Alternate Bed Renovation System for Cranberry Production

Alternate Bed Renovation System for Cranberry Production

Summary

Over 45% of the cranberries produced in the U.S. are grown in the Northeast. Considering that most cranberries beds are located in wetlands, farmers in the region are challenged with environmental and economic sustainability. The current study will address both issues.

More than 75% of the cranberry acreage in the Northeast consists of old beds with unimproved varieties, with some over 100 years old, and many are also contaminated with non-productive off-type varieties. New varieties with improved yield, fruit quality, and disease resistance being developed will have difficulty in being adopted because of the expense and time required to achieve full production with conventional propagation and bed renovation methods. The question that was posed is whether the current bed-establishment system is the most efficient system possible.

The conventional and most widely used method of bed establishment involves the spreading of one to two tons of stolons (pruned from existing beds) per acre, and discing-in, or pressing in the vines with a rotary disc. This method presents several limitations: 1) the need for large quantities of vines, 2) a low density of rooted plants are established, 3) a long (four- or five-year) vining-in period is required before transition to a productive phase. With the conventional method, much of the vine material is buried or is aerial, resulting in less vine being in contact with the soil surface where rooting takes place. The objective of the research was to determine whether one could take advantage of the cranberry stolons’s propensity for rooting at the soil surface by developing a system to place a maximum of the stolon in contact with the soil surface, thereby maximizing rooting.

Objectives/Performance Targets

In cranberry production, the heaviest herbicide and fertilizer applications are generally made on newly established beds to enable the young propagules to establish. The objective of this project is to develop an alternate bed-renovation system that is more economical and environmentally friendly. This in turn should encourage the adoption of newly developed cultivars that use amendments more efficiently. Therefore, the successful development of a more efficient cranberry-bed renovation system would not only improve cost efficiency and environmental impact during bed renovation, but would also increase the propensity to adopt the cultivation of genetically enhanced varieties with superior yield, fruit quality, and disease resistance.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Milestones are:

Small-scale plot experiments established that the biological propensity of cranberry to root can be exploited to develop a new bed-establishment system having greater efficiency than the conventional method; and

Specific equipment to facilitate the cutting and spreading of cranberry vine segments was developed.

In 2000 and 2001, the first objective of study was to evaluate bed-establishment methods based on stolons segments broadcast over the bed surface. The variables evaluated were stolon segment length (SSL), soil media, and soil dressing in a side-by-side comparison with the conventional system. Since a major objective was to develop a system that used less initial vine material, the SSL treatments employed half (half a ton per acre) than the conventional treatment (one ton per acre). The three-inch (7.5 cm) stolon segments performed as well as or better than the conventional system, while the two-inch (5 cm) stolon segments performed at least as well as the conventional system despite using only half the amount of initial vine material. The bed-preparation systems that performed consistently well used a sand and peat top coat.

In the spring of 2001, a large-scale field experiment was set up at two locations, including a grower location. In one location, the total area of the experiment was 7200 sq. ft. and the other location was on an area of 16,200 sq. ft. The experiments were conducted to determine optimum plant (propagule) density for economically viable bed renovation, to identify best management practices for renovating old cranberry beds, and to evaluate weed ecology and pressure within alternate plant densities and nutrient regimes, consistent with objectives two, three, and four in the original proposal. This experiment replaced the one originally proposed on the grant through consultation with growers (and Northeast SARE officials). A commercially available forage chopper was evaluated by sending cranberry vine to the company, and having the cut vines sent back for evaluation. The vines were visually inspected, having no time available to run a viability test. It was determined that the forage chopper did have the potential to cut vines for the project. However, the cut vines in the field experiment did extremely poorly, and it was concluded that the vines during the cutting process were significantly damaged by the forage chopper. It was our determination that the cut-vine system is still a viable option to the conventional system, but a new system to cut cranberry vines must be used. Toward that end, it was decided that a demonstration trial needs to be set up with a custom built piece of equipment to chop the cranberry vines.

In 2002, an equipment fabricator, Thompson Welding and Fabrication of Pemberton, New Jersey) was solicited to manufacture a custom machine designed by grower A. Lee, of Chatsworth, New Jersey for cutting cranberry vine and spreading the vine segments in one operation. The cutter/spreader was completed April, 2002. The design employs a conveyor vine feed mechanism with a guillotine, and allows for the adjustment of cutting length. A blower blows the cut vine segments out the rear of the machine. The cutter/spreader is stationed on a trailer platform that is attached to a tractor and covers about a three-foot swath per pass. This system was used to plant the demonstration trial in a cranberry bed at the Philip E. Marucci Center in May of 2002.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The project is still in progress. Outcomes will be reported in 2004.

Collaborators: