Project Overview
Annual Reports
Information Products
Commodities
- Fruits: berries (cranberries)
Practices
- Crop Production: continuous cropping, irrigation
- Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, workshop
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
- Pest Management: cultural control, field monitoring/scouting, weed ecology
- Production Systems: general crop production
Proposal abstract:
Maintaining optimal saturation levels and draining ponded water remains a challenge for many cranberry growers in southeastern Massachusetts. Wet conditions as a result of inadequate drainage in cranberry production could result in increased root rot and fruit rot diseases, inhibition of root development, reduced fruit retention and reduced productivity. Subsurface tile drainage provides a mechanism for removing excess moisture from the soils by draining to field capacity in a reasonable time so that plant growth is not significantly impaired. Without artificial drainage, plants have difficulty establishing a healthy root system on poorly drained soils, since excess water prevents air and oxygen from getting to the plant root zone.
In addition, subsurface tile drainage can be used to reduce overhead irrigation usage by effectively managing water from below. Ideally, the root zone could be kept wet from capillary rise while the soil surface remained dry much of the time. Energy cost savings will be realized, since irrigation pumps can run less frequently. Best management practices (BMPs) for tile drain installation in cranberry are currently not available.
The proposed research will develop information on drain spacing and depth installation while evaluating plant responses, hydrological behavior, and the impact of various drainage installations on incidence of plant diseases (especially Phytophthora sp.) and weeds associated with poorly drained cranberry soils (especially yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia terrestris)).
The project combines research for developing BMPs for installation, maintenance, and management of tile drainage in cranberry production, and a comprehensive plan for educating growers interested in adopting tile drainage as a farming practice. After assessing current practices and challenges in an initial survey, two experiments will be conducted to quantify optimal design parameters for tile drainage systems.
Our overall approach is to engage cranberry growers as participants for the two on-farm experiments and as participants who install and evaluate drains on their farms using BMPs. BMPs for tile-drainage systems will be developed on leadership growers’ farms based on data from hydrological monitoring, detailed measurements of crop yield, disease and weed response, as well as a cost-benefit analysis comparing management with and without drains. Those growers and others will work with the scientists to distill the information gained from the experiments and grower experiences into the BMP document. Some growers will host on-bog workshops to show their peers how the drains are working and some will serve on grower panels at our winter grower meetings.
Performance targets from proposal:
Fifteen growers install tile drains on a total of 140 acres (1% of MA acreage) with five incorporating project-developed BMPs for installation, maintenance, and irrigation supplementation, resulting in increased yield of 20 barrels/acre (~$850/acre), reduction of sprinkler irrigation cycles (quantified energy and water savings), and the elimination of at least one pesticide application per year.
The project combines research for developing BMPs for tile drainage in cranberry cultivation and a comprehensive plan for educating growers interested in adopting tile drainage. After assessing current practices and challenges in an initial survey, optimal design parameters for tile drainage will be quantified in two experiments. Our overall approach is to engage cranberry growers as host/participants for the two on-farm experiments and/or as participants who install and evaluate drains on their farms (using best current practices). BMPs for tile-drainage systems will be developed on leadership growers’ farms based on hydrological monitoring, detailed measurements of crop yield, disease and weed response, and cost-benefit analysis comparing management with and without drains. Those growers and others will work with the scientists to distill the information gained from the experiments and grower experiences into the BMP recommendations. Some growers will host on-farm field days to show their peers how the drains are working. Some will participate in presentations or panels at our winter grower meetings (classroom style events).