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...