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After the winter ice melts and the plants come out of their dormancy in the spring, the cranberry vines must be protected from freezing when the temperature drops below 32oF.
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This closer view shows better how the ice forms on the vines. When the temperature gets close to freezing, the irrigation system is turned on. Once the air temperature gets below freezing, a thin layer of ice forms around the vines. As long as the water keeps running on the plants, they will not freeze and die. The irrigation system has to stay running until the air temperature climbs back above freezing, which is sometimes long after the sun comes up, as you can see in these pictures.
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Sometimes a cranberry bed needs to be pruned either to control the vine growth or to use the cuttings to plant a new bed. This is done by cutting the vines off a few inches above the ground and baling or disposing of the cut vines. Once a bed is pruned, it will not produce fruit that year, and will take a couple of years to get back to full production, so it is not an activity that is done frequently. If the cuttings will be used to plant a new bed, they will be baled and kept wet until ready to be planted.
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The photo above shows a bed being pruned. The red areas have not been mowed and the green/brown areas have. Note the row of cut vines getting ready to be baled.
The photo to the left shows baled vines being loaded onto a wagon.
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Cranberries are propagated from vine cuttings, not seeds. The photos above show the cranberry vines being spread on a newly renovated bed. Workers ride on the machine on the right and shake the vines through a manure spreader, which distributes them onto the ground. There are also workers following the machine, making sure that any clumps get evenly spread out and that there are no bare spots. After the entire bed is covered with vine cuttings, they are disked into the ground (shown in the photo below) to help them develop new root systems. The irrigation pipe is put out in the bed, and the new vines are given some water. Once a cranberry bed is planted, it takes from 3-5 years before these new vines will produce a crop.
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