Tag Archives: weather

Staying warm

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While it’s not been as consistently cold as it’s been in past years, our team still needs to make a plan for January weather in order to work safely! The cold can made our winter tasks more challenging, and in some past instances, we’ve had to alter plans temporarily. The following lists some things we’ve done in the past to keep our team out of the elements as much as possible.

“Our guys dress for the weather, but we really can’t keep our team exposed to the elements when the temperature gets too low,” explains COO Bryan vonHahmann. “And when it’s cold, it’s hard to dig, so we have to slow down on that.” A lot of the outdoor bog reno work gets postponed for the duration, as well as the sanding operation. (While we have tried ice sanding in the past, the weather can actually get too cold to even attempt it; low temperatures not only affect the team, but the equipment as well.)

To that end, our team has kept busy by working indoors as much as possible. Some build signs for our property borders, some work on box repairs, and still others assemble sprinklers for the current acreage under renovation as well as repairing old sprinklers: replacing worn out nozzles, springs, and sprinkler heads.

Depending on the day to day forecast, though, some outdoor work is usually possible. “When the wind’s not blowing and the sun is out, we’ve been able to send a team out to work on things like survey lines,” says Bryan. “They’re protected a bit by the trees, so they’re able to go out and post the signs that have been built already.” And when it’s warm enough to run equipment, the team will keep busy disassembling the old wooden gates we’ve recently replaced.

Our team will still do whatever it takes…but they make sure to keep safe and keep warm at the same time!

Spring water

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It’s been a focused month at Pine Island Cranberry as our team got back to work and finished the annual tasks of removing the winter flood and preparing for frost.

Bog flooded for winter

We’ve said it so often you can probably recite it with us by now: good water management is absolutely critical to growing cranberries. Growers rely on a clean, abundant supply to maintain the bogs year round. The key question, as everyone here knows by heart, is “Where is the water coming from, and where do you want it to go?” For every acre of vines, cranberries require ten acres of water. Therefore it is another one of Pine Island’s top priorities to make sure our surrounding environment is as protected as possible. As we said about removing the winter flood, 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.

Reservoir

The Cohansey-Kirkwood aquifers lie beneath the surface of the Pinelands, containing enough water to cover the state of New Jersey six feet deep. Most of the water in the aquifer comes from rain, which also helps fill our reservoirs. When we flood the bogs for the winter, we direct the surface water (using damns, canals, and ditches) to the bogs at the highest elevations. Gravity causes water to flow downhill, so, once the bogs at higher elevations are flooded, we can easily direct it downhill to bogs at the lower levels.

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 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.) 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.

Gerardo pulling boards

water moving to the next bog

The next stage is frost protection. 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, which is why installing sprinklers quickly and efficiently is so important. Our team worked extra hours in April to make sure it was all done before temperatures started to drop at night.

Ultimately, it is our Pine Island team’s dedication to our land and our surrounding environment that makes us what we are: growers dedicated to doing what we do better every day.

Cold weather options

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We’ve had some cold winters recently, but this one has been comparatively milder. The past couple of days, however, have been a little more chilly. The cold can made our winter tasks more challenging, and in some past instances, we’ve had to alter plans temporarily. The following lists some things we’ve done in the past to keep our team out of the elements as much as possible.

“Our guys dress for the weather, but we really can’t keep our team exposed to the elements when the temperature is this low,” explains COO Bryan vonHahmann. “And when it’s cold, it’s hard to dig, so we’ve had to slow down on that.” A lot of the outdoor bog reno work gets postponed for the moment, as well as the sanding operation. (While we have tried ice sanding in the past, the weather can actually get too cold to even attempt it; low temperatures not only affect the team, but the equipment as well.)

To that end, our team has kept busy by working indoors as much as possible. Some build signs for our property borders, some work on box repairs, and still others assemble sprinklers for the current acreage under renovation as well as repairing old sprinklers: replacing worn out nozzles, springs, and sprinkler heads.

Depending on the day to day forecast, though, some outdoor work is usually possible. “When the wind’s not blowing and the sun is out, we’re able to send a team out to work on the survey lines,” says Bryan. “They’re protected a bit by the trees, so they’re able to go out and post the signs that have been built already.” And when it’s warm enough to run equipment, the team will keep busy disassembling the old wooden gates we’ve recently replaced.

Our team is still doing whatever it takes…but they’re making sure to keep safe and keep warm at the same time!

Summer weather

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While we continue to keep a weather eye on the…er, weather, Pine Island is fortunate to have been spared the worst of the recent storms.

Over the past month or so, we’ve received an average of about an inch of rain a week, which is a pleasant surprise compared to how the rest of the region has been faring.

Too much rain can have a negative effect on pollination as well as fertilizer application, but so far we’ve been pleasantly surprised; while there was some concern about the bee colonies during the bloom period due to frequent storms, for the most part we got through it. And while there have been a few days when winds or early morning rains have held up fertilizer applications, mostly Downstown has been able to fly.

While we’ve been lucky so far, our team will continue to carefully monitor weather conditions as the growing season progresses, and hope that things dry out well before this year’s harvest.

Here comes the rain again . . .

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The weather continues to be a challenge for our team this winter!

“The past year we’ve gotten about 70 to 75 inches of rain,” says manager Matt Giberson. “It just hasn’t let up; everything’s saturated.” This means that everything’s been a struggle: maintaining equipment, fixing dam erosion, and hitting this year’s sanding targets. “If it’s not raining, we’re getting snow. We get a freeze, then it thaws, then it freezes again; it’s extremely frustrating trying to get a rhythm going. We’ll get two good weeks and get a good chunk of it done, then things freeze up and we can only manage a day here, two days there.” If the weather remained consistently we could try ice sanding, but the frequent temperature changes make that difficult.

The heavy rains this winter have also called a halt to other late-season tasks. “It’s too wet to do any prescribed burning,” Matt says. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to do any this year.” The ground saturation is also causing issues for our or survey lines: “There are certain areas the guys can’t get through; nothing’s frozen over long enough that we feel comfortable sending someone out to work on them.”

In the meantime, the team continues to focus on indoor work! “The biggest thing right now is making gates! We’ve created an assembly line with six guys, and they’re making five gates per day right now; our goal is to try to get to six if we can work out a more efficient process. We’ve made all the sprinklers, but that’s part of regular irrigation maintenance that we do every year; the focus is to recycle and reuse as we need it for emergencies or repairs for spring.”

“The weather is the weather, but it’s still not fun. Two or three inches of rain at a shot, twice a week is a lot of deal with,” Matt says. Here’s hoping for a drier spring! And in the meantime, our team will keep doing whatever it takes to work with Mother Nature.

Rain, rain, go away

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The week between Christmas and the new year are frequently very quiet at many businesses. Pine Island is no exception, though in this case it’s due once again to heavy rains in the area.

Regular readers, of course, know that the number one question to ask when growing cranberries is “where is the water coming from, and where do you want it to go?” Right now, the answer is “Everywhere, and somewhere else!”

Bog flooded for winter

The winter flood is complete, so right now it’s just a question of keeping water at the right level in each bed. That can be tough when you don’t know how much rain you’re going to get on any given day, so our team is frequently pulling and replacing boards in order to keep the water at the optimum level.

It’s also holding up this year’s sanding project; while rain doesn’t delay the process the way cold weather does, it’s hard on the dams when we’re running heavy equipment in heavy rain. This also causes delays on our current bog renovation. The good news: with this much water, we save on fuel costs, since we don’t need to run the pumps.

In the meantime, our team is doing as much indoor work and maintenance as possible! It’s all about flexibility.

Heavy weather – spring 2018

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While southern New Jersey hasn’t had a storm that’s been as heavy as other areas in the Northeast, we’ve still received more than our share of rain in the last week, which means our team has had to make some changes to our daily plan to compensate.

“If we get two inches tomorrow we’ll have people working indoors,” says COO Bryan vonHahmann. “It all needs to get done, but we’d like some projects to get done faster. But we can’t control the weather, so we’re making alternative plans depending on how much it hold us up. Up until now I’d say the rain was a good thing for us, but the next 2 to 3 inches I don’t think we need!”

One way it’s slowing us down: the current bog renovation. “We’ve had to switch things around a little because we don’t want to wreck the dams or the bogs we’re renovating,” Bryan says. “We have the Hydremas still plugging away but they’re hauling away less per load.” Bog renovation manager Steve Manning has made changes as necessary, however. “We’re still putting the subsoil in, but we’re holding off on the top sand, which in turn is holding up putting the pipe in and all that,” Steve says. “We can still screen sand in this weather, though, which is good. So in the meantime, we’re moving equipment around as needed, and we’ll probably do some work tomorrow for the canal we’re putting in.”

Our team has also had to make some changes to the fertilizer applications. “We should be doing those right now, but it will wash through soil faster, and the planes can’t fly when it’s overcast anyway,” Bryan says. “So if it clears up in time, the current plan will be to fly on Sunday.”

While some tasks are being held up, there have been some advantages. “We’re still doing a lot of scouting,” says Matt Stiles. “It’s actually been a help; we can walk the bog and see what needs to be fixed much more easily, particularly anywhere the drainage in a bog isn’t quite right.”

Water, as always, is a particular concern, but while we’ve had quite a bit of rain it hasn’t been more than the team can handle. “We’re keeping the reservoirs well below where we normally hold them,” says Matt Giberson. “It’s actually a little easier right now because with the rain and the warmer weather, we haven’t had to run for frost, so we can be a bit more aggressive with reservoirs and canals and just keep a eye on things in case we do get a big rain.” So far the farm has had about 3.2 inches this week, and they’re calling for another 2 to 4 over the next couple of days. Fortunately, Matt says, “It’s been steady but it hasn’t been dramatic. So we’ve just been trying to maintain dams ahead of time, crowning them when we can and fixing any erosion where it comes down really hard. But they’ve been in fairly decent shape; we haven’t really had a downpour so far, just half an inch here, half an inch there. And there hasn’t been any washout on the young beds, which is great.”

It all comes down to flexibility! Farming is all about doing what you have to do when you when it’s time to do it, and our team makes sure to plan for every possible outcome.

March storms

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Every year, we post an update about looking forward to spring, and it seems like every year, the first week of spring arrives via snowstorm!

The most recent nor’easter to come through this area left us without power for two days, but had the power not come back today, our team was prepared, thanks to the thunderstorms from June 2015!

Our winter storm prep remains basically the same every year: the number one priority is checking the water. The team checks for washouts, makes sure nothing’s too high or too low, and makes sure there’s no water on the dam itself. Team members make sure the main pathways are cleared; in order to do that, we send the front loaders home with some of them, which means once the snow hits, they can plow themselves out and start clearing the main dams. Then the rest of the team are able to go check the water or get to one of our facilities to do indoor work.

That means the Equipment/Facilities team also takes some precautionary measures, making sure those generators are ready to go in case we lose power for an extended amount of time. They also make sure the heat is turned up in any vacant properties onsite, just in case. “We also pack the shop with equipment to work on,” manager Louis Cantafio said last year. “That way, we don’t have to dig it out, or start it in the cold, or fill the shop with melting snow. We go over all the loaders, make sure they’re ready to go before the operators bring them home.” Then, once the storm hits “we have to get all the egresses open and get rid of snow everywhere we need to store incoming deliveries.”

Fortunately, the power outage didn’t last too long this time, and the snow seems to be melting quickly! Could this end of this long winter finally be in sight?

Preparing for spring 2018

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The weather sure likes to keep things interesting around here! Just two weeks ago we were experiencing an early spring, but this week we ended up shoveling several inches of snow. Nevertheless, spring should actually arrive for real before too long, and our team is getting prepared!

First, though, they have to do some clean-up. “A lot of tree branches came down during those last two storms,” says Matt Giberson. “So we’ve been clearing all that out.” The weather also, unfortunately, put a hold on sanding, but the team is very nearly finished! “We have two, two and a half days left,” Matt says. “We’re taking advantage of the time change to work a little later next week to finish it up. We would have been done today, if the weather had cooperated, but unfortunately it did not!”

Once that’s finished, though, the team will take advantage of the location. “Once we’re done, we’re going to patch up some dams that need work over at Sim Place, since we’ll have all the equipment we’ll need for that over there already. In the meantime, we’ll bring the sanding barges back and move on to installing gates up at the Cedar Swamp renovation.”

We’ll also be taking off the water before too long! “We’ll have a small crew doing early draw this year,” Matt says. “The plan is to do two to three systems a day to get ahead of that, concentrating on the young beds that we’re not going to frost protect this year. The priority will be getting Cedar Swamp ready to go so we can get the planting started. The earlier we plant, the earlier we get a head start on the growing season.”

As far as the established beds are concerned, the last two days of March the team will be installing the sprinklers before starting to take the rest of the water off the first week of April. “I haven’t done the numbers yet, but we’re shooting for four to five systems a day,” says Matt. “We’re not doing anything too unusual, but we have a lot of work ahead of us!”

The team has a busy spring planned, but there’s no doubt they’ll do whatever it takes to get it all done. And don’t forget, if you want to join them, we’re still looking for an ICM foreman!

February spring

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February has definitely been an interesting month for Pine Island. In addition to celebrating a spectacular Super Bowl outcome (the Eagles won the Super Bowl, in case you hadn’t heard) there’s been a patch of unseasonably warm weather.

“Warm weather in February doesn’t affect our crop too much,” says Matt Giberson. “We’re seeing some trees budding, though, and it’s really having an effect on the wildlife. Louis opened all the doors in the shop the other morning, and as Mike, Steve, Jeremy, & I were going over the plan for the day, a big frog hopped in and headed over to us like he owned the place.” Steve apparently sent him on his way, but as of this morning, the frog has yet to send in a completed job application.

In addition to the frogs, there have also been several turtles on the move; they might even get to where they’re going by the time spring actually arrives. And while many birds have become more active, we haven’t seen much of our eagles lately.

(We have, however, been keeping up on our Eagles. Who won the Super Bowl, by the way.)

A warm week with little to no wind has also been a great opportunity for our team to do some prescribed burning, which Mike Haines helped with for the first time and found really interesting. “It’s been kind of wet, but it hasn’t rained for a little while and Matt said that conditions were good,” Mike says. “We started burning some pieces that have been done on a consistent basis so it wouldn’t be too intense, which is a good chance to learn. The fire can get big if it hasn’t been done for a while. We started roadside over by the Turf reservoir and then burned a couple of places in the woods by Weymouth and Bluetta.” While some of this is to control the amount of fuel on the ground in case of wildfire, we also do this kill the briars in this particular section, as they can get into the bogs and carry fairy ring. (Fairy ring is not to be confused with actual jewelry, such as a Super Bowl ring, for example. It’s tough to fight–much like the Eagles defense–and doesn’t always have a happy ending…much like the Dallas post-season for the last twenty years or so.)

It’s already started to cool down considerably, but our team remains on track to finish sanding by March 9th!

And, of course, hope springs eternal that our Phillies might finish the upcoming season over .500.