Student Background Information

CRANBERRY GROWING "BACKWOODS AGRICULTURE" IN NEW JERSEY

Have you ever paddled a canoe down one of New Jersey's Pinelands rivers like the West Branch of the Wading or the Oswego in September or October? If you have, perhaps you've seen wild cranberries growing on the river banks. Feeling adventurous, you may have bitten into one of these tart round red berries only to have your mouth pucker. This experience taught you some important lessons, such as cranberries need an abundance of water to grow and lots of sugar must be added to this native fruit before it reaches your dinner table as a juice or sauce.
Cranberries, blueberries, and concord grapes are our three native North American fruits. New Jersey's Lenape Indians found cranberries growing in the wild and used them to season food or as medicine. In turn, they introduced these berries to the region's first white settlers who also used them as a food source and sold them to the British. It was these white settlers who likened the shape of the berry's delicate pink blossom to the head of a crane. The "crane berry" soon became today's cranberry.
The development of cranberry bogs became a commercial venture in New Jersey by the mid-nineteenth century. For several years, our state led the nation in cranberry production; however, today it ranks third behind Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
Some of the finest cranberry varieties grown in New Jersey are Wilcox, Stevens, Cropper, Pilgrim, and Ben Lear; however, Early Black remains the dominant variety. Its ability to color (turn red) by September, in time for early harvest, plus its resistance to False Blossom Disease has kept it a popular variety for over 40 years. However, other varieties that ripen early, are larger and less tart, and equally disease resistant will eventually replace Early Black. Researchers at the Rutgers Experiment Station near Oswego Lake in Burlington County, New Jersey, continue to look for cranberry varieties that possess these important characteristics.
Traditionally, cranberries are grown in low lying bogs that act as natural "frost pockets." Bog temperatures during the cooler seasons of the year may be 10 to 12 degrees colder than nearby upland areas. This is especially true if it is a windless night that lets the heavy cold air "sink." Temperatures may dip to freezing or below and, depending on the season, pose a threat to the berries' blossoms or ripening fruit. Before the installation of sprinkler irrigation on many New Jersey bogs, such weather conditions could easily destroy an entire crop. Now, however, the threat of major frost damage is reduced by the use of sprinkler irrigation on many bogs. When frost danger is imminent, farmers turn on diesel or electric pumps that bring the 54 degree F ground water from the Cohansey Aquifer to the surface where it is channeled into pipes leading to sprinkler heads on each bog. As the sprinkler heads swivel, a mist of above freezing water warms the shallow-rooted cranberry vines and protects the blossoms and/or berries. Usually, the sprinklers are turned off by mid-morning when danger of frost is past. Most of the excess water in each bog percolates back through the sandy soil and again becomes ground water. A crop has been saved and the Cohansey Aquifer recharged (refilled).
This entire process could not have occurred if an abundant supply of ground water had not been available. Farmers know that the Pinelands forest floor surrounding their bogs acts as a huge sponge that absorbs precipitation (rain and snow) and allows it to percolate through the sandy soil where it is stored in the vast Cohansey Aquifer. About 10 acres of forest (headland) are needed to sustain one acre of working bog. Scientists have calculated that this wet sandy aquifer contains 17 trillion gallons of water and the approximately 45 inches of precipitation that annually fall on New Jersey's Pinelands are of primary importance in replenishing it. If the forests were cut and extensive building allowed, the water quantity as well as the height of the water table would decrease. Vegetation in low lying wetland areas, including cranberry bogs, would be the first to suffer from such action because it depends on water at or near the earth's surface.
Wells equipped with diesel or electric pumps provide ground water for frost protection. Also, on extremely hot summer afternoons when bog temperatures rise to approximately 95 degrees F, sprinkler irrigation is used to cool the vines and protect the berries from blossom blast and sun scald.
In addition to sprinkler irrigation, reservoirs, both manmade and natural, are an integral part of the Pinelands landscape. There are no natural lakes in this region. For example, both Chatsworth and Oswego Lakes are reservoirs that were once low-lying swampy areas. By using dams to regulate the flow of water into and out of both "lakes," farmers are carefully managing a natural resource that is essential for their water harvesting, winter bog flooding, and pest control. Water held in reservoirs such as these is channeled into canals and ditches leading to and from bogs. Because of the force of gravity, surface water flows down hill even in the relatively flat Pinelands. During fall water harvest, each cranberry farmer skillfully moves this water from bogs at slightly higher elevations to bogs at lower elevations and he shares this water with other cranberry farmers until harvest is complete.
After harvest, bogs are drained, raked, and reflooded. Water protects the shallow-rooted cranberry vines from frost during the cold winter months. It also protects highly flammable bogs from fire and kills the larvae of potential insect pests. Once the danger of major frost is over (about mid-April), water is drained from the bogs. Some is left in ditches immediately surrounding each bog while the rest is channeled into canals, percolates into the aquifer, or evaporates and, as part of the hydrologic cycle, returns to the earth as precipitation.
Once, again, the annual growing season begins.