Tag Archives: plant nutrition

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!

Downstown fertilizer trials

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This week some Pine Island team members went to Downstown Aero Crop Service for an application clinic. This clinic is recommended for aviation crop services in order to give the operators and their pilots the opportunity to test their equipment with a trained analyst to help interpret the information and to recommend changes to improve performance.

The main intent of this program, which was sponsored in part by the National Agricultural Aviation Association, is to improve “economy of operation and application, as well as an increase in safety and reduced health and environmental concerns.” As we are in the middle of our growing season and thus concerned with applying the correct amount of nutrients via fertilizer application, this is highly beneficial to Pine Island’s Integrated Crop Management program: 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, and we are always searching for ways to become even better.

The morning was spent testing calibration for both accuracy and drift. “The control of the droplet size is the best thing we have to combat drift,” says Dennis Gardisser of WRK Services of Arkansas. “In the workshops, we show applicators how to configure aircrafts so they develop precise droplet sizes.” Droplets that are too fine can drift or evaporate, and droplets that are too large may reduce the coverage, in turn reducing crop yields by a significant amount.

Downstown is a great outfit to work with, and our team was impressed by their willingness to basically audit themselves in front of an audience mainly composed of their clients. “They put themselves under review to show us how they can do things even better,” says COO Bryan vonHahmann. “It’s ultimately about efficiency. When they’re more efficient, we’re more efficient, and ultimately that helps us to become better growers.”

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Nutrition decisions

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This week we once again hosted 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 (defined below).

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. According to cranberries.org: “Cranberry plant demand for nitrogen is highest during three stages of the lifecycle critical to cranberry development–early growth, fruit set and bud set. Early growth is when the plant grows vegetatively through vining and root growth and produces a flush of new leaves. Fruit set is when the flower becomes pollinated and fruit begin to form. Soon after fruit set comes bud set when nitrogen is needed for both fruit development and production of the next year’s flower bud.”

Joan and our PIICM team visit several bogs to check growth and fruit set in order to best determine nutritional needs. They also take into account the sanding schedule, as sanding 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 reducing insects (by burying insect eggs) and improving soil drainage. This lowers the need for additional plant nutrition.

“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.” (The roughneck stage is when the stem elongates significantly and all flower buds are visible, being held tight to the stem.) 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.

Once Joan and the team tour the bogs, she makes specific recommendations based on their findings, such as the sand level needed in certain beds or where to adjust for deficiencies.

“It’s going to take eyes on the beds,” Joan says. “But here, there are always eyes on the beds.” And as always, our PIICM team is out doing whatever it takes to make sure our growing season gives us good results.

Sources:
1. Fertilizer Use in Cranberry Production: http://www.cranberries.org/pdf/soil_fertility.pdf
2. Workmaster, Beth Ann A., Jiwan P. Palta, and Teryl R. Roper, “Terminology for Cranberry Bud Development and Growth”, http://longbeach.wsu.edu/cranberries/documents/terminologyforcranberrybuddevelopmentandgrowth.pdf

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.