has a very high yield potential. But we’ll be checking back on how the team is progressing before then!

A fond farewell

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Sometimes, the best thing about maintaining our blog is being able to talk to all the fantastic people who make up one of the best teams in the business. We have an entry up every week, but in the end, those entries are just words: it’s really our team who tells our story. And this week, we bid farewell to one of our greatest characters with the retirement of Bog Renovations Manager Joe Colon.

At a surprise lunch (beautifully planned by our fantastic admin Debra Signorelli), CEO Bill Haines thanked Joe for his 43 years of hard work. “There’s no job here that Joe hasn’t done,” he said. “I remember working with him in the packing house as shed boys; getting hollered at by the lady running it, getting hollered at by my dad. He’s improved a lot as a driver since then! And in the late 80s, when Howard Sprague [a long-time contractor] stopped building bogs, Joe started working on renovations, and by 1992 he was in charge of the team. It became his show. So many bogs that started out as blueberry fields were transformed on his watch, and then in 2005 we bought Sim Place. Everyone here knows the work we’ve been doing there.” Bill then continued with some mind-boggling numbers: “Since 1992, Joe has built or renovated 528 acres of bogs, installed 130 miles of irrigation pipe, moved over a million cubic yards of dirt, and installed about 10,000 sprinklers. He’s also installed about 550 gates; in fact, the first year we had Sim Place, we installed 117 gates in one year. Pretty impressive. All of that work is the model for what we’re going to do next: better bogs and better varieties, setting us up for the future. Joe has had a heck of a lot to do with all of that.”

GM Fred Torres then made a presentation, giving Joe a watch from the entire team. Joe was also presented with a framed photo, taken at Panama #1, and two first-class round-trip tickets to Puerto Rico. There were some great stories, a few tears, and a heartfelt thank you from the guest of honor, whom we are all going to miss enormously. Thank you, Joe, for everything you’ve done for Pine Island Cranberry. Bill Sr. thought the world of you, and so do we.

2014 Fall Planting

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It’s once again time for the fall planting, which this year finishes the renovation at 11 Acre and Ben Haines that we started after the 2013 harvest. While in previous years we’ve started the fall planting after the harvest, we moved that forward in order to take advantage of the weather, the longer daylight hours, and the increased team availability.

Assistant Manager Mike Haines is running the planting operation this year, and has been very busy making preparations. Mike’s previous job was with Integrity Propagation, so he was already familiar with the process from the other side of the business. “Here, we have a lot more heavy machinery involved,” Mike says “Integrity does the growing and the shipping; they also hedge all the flats for us. Otherwise, the vines are too long for our machine and they get caught.”

He’s been fairly busy getting everything ready prior to the start. “We had to finish the land leveling and disking so the ground is soft and the plants can go in more easily. We also had to get all the equipment out there: the machines, the tractors with the wagons to carry the flats, the excavator and the cage to move the plants from the truck to the wagons. We also had to assemble the teams; there are twenty-nine total on the crew with Kelvin [Colon] and Waldy [Blanco] running a crew each. It’s great having them there; they really know what they’re doing.”

Kelvin is always happy to help: “Everything he needs, every question he has, I’ll get the answer for him,” he says. “Whatever it takes!” One team started at 7:30, and the other team started from the other side of the bog at 8. “It’s going very smoothly right now,” Kelvin says. “Hopefully it stays this way to the end, if the nice weather holds up!” The team has a target of three acres per day, with 17 acres total, and everyone is confident they can get it done.

Mike is excited to see these bogs starts to produce. “This is our first big Mullica Queen bog,” he says. “It’s one of the new Rutgers varieties–a later variety that gets picked toward the end of the season–and was really popular with other growers when I was at Integrity. It has a very high yield potential; it will be really cool to watch it as it develops.”