Fertilization

We have to apply fertilizers to feed the plants.  We add fertilizer, in part, to replace the berries that we take off each year and also to give the perennial plant food for next years crop.  We use a machine to spread the fertilizer on the field.  We don't have to go into the field, the fertilizer is spread from the dike by means of a boom and propelled to nozzles by a large fan.  

We can apply just what the plants need when they need them... that way the fertilizer is not wasted or leached into the ground water.  We generally apply about 12 tonnes a season in 3 rounds based on the growth stages of the cranberry vine.

This is our granular product spreader used to spread fertilizer.  The machine can accurately apply as little as 15 kg of product per acre.  We generally apply a fertilizer in a ratio of 1:2:1.  Also, we apply only about 12 kg of N per acre per year as the breakdown of the peat liberates N each year.

A Job Well Done

The honey bees are headed home... they helped pollinate the cranberry crop along with native pollinators... they also made honey from both the cranberry flowers and from flowers from other flowers from around the farm.  We will have our 'Bog Honey' in our store from the work of the bees.  

These bees are heading back to the hive carrying a load of pollen... note some have yellow pollen.. and the bee to the left has orange pollen on its legs

I have been rather busy... and have neglected to blog.... I will try to keep it up to date now...

We had a hard winter and cool wet spring... like any other crop.. cranberries are impacted by the weather... we had some winter kill.. and a slow start.. things got moving tho.. and we are are supposed to be... berries are starting to form.. an Im out wiping weeds...

We built a new weed wiper in the spring... it uses a wick saturated with Roundup which contacts the weeds higher than the cranberry vine... this is a ride on machine... which makes it easier to do weed control when we are short staffed or in hot weather...


We also held our second annual Relay for Life. While we had some threatening weather early.. it turned out to be a great night... We had fun... and raised some money for a good cause..

More later... Bye for now...

Spring?

Lots doin down on the farm these days as we get ready for spring... lots in the office an on the road too...

I attended a minortiy supplier  trade show at the Metro Toronto Convention Center first of the month... and the little yellow truck got to ride in an elevator for the first time...

The show had some promise... but it was largely aimed at people who want to mass market their product or service. Nothing wrong with that...but I find when you move to the mass market, you end up compromising your product as you try to meet the demands of your big customers... Its not something I feel comfortable doing.  We brought out the Champagne  fountain filled with cranberry juice... an I put on a suit... its all part of the deal...

Many of the birds and animals are back.  We had a dozen or so robins, redwing black birds, and yesterday I heard the pheobie... an insect eater...a very good sign of spring.  I saw this little guy out on the ice of one of the fields.  The otters are in the irrigation ponds.  It appears they are eating frogs... and there are some water fowl flying through.

 Most of the ice is off the fields.  Early next week we will hold the spring melt to flood all fields until temperatures are warm enough to protect the vine with the irrigation system.

Winter...

Its not as if we don't do anything during the winter... its just not very visual... 

The weather has been 'interesting'.  We have had cold weather and warmer weather.  We like to put on a winter flood to make a layer of ice to protect the cranberry vine.  A mild spell made that easy for us...we were able to hold water to make the ice and then release the water allowing the ice to sit on the vine.  The ice prevents the vine from descicating and also traps gasses (CO2) under the ice that displace damaging gasses such as eytnline.  

I went to visit some clients, did some sampling at the freezer for 

a client and also visited some stores that carry our product.  It is interesting to see how our product is sold in the larger mass market stores as well as the smaller stores...

We also went to the Farm Equipment Show to see what is new in the industry.  It is important to keep current.  We also attended the Food and Beverage show.  Again this gives us a chance to see what is up and coming and what others in the juice business.  Its also a chance to network with others in the industry.  There were a number of interesting displays at the show... including this one...