Tag Archives: PIICM

Sanding 2015

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Our team has started flooding the bogs for winter, which means that our annual sanding project is now underway. Sanding is a fundamental component of our Pine Island Integrated Crop Management (PIICM) program, helping us manage the relationship between water, soil, weather, disease, insects, weeds, and nutrition. Sanding is a process where we apply 1″ of sand on the bog surface every four years on a rotating basis. This year we are scheduled to sand over 350 acres. This procedure helps improve growth and yield by stimulating the development of new uprights (covering the base of the roots strengthens the root system and creates a more healthy vine) while also suppressing disease and reducing insects (by burying weed seed, spores, and insect eggs). It also improves soil drainage while at the same time absorbing and releasing heat so that frost danger in spring is lessened. This increases our efficiency by lowering the need for extra plant nutrition as well as saving water by cutting down frost irrigation times.

In New Jersey, it doesn’t always get cold enough for ice sanding (the preferred method for growers at more northern latitudes), so our team usually works with a sanding barge. This process starts as you might expect: checking water levels. Our team needs to make sure the water is the right depth so the barge operator doesn’t get stuck on any vines or worse, tear them out. Also, the sand needs to be as pure as possible in order to prevent soil compaction (which can restrict water and limit growth) so we screen our sand before using it on the barge to take out any clay, stones, or other debris which could cause problems.

Our team begins to prep a couple of days beforehand by checking to see how much the water level needs to come up. The day before the crew arrives, a supervisor will get the water to sanding level (high enough to cover all vines) and measure out the distance the sander will travel. The crew will begin to sand on the deepest side. The water level can then be adjusted if necessary, which helps with dam conservation.

Our team also prepares by sending the necessary equipment out to the sanding location. A tractor with a winch is on one side of the bog, ready to move the length of the bog; an excavator is on the opposite side of the bog. The cable from the winch is stretched across the bog, through the sander (which has been lifted and put in the bog next to the excavator), and connected to the excavator.

The process itself is simple: a truck is loaded with sand, then heads over to the bog being sanded, backs up to the excavator, and drops the load into our specially built sandbox (designed to improve efficiency and reduce waste). The excavator operator then loads the hopper of the sander, while the sander operator moves along the cable, adjusting the opening for the sand to fall. The process is repeated, with the excavator and tractor moving forward the length of the bog together.

As GM Fred Torres has said in the past, “You have to sand when it’s time to sand; you can’t wait for perfect weather to do what needs to be done.” Unfortunately, though, we had to delay a little bit this week due to the weather. “Heavy rains can slow the process down,” explains Jeremy Fenstermaker. “It’s a lot of wear and tear on the dams, and we’d spend more time fixing them than getting the actual sanding done.” That’s where new equipment helps: “Now that we’re using Hydremas, the work gets done faster, and their wide tires are a lot easier on the dams.”

Heat stress

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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. 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. Historically, our team would run the pumps for about an hour or two, depending on variables such as wind, temperature, and humidity. We are also using some new technology to help fine-tune the process.

With the use of thermal imaging cameras, our team has been able to use our irrigation systems much more efficiently when cooling down the fruit. “With the camera, we can get a better indication of when we should run the water,” says New Production Manager Mike Haines. “Historically, when the temperature got high enough, we would just turn on the sprinklers and let them run for a while. But it wasn’t always necessary. We could get a day that was only in the high 80s but really dry, which means the fruit’s going to get super hot and break down. That can lead to rot. Conversely, it could be 95 out, but the humidity might be high enough to keep fruit cool. Using a thermal camera is helping us pinpoint temperatures precisely so we run the pumps when we need to rather than guessing.” This is important, because too much moisture 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!

Joan Davenport – July 2015 visit

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We had Dr. Joan Davenport back again this week for her annual summer visit! Joan comes to see us in the spring during the bloom period and again in the height of summer to discuss fertilizer needs for bud set.

Additional nutrition is necessary because while cranberries have adapted (and thrive) in their native sandy soil, nutrients are taken from the bog through the harvest of fruit. The three main elements usually added for nutrition are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. “This late in the growing season, we are assessing the new plantings for nutritional needs but also for when to stop fertilizing, so that the plants will enter dormancy,” Joan says. “For established beds, we are evaluating the plants for how much crop they are holding and the bud potential for next year to develop recommendations for applications for the remainder of the growing season, including post-harvest and some guidance for roughneck in the spring of next year.” To do this, Joan and the PIICM team look at the amount and size of fruit, the length and color of both new and upright growth, and the amount of buds already set.

This season Joan sat down with our ICM team to discuss crop needs for fertigation, a process where plant nutrition is distributed via the irrigation system, and the extra care we’re going to need to take with our hardware and equipment, particularly with the sprinkler heads. Her recommendation for certain beds under review was to continue for another year. “One season doesn’t tell me how things will continue to respond,” she says. “Realistically, we start seeing results after a two year cycle when the same beds are being run on the same program in terms of hybrid versus strict fertigation.” She also had some recommendations for spacing.

Joan Davenport – Spring 2015 visit

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If it’s springtime, it must be time for a visit from Dr. Joan Davenport! 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. “At this point in the growing season, we are evaluating the plants for fruit potential and trying to develop recommendations for applications between bloom and fruit set. To do this, I look at hook, the length and color of the new upright growth, and the amount and color of old leaves, including looking for leaves from two growing seasons ago,” Joan says.

“This year Joan came a week later than usual because of the cool spring; the buds were still tight when they are usually beginning to break,” says PIICM Manager Cristina Tassone. “In order for Joan to make a good recommendation, we want to at least be a little past roughneck. The timing this year was perfect. We were able to complete our roughneck fertilizer plan before she came. The growth stage was between hook and scattered bloom. We were able to see the potential crop, and she was able to make some recommendations that she would not have seen if she came a week earlier. We were also able to walk the bogs comfortably with the mild weather; we are usually very hot and watching for wilt as we walk the bogs in May with Joan!”

New Production Manager Mike Haines was pleased to see Joan. “There aren’t really textbooks about cranberry cultivation,” he says. “So it’s great to get a chance to actually walk through with Joan and get a practical education. I can learn both what kind of nutrition the plants need and also why they need it. This is the first time I’m learning a lot of this stuff, so I’m glad to have her here to answer questions. It makes me confident that before too long I’ll be able to make these decisions on my own.”

In general, Cristina says, “This spring has been different for us. We’ve had quite a few frost nights and not so many sunny and hot days to move the plants. It seems like the plants grew over two weekends. Now we are back to cooler weather and the flowers are just waiting to pop. I estimate that all of our bogs are going to look different after this weekend where we are expecting sunny days and warmer weather.”

Automation

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Not too long after the website launched, we talked about one of the toughest tasks on the place: monitoring frost conditions. As we explained back then, one of the toughest things cranberry growers do is managing springtime frost conditions. In the spring, there is a danger to the crop when the temperature drops. Typically, a cranberry bog is built at a lower level than the land immediately surrounding it and the bog temperature can drop ten to fifteen degrees lower than the uplands. These conditions make monitoring bog temperature a top priority once the winter water comes off. It’s no exaggeration to say there would be no crop if we didn’t watch for frost on the bogs.

It’s demanding work that takes a lot out of our frost crew every year, so we’re always trying to find ways to improve the process. This year, we are launching phase one of an automation process that will hopefully increase efficiency and reduce strain on our team! COO Bryan vonHahmann explains: “We all sat down and looked at some of the things we’d done in the past with weather stations and the like. After discussing the successes and failures, we knew what we did and didn’t want. We spent time talking to producers and basically entertained two options: design and build a system ourselves, or go with an outside firm.” Eventually, the team settled on an outside firm and hired Joe Lord, from Wisconsin. Joe and his team built a lot of the equipment and staged it for us, then hauled it from Wisconsin and have been here deploying for the past week. “We’re going to have seven pumps automated, then based on the success of those, we’ll add another thirty every year for the next three years,” Bryan says. “We currently have forty probes scheduled for thermometers and tensiometers, and will be deploying all probes tomorrow. The pumps are online, we have permits for two 100-foot towers to boost communications, and the team will have the ability to check remotely via iPad.”

The rest of the team can’t wait to see the results. “Automated thermometers for frost is going to be exciting for us,” says PIICM Manager Cristina Tassone. “Each year we put out around seventy or more orchard thermometers around the farm for the guys to get out of their trucks and check while they are monitoring temperatures for frost. Having the automation will help us save them from always having to do that, and it will also cut down on actual time having to monitor the thermometers. A couple guys won’t need to come out early to check temperatures; Gerardo can watch the computer screen and when an area gets close to his ‘go’ temp, he can send his crew out.” Automated tensiometers are also going to save a lot of time for travel and labor. “We install about twenty-five tensiometers each year around the farm. It takes one person the whole morning to travel to each tensiometer and record the readings, then they report the readings to the managers who need to use the data to make water management decisions. Having the automated sensors will help enormously, and will allow us to make better decisions in a timely manner.” The team will still check the tensiometers physically every couple weeks for maintenance, however.

By all accounts, Joe Lord and his crew have been phenomenal to work with, highly attentive to our needs and working round the clock to help make this as efficient as possible for us. Facilities Supervisor Mike Guest is more than willing to meet them halfway: “Anything they need, I’m here to support them. If there are parts they need, it’s better for them if we run to get them, especially with them being so far from home. They’re great guys. I knew just from talking to them on the phone that they’d be great to work with.”

Drainage repair

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The harvest is in, and our winter projects have begun! This week, team members have started installing new underdrain in preparation for the winter flood. As we have discussed here before, drainage is a 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. Previous underdrain repairs have used 4-inch pipe, but thanks to grower-neighbor Bill Cutts, we are working with 2-inch pipe instead.

“Bill talked about this at the ACGA summer field day a little bit,” says Assistant Manager Mike Haines. “The smaller size should make it easier for repairs, and installing it isn’t nearly as hard on the vines, which is great.” However, there was a bit of prep to take care of first. “There were several patches with just weeds growing; rushes like swampy areas, Dad says. If you see rushes growing in a bog, it’s too wet for berries. So Kelvin had a crew out here hoeing all the weeds, and then they added sand to make the spots level with rest of bog. One reason for standing water could be that the bog’s out of level, acting like a bowl, and the water just collects. So taking out those weeds and leveling things off might help.”

Our team worked a little with Bill over the summer to try things out, but this is the first big project installing the new underdrain. “According to Bill, this should all be filled in by the summer, and we wont even be able to see where we’ve added it,” says Mike. “We have the laser here so when Caesar is on the tractor he can make sure everything stays level. It’s been a learning experience, figuring out how deep it needs to go. The original underdrain is 16 inches below the surface, but the water can’t go that far and we end up with it standing on top. That’s why we’re redoing Panama 1 through 4, in fact. Every 13 feet 4 inches we’re putting in the new stuff; it’s better to err on the side of too much!”

It’s also an excellent opportunity to collaborate with fellow growers. “Bill said it’s been working well for him,” Mike says. “But he keeps checking back to see how we’ve been doing and if we’ve had any ideas for alterations or improvements.” Our team is constantly evaluating conditions and practices in ways that ensure both better decision making and optimal production. To that end, while we’ve been borrowing this tractor from Bill, the equipment team is working on building one of our own, making improvements based on team recommendations. “The cranberry community isn’t so huge that businesses will make equipment especially marketed to us,” Mike says. “A lot of what we do is done by working together to improve what we have.”

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.”

Pine Island Team Profile: Javier Ruiz

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While he is only at Pine Island Cranberry for a short time this summer, valued Cranberries Austral Chile team member Javier Ruiz has truly made some fantastic contributions to our ICM program during his stay. “Several months ago, we discussed the idea of Javier spending time at Pine Island,” says COO Bryan vonHahmann. “During those discussions we quickly identified that an extended visit would benefit both operations.”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time on water management,” Javier says. “Irrigation here is a lot different than in Chile, but water is just as critical for us, if not more so. Here, I see water in the ditches every single day. At home, the soil is different. If we dig a hole here, we can find water very easily. In Chile during the summer, we have to dig pretty deep to find it. If we don’t have good water management, if we don’t have good frost control…we lose everything.”

In addition to irrigation, Javier has been working with PIICM manager Cristina Tassone and soil consultant Dr. Joan Davenport on soil tests and plant nutrition. “Now we have some data and are working on the percentage of water the soil can support,” Javier says. “And I’m training Eric [Gonzalez-Perez] how to do this in the future.”

He is also able to bring some knowledge back with him. “I’ve been doing a lot of fertilizer recommendations,” he says. “There are some things, though, that are done differently here. I’ve been taking a lot of notes and snapping a lot of pictures. If I can bring any of that knowledge back with me, it can help increase our efficiency [at CAC].” Supervisor Jeremy Fenstermaker agrees: “Javier’s a smart guy. A really smart guy. Some of the things we’ve been talking about here are things that he’s worked on at CAC, and he’s been teaching me a lot about how to deal with different situations. He’ll tell me what results he got, and then I can use that information to go forward.”

Javier’s stay with us has been all too brief. “It is hard to believe that he will be heading back to Chile in a week,” says Bryan. “Javier has a great understanding of cranberry production and a very positive attitude. It’s been a pleasure working with him, as well as watching both Pine Island and CAC share experiences and knowledge that will benefit both operations on their journey of continuous improvement.”

Rutgers extension

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Last week, one of Pine Island’s closest collaborators, Dr. Peter Oudemans, was promoted by Rutgers University to the rank of full Professor. His research with the Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research has been tremendously beneficial to the cranberry industry.

A great deal of his work with Pine Island and other growers includes the persistent problem of fairy ring. “We’re starting to get more answers,” Peter says, “and we also have better technology to get the answers. We also have Tim’s, and now Josh’s, research on the floral component and how to better control disease.”

PIICM manager Cristina Tassone has high praise for all of the researchers who work with the industry. “Working with the scientists and researchers at the Rutgers Research Extension is invaluable to us,” she says. “We have a unique opportunity, due to our proximity and our size, to work closely with them and provide areas on our farm for larger experiments. Being able to collaborate in this way, and share resources, helps not only us, but the cranberry industry as well. Peter’s experiment with Fairy Ring treatment is making progress, and he has started using a drone to monitor the experiment area. He also has a graduate student working on one of our bogs gathering data on footprinting (which is another issue for all growers, specifically in the Stevens variety). Cesar Rodriguez-Saona and Dan Schiffhauer are also helpful with any and all pest questions we may have, and Dan comes to the farm every Friday to walk the bogs with us to help with fertilizer decisions and to check up on the findings of our scouting program.”

The relationship goes both ways: “I’ve learned a large number of life lessons from growers,” says Peter. “Working with the people in this area has been phenomenal.”

Joan Davenport: May visit

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It’s once again the time of year Pine Island gets 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 see us in the spring during the bloom period and again in the height of summer to discuss fertilizer needs for bud set.

A high priority for her May visit this year was discussion about changing some of our renovation processes in order to increase efficiency and eventually, increase yield. CEO Bill Haines and our PIICM team sat down with Joan to discuss some ideas. Bill’s #1 question: could Pine Island put sand on renovated beds instead of our usual process of stripping topsoil, grading the subsoil, and then re-grading the topsoil? Some of the reasons for considering this include drainage: proper drainage has been our biggest problem in the efficient establishment of renovated/new bogs. In addition, some of the soil (deep muck/peat) at Sim Place makes renovation slow, complicated, and expensive. The goal is to create a homogenous planting medium to simplify management of water and nutrition.

Joan agreed that it could work; growers in Wisconsin have had some success with this method. The idea is to put on 12 inches of sand, which covers half of the rooting depth. Sand is a uniform medium for drainage. The issue is what kind of sand to use, as there can be a problem with using mixed sand: even a small amount of silt or clay can cause a sealed surface layer. The top two inches would need to be clean coarse sand to prevent us from needing to go back and fix the problem. The big advantage here is that we won’t need to worry as much about the quality of the subsoil, as long as the top layer is good quality.

After some discussion, the team went to various locations at both Sim Place and on the home farm to look at various types of soil. This, as Joan says, was “the fun part!” The tour finished at our latest home farm renovation project at 11 Acre/Ben Haines.

Joan finished her visit with us on the following day with a walkthrough to make nutrition decisions for our established beds. As always, 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. We’re glad to have such a fantastic opportunity to help us get better at what we do!