Blue Harvest Team

Posted on October 11, 2013 by stef

Harvest is going at full speed and all of our teams are doing whatever it takes to bring in this year’s crop. Matt Giberson, our new Blue Team supervisor, was out at Bull Coo on the home farm with his crew this week. Matt has been with us for a year and a half now, learning all the challenges and triumphs of growing cranberries and is applying knowledge of the water from winter flooding to the management of the harvest water flow.

“My main job is to handle the water,” Matt says. “I was really nervous about it at first, especially with the reservoirs being so low. But I’m learning how it all works; I spend a lot of time talking to Bill and Fred, because they know more about the water than anyone else here. And I touch base every morning about our targets: what to pick, what to gather.” Matt is also getting used to the early mornings! “It’s a long drive out to Sim Place, and when you go to bed, you’re always worried about the water: did you close that gate? Is enough coming through?” With the reservoirs being so low, Matt also has to keep an eye on the Crisafulli pumps. “There was a clog at the gate at Red Road this morning; I could tell the stream wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Bill always says, ‘Be creative, have a Plan B’, so we brought some water down from the top. It finally cleaned itself out, and now we have plenty to finish this section.”

It helps to have a couple of experienced crew leaders. Joel DeJesus, who runs the picking crew, and Kelvin Colon, who runs the gathering crew, know what they need to do to keep the balance. “Communication is key, always,” says Matt. “If that goes well, everyone’s job is made a lot easier.” And everyone pitches in. Matt tries to keep Joel’s crew knocking berries at all times, and if Kelvin’s gathering crew catches up, they will help with other tasks, such as pulling sprinklers ahead of the picking crew, while waiting. As with everything else in agriculture, a lot depends on the weather. The wind was favoring the gathering crew, which helps speed up the process considerably. And they have specialized knowledge which also helps with efficiency: Joel keeps a set of tools on him at all times, so if the chain on a harvester breaks, he can usually fix it himself and save the equipment team a trip.

With water management so central to the operation, Matt believes that knowledge is power. “The more people know about the process, the better it is. They ask questions, you give them answers. Then they can see themselves if something’s not right. Vincent was out at Sim Place the other day and noticed a couple of boards had come out, and we were able to get that under control right away.” In turn, he asks plenty of questions and learns extensively from the team members that have been here for many years. Experienced team members such as Wilfredo Pagan, Ivan Burgos, and Jorge Morales, among many others, explained picking patterns to him. Each bog is picked in a specific pattern according to terrain, and the picking crew has to carefully move their harvesters around stakes which have been arranged by the team leader for maximum operational efficiency. Following this pattern allows for minimal damage to the vines. “That one’s still tough,” he says. “But it comes down to knowing your bogs, to keeping your feet in them and picking up the details. The more I walk them, the more I learn.”

Pine Island Cranberry is very happy to have Matt as the new Blue Team supervisor this harvest; he is a great example of the type of leadership we are trying to attract. He is passionate about farming, wants to know everything about how to grow cranberries, and is willing to do whatever it takes to help us achieve our mission. Most of our training on the farm is informal and on-the-job experience. This season, Matt has been able to lead his team and learn from the veterans at the same time, helping us do everything we do better every day.

Crowning dams

Posted on August 9, 2013 by stef

Long-time readers of the blog will remember that “continuous improvement” is one of our core values here at Pine Island Cranberry. (First-timers will quickly pick up on this, as well.) Part of that continuous improvement includes dam maintenance. On a cranberry farm, dams serve two purposes: to detain the water used for irrigation and water management, and for vehicle use.

Dam maintenance is highly important for both safety and equipment. “During last year’s Labor Day storm, we had water coming over the dam on this side of Little Meadow,” says GM Fred Torres. “It was lower than the main side along Jonathan Wright [one of our big reservoirs]. We couldn’t get the water down fast enough and had to breach the main dam to get it down. Raising this one over here will help if that ever happens again.”

The procedure is the same as it was when we made some necessary repairs at Ox Pasture this past winter. A team member picks up a load of sand in their dump truck, then hauls the load back to the dam and drops it in front of a bulldozer.

Team member Wilfredo Pagan then uses the laser to get the level he want and keeps going. Once he puts sand down and pushes to get it where he wants it, he comes back at an angle in order to “crown” the dam. Then team member Mickey Mercado follows on a roller to smooth the crown.

Fred says there are targets for this, the same as everything else. “We have everything mapped out: the ones we did in 2012 are in red, the ones for this year are in blue, and the ones planned for next year are green. We’re on target to finish all 7.36 miles by harvest. Next year’s target is 7.26 miles.” The targeted dams are usually the most heavily travelled ones. Some dams are really only used during harvest, and if they get any ruts in a heavy rain, it’s usually fine. But the ones everyone uses most can deteriorate quickly, pushing out both water and sand; proper maintenance now is much more efficient than trying to fix the problem later. “The main dam at Jonathan Wright is a good example,” Fred says. “We crowned it a few years back, and now just touch it up with a dozer a couple times a year, or run the scraper the width of it. All that rain in June and July and everything is still okay; it makes a real difference. Ten years ago, it would have washed out all the time and we would have to touch it up, add some gravel. This is better.”

Our team is also making big improvements over at the Oswego bog renovation. In addition to crowning the dams, our team has been busy widening the dams in some areas. “We’re trying something new,” Fred says. “In this area, we have eight, sometimes nine trucks over here during harvest. Each truck can carry two boxes. But! If we use a tractor trailer, it has nine boxes on it. With three drivers for three tractor-trailers, we won’t need to use as many trucks. It will be more efficient for both the gathering team and the packing house. And it frees up team members to be elsewhere if we need them.”

“We’re doing this all along the main dam behind Oswego so we can take the trucks all the way out to the side road,” Fred adds. “Wherever a trailer might need a wider space, we’ve made it happen.” This includes building a 40 foot pipe gate at a couple of the wider turns. Ultimately our team is willing to do whatever it takes, as always, in order to keep doing what we do: growing more acres and more fruit per acre.

Water micromanagement

Posted on May 24, 2013 by stef

Continuing with our more in-depth look at Pine Island’s water management program, this week we took a look at our water micro-management program in our young bogs. Now that the lampinenometers and new underdrain have been installed, it’s time to start monitoring them.

Mechanical ditch cleaning has been completed for all the young bogs; Kelvin Colon’s team cleaned out pipes and unplugged underdrain endpipes where necessary. Every morning, he or supervisor Kylie Naylor head out to read the tensiometers and lampinenometers, as well as check the soil. (To recap: lampinenometers measure the water table beneath the cranberry bed to make sure there is a sufficient depth to provide water to the root zone by capillary rise while at the same avoiding oversaturation.)

Kylie’s major task has been creating the micro-maps for water management. “The young bogs are our high maintenance bogs, so they require a lot of care,” Kylie says. Fishhead #1, which took on a lot of water in the Labor Day storm and needed some replanting, has three different stages of plants: the established area, newer rooted cuttings, and broadcast cuttings.

In order to best map the areas that needed more attention, Kylie took the irrigation sprinkler maps and traced them. Then she went out and walked the entire bog and outlined each area: established plants, rooted cuttings, and broadcast cuttings. “Sprinklers will have to be on for less time on the broadcast than the rooted cuttings, and for less time on rooted cuttings than the established plants,” Kylie says. The next step will be tying a colored ribbon on the sprinklers in each area according to code on map. “That will give us an idea of what to watch; this way, we can shut off sprinklers by hand as necessary,” she adds. When Fishhead is done, she’ll be repeating the process at Papoose.

Last fall the team also sanded one corner of Fishhead by hand, in addition to sanding the area where the rooted cuttings were located, as there were spots that settled lower than other parts of the bog when the dam broke in the big storm. The team also put in some gravel to fill in washouts, which should hold better against erosion rather than sand alone.

Team member Vanessa DeJesus also put two tensiometers in Fishhead: one in the established area, and a new one in the broadcast area, in order to keep a closer eye on the moisture levels. “Younger bogs need a bit more attention,” Kylie says. “This tensiometer [in the established area] is reading at a six, so that’s good. And the water table reading is in the green area, so that’s okay, too.” She then demonstrates checking the soil by digging some up with her bare hands: “If it clumps and stays together, it’s getting moisture, but if it just crumbles then it’s a bit dry. You can’t just assume that the tech is working; you need to get a feel for the bog conditions as well.” The tensiometer in the broadcast area is reading as wet, which is good, because the area with the broadcast cuttings are pressed in an area that is sandier than the established vines.

The New Production team is also monitoring weather conditions. Since we’re expecting rain, Kelvin is monitoring the ditches so he can keep an eye on the water levels and then raise the ditches if necessary. It sounds counterintuitive to raise water levels during a rain event, but the team is trying to keep ditches higher in new plantings in order to prevent erosion; they will then drop the ditches after rain and level off in order to maintain the water table.

Water management at Fishhead was also tricky during frost. Harrison (an established bog) and Fishhead share the same pumphouse, but Fishhead wasn’t being treated for frost. So Kylie and Kelvin had to make sure the valves at Fishhead were turned off. If they weren’t, the plants could get watered when they didn’t need it, and it would also make extra work for Jeremy [Fenstermaker], who runs the Sim Place pumps during frost. “It made it extra important to work as a team and communicate with Jeremy,” Kylie says. “We did very well!”

It’s this commitment to teamwork, attention to detail, and care for the bogs and their surrounding environment that helps Pine Island grow more acres and more fruit per acre, year after year.

Irrigating young bogs

Posted on May 10, 2013 by stef

A good irrigation plan manages the volume, frequency, and application of water in an organized and efficient way. A clean abundant water supply is only the first step in Pine Island’s water management program; a detailed irrigation routine is also crucial to our goals.

A cranberry crop’s needs are met in three ways: rain, irrigation, and soil contribution. Unfortunately, farmers have yet to find a way to control the weather, so they must turn to the things that they can control. As it turns out, a study by Bruce Lampinen showed that for many weeks during the growing season, most cranberry beds were too wet. This can especially be a problem in the humid climate of southern New Jersey, and if not dealt with, can cause conditions favorable to fruit rot and root rot. Cranberry beds usually receive up to one inch of water per week from either rain, capillary action from the ground water, irrigation, or a combination of all three. But as conditions can vary from bog to bog, this does not always result in ideal soil conditions.

We have mentioned before our use of tensiometers in monitoring soil moisture. (From UMass: “A tensiometer is a sealed, water-filled tube with a vacuum gauge on the upper end and a porous ceramic tip on the lower end. A tensiometer measures the soil water potential in the soil. As the soil around the tensiometer dries out, water is drawn from the tube through the ceramic tip. This creates a vacuum in the tube that can be read on the vacuum gauge. When the soil water is increased, through rainfall or irrigation, water enters the tube through the porous tip, lowering the gauge reading.”)

Lampinen’s study showed that maintaining a water table beneath the bed a sufficient depth to provide water to the root zone by capillary rise while avoiding oversaturation in the root zone, irrigation needs can be met. In order to best measure this, he designed a water level float, or lampinometer, which can be easily assembled using parts from various hardware, plumbing, or garden supply stores, making it an economical choice for growers. The lampinometer is not only less expensive, it also requires less maintenance and is more sensitive to water table fluctuations. (Study.)

Vanessa DeJesus and Casey Koehler started working on the tensiometers two weeks ago. “I basically just make sure the plants have enough water,” Vanessa says. “If they’re looking a little dry, I notify Fred [Torres] and then they decide if they need to start the pumps.” The tensiometers are not infallible, she adds. “They’re mechanical; like everything else, you need to double check things yourself. Just in case.” She’s also training other team members how to do the readings: “I do a little bit of everything. So if I’m not available, someone else can step in. The more you know, the better.” Casey worked with Matt Giberson on measuring and installation and says the physical installation was a lot easier than the prep! (“It’s a lot of math,” Matt says. “Peter Oudemans helped us with the set-up, but once we learned it things went well.”)

Team members Kylie Naylor and Kelvin Colon have also been hard at work heading up this new project, which is currently focused on the young bogs. Young bogs have different needs than older ones, Kelvin says. “They tend to lose more water during the day because there’s no vine canopy.” It’s been a learning process for both of them as well. “We know all about tensiometers, but we’ve never tried anything like this before.”

Kylie explains that they’re looking at the wet and dry numbers and the range in between. “You also need to feel the soil, check the root ball and its moisture level. That will determine if we need to irrigate.”

Once the team began the lampinometer installation (“Matt and I spent two days learning about it,” Kelvin says. “It seemed complicated at first but once we got the hang of it things went smoothly.”) they set up a daily routine to monitor the young bogs. “We’re still putting them in,” says Matt. “But it’s going to be cool to see how they work.”

Kylie agrees: “Figuring it out helps build confidence, I think. Since you have to come at the [irrigation] problem from a different angle, you have to pool your knowledge and make judgment calls. It comes down to having your feet in the bog to know what you need to do.” And with Kylie and Kelvin heading up such a hard-working team, Pine Island Cranberry will continue to improve upon planning and performance!

Winter flood

Posted on December 14, 2012 by stef

The cranberry growing season lasts from April to November; the fruiting buds mature during the winter dormancy period. During the dormant season, severe winter weather could harm or even kill cranberry vines, which is why growers must take preventative measures to protect their crop. Now that the harvest is over, cranberry growers everywhere have started their winter flooding. Under normal conditions, the temperature steadily drops post-harvest; it is important to wait until the vines go dormant before starting to put the water on. When vines go dormant, they turn burgundy in color:

Our winter flood program starts with making sure the water in the reservoirs is at the pre-determined level according to our process. If there has no been significant rain to get the reservoirs to flooding level, we start our wells. We will continue to use the wells to maintain the reservoirs and the stream needed to get the bogs flooded.

The next step is placing boards in the gates to start bringing the water level up in the bogs, much like we do to prep for the flooding at harvest in the fall. Matt Giberson, one of our newer team members who has been learning to work with the water, says, “There’s a lot to know. How the water works, where it’s coming from, where it has to go, how to move it the most efficient way. Fred [Pine Island’s GM] says to me all the time, ‘You’re not going to learn how to do this overnight.'” In practice, this means constant awareness and monitoring of where the water is coming from, where it is going, and how much stream is coming down.

Flooding starts by letting in streams from the reservoirs to canals and bogs. Strategic board placement (more boards in the southernmost bogs to catch the water) will get the ditches high and running down to start flooding from the bottom up.

As the water level in the bogs begins to rise, our team begins adjusting the water level in the bogs by adding boards where they are needed. Once the vines are covered and the stream has settled, we adjust the level of the reservoirs to maintain the stream and keep the bogs flooded for the winter. Wells are shut down once bogs are flooded, and only turned on again if it is dry and reservoir levels are dropping.

It is also necessary to make sure we are not losing water anywhere. “Sometimes you can hear the water coming through a gate that’s supposed to hold it,” Matt says. “It’s the same as running diesel fuel; it’s a big waste, and we need to try to stop it or slow it down.” He does this by adding sand or even grass in front of the leaking boards, as sometimes the sand can wash away too quickly.

As part of Pine Island’s philosophy of continuous improvement, we have borrowed a new system for checking bog levels from a neighboring grower to see how it works for us.

First, the sensor is attached to a flood gate. It runs on solar power, so we do not need to use more fuel or electricity out on the bogs.

The cord is carefully fed into the water until the sensor tape is at the level we want the bog to reach. Once it reaches the tape, the sensor will trigger a phone call to whoever is in charge of checking the water to let them know that the bog is at the ideal level, so that they can go and slow down the stream coming into the bog.. Gerardo Ortiz thinks it’s going to be a big help; he received a call telling him that the water level dropped significantly. When he went to check the bog, he noticed a board had come loose; he was able to catch the water we were losing faster than if he had waited until his next round.

Once we are flooded, our team needs to constantly monitor the bogs to make sure there are no leaks, that the water level remains steady, and that the stream remains constant. The weather is also a factor: no rain for a long period of time will shrink the reservoirs and wells may need to be started to maintain the water level in the bogs. Matt says, “If it gets cold enough for the water to freeze, I also need to check to see if I have to break any ice to keep the stream flowing, especially on the southeast gates.”

We say often that water management is the key to growing cranberries, and the winter flood is one of the major components. Our team is, as always, prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure things are done when they need to be done to protect our crop for the winter and for the future.

Cultivating teamwork

Posted on September 28, 2012 by stef

It’s the most exciting time of the year at Pine Island Cranberry: harvest has begun! Harvest time is when our core values, always a priority, acquire even greater urgency. Our Pine Island team becomes even more committed to doing whatever it takes to efficiently harvest our crop while maintaining our high quality standards. The results of harvest (minus uncontrollable weather events) are proof of the communication and teamwork among the PIICM program, our Equipment/Facilities program, and our continuing commitment to operational efficiency. Ultimately, we are growers, and it informs everything we do.

It all starts, as we have said before, with the water. Water is essential for cranberry production all year round, but during harvest good water management is paramount. At Pine Island, managing the water for their crews is the central task for our three harvest teams, led by Jeremy Fenstermaker, Gerardo Ortiz, and Tug Haines. Jeremy, our Green Team leader, who has been running a harvest crew for several years, says, “You always have to stay a little ahead of the flooding. We’ll be moving down to a new bog system Friday but I have to have the water started well before that.” While he has actively studied the methods, he’s also picked up a lot of knowledge along the way: “You eventually develop an instinct for water levels and how to raise and drop the levels in a bog in order to maximize efficiency for the crews.” He’s always thinking of ways to make things better, how to move water faster. Part of his job is simply making daily observations and taking note of things that could continually be improved. He says, “Sometimes you find a place that would be better to put a gate, or you find a way to move water through a canal rather than a reservoir.” In order to conserve water, Pine Island manages harvest so that we reuse as much water as possible to harvest as many bogs as possible. It’s arranged in a very specific pattern to work with gravity and conserve energy.

While it is the overriding concern, water management is not a team leaders’s only concern. Jeremy also has to coordinate with his crew leaders, Rick Zapata and Jorge Morales. When Rick and his picking crew are done, they move ahead to the next bog while Jorge and the gathering crew begin to corral the berries and send them over to the packing house. The team leader’s job is to make sure that the timing of each crew complements the other.

Even before the bog is flooded, the team leaders have a lot to do. They need to pull sprinklers, stake bogs so the picking crew leader knows which direction to pick, place boards in flood gates, flood to picking level, pick, flood some more in order to tighten the boom around the berries and bring them to the elevator without having to pull through high grass or weeds, and then gather. “And it’s not as easy as it looks,” Jeremy says wryly.

In addition to maintaining the careful choreography of a typical daily harvest, the team leaders must have a back-up plan for when something goes wrong. . .and something will always go wrong! A flood gate will get clogged, a harvester will break down, a truck won’t start. . . a team leader needs to prepare for all those things and either know what he has to do to fix them himself or how to delegate. Jeremy, Gerardo and Tug make sure that whatever needs to get done gets done: they’ll do whatever it takes and keep making it better. “Knowledge comes with experience,” Jeremy says. “If you do it long enough, you get a feel for what needs to happen.”

New planting: updates

Posted on July 13, 2012 by stef

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.

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

Posted on July 6, 2012 by stef

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.

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

Posted on June 29, 2012 by stef

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.

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.

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.

Water Drawdown

Posted on April 13, 2012 by stef

The three things that are most important to growing cranberries are water, water, and more water.

Good water management is not only the crucial part of our work here at Pine Island – it’s essential to the balance of agriculture production with the Pinelands environment. To that end, we have over the course of many years carefully crafted a system that works with both nature and gravity to best maintain and preserve the bounty of natural resources available to us.

Once the harvest is over, the bogs are flooded in order to protect the cranberry vines from the winter weather.

When the warmer weather sets in, the bogs are drained so that the dormant vines awaken for the growing season; while cranberries are most frequently harvested using the “wet pick” method, they do not actually grow under water and thus need to go through the same growing cycle as any other fruit crop. The process, which we call “dumping water” is deceptively simple: a team member takes a gate hook (pictured below) and removes the boards that have been placed across the gate in the bog. (The boards are removed in a specific pattern to work with gravity and the natural flow of the water.)

Gerardo Ortiz, a supervisor who has been with Pine Island for 30 years, knows this process inside and out.

Once the boards have been pulled and placed on top of the gate, the water moves to the next bog along the ditches. This water returns to the reservoirs and canals in order to be reused for the next part of the cycle.

It takes about 24 hours to drain completely; here it’s about halfway done.

As we prepare for the next process, which is frost protection, our reservoirs are keeping our most valuable resource safe and ready for use.

Pine Island Cranberry Co., Inc.

Haines & Haines, Inc.

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