Ditching is often mentioned as a usual part of the spring/summer maintenance routine on a cranberry farm, but at Pine Island Cranberry we also do some late autumn cleaning after the harvest is in. The ditches surrounding every bog must be kept free of debris in order to ensure adequate water flow for both flooding and drainage.

Our spring and summer routines take care of all the main ditches; our autumn/winter ditching covers the smaller ditches in the middle of the bogs. Unlike the main ditches, which we clean annually, we clean the smaller ditches on a rotating basis. Newly renovated bogs are designed differently, without smaller ditches running through the middle, so as bogs are redesigned we can re-allocate our resources toward other post-harvest activities such as sanding, raking, reservoir and pond cleaning, planting, and the winter flood.

Jose Cruz-Soto, better known to us as Blondie, has been with Pine Island full-time for almost fifteen years. He was a member of our highly efficient fairy-ring crew, has run the Orange Team’s gathering crew for the past few years, and runs our weed control, so is well-suited to work with a crew of over a dozen team members to make sure the hand ditching goes smoothly.

The process starts with hand-trimming the ditches: often vines start to grow across, so it’s necessary to cut them back and clean up the edges of the ditch. This can be done with either a trimmer or a brush cutter.

The rest of the crew follows along behind the trimmers. Each member of the first group will use a large hoe to gather the debris (vines, berries, weeds, etc) together; the second group has each member using a pitchfork to scoop up it up and deposit it on the side of the ditch.

Some bogs are easier to work in than others; as it turns out, berry variety can make a difference. Stevens vines are thicker than Early Blacks (which are a thinner, lighter vine), so it’s harder to cut them back, especially when using the brush cutter, since mature cranberry vines grow densely.

Finally, another crew, led by Mickey Mercado, comes along to pick up the debris using handheld beds, or carriers. The bogs are usually too wet to be able to use a Gator, so it needs to be done by hand. The debris is then loaded onto a truck and taken away.

Hand ditching is an unglamorous but necessary task that we perform each year. It is part of the care and attention that Pine Island Cranberry pays to our land and our environment, and it is leaders like Blondie who help us get it done.