Cranberry operations in the NJ Pine Barrens revisited

Happy Thanksgiving a day early. For those of you who are planning to travel this holiday weekend, I wish you safe travels. Many of you will be having a Turkey dinner that will include cranberries. New Jersey has some cranberry bogs in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Perhaps some of the cranberries that you will have tomorrow were grown in New Jersey. The video I shared above was shot by New York Live two years ago focusing on the Pine Island Cranberry growers.

Just over ten years ago, the folk at Downstown Aero Crop Services invited me down to their strip near Chatsworth NJ where they were spraying near by cranberry bogs where in addition to seeing Downstown's Ag aviation operations. In addition, I visited two nearby cranberry growers: Pine Island and Lee Brothers. On October 26, 2012 I shared a video compilation of still photos and a short video of Ag Cats that Downstown owned at the time taking off and then spraying the Pine Island cranberry bogs. In honor of New Jersey cranberries, I am sharing my October 2012 compilation again.

Direct link to video on YouTube

In my October 31, 2012 I wrote the first of two posts about Pine Island's cranberry operations, in part one I shared links to a Pine Island Blog where they wrote of their cranberry operations (the links are still working as I write this ten years later). I posted my second article about Pine Island on November 2, 2012, focusing on their packing house. Finally on November 5, 2012 I shared some photos I took at Lee Brothers (near Speedwell NJ).

A close up of Air Tractors

I have had the privilege of meeting some Air Tractor 602's up close and personal and seeing them in action as an agricultural aircraft thanks to my friends at Downstown Aero Crop Service in Vineland NJ. Downstown just celebrated their 75th year in business. What can I say, they are elegant planes specially built for their tasks in agricultural and firefighting operations. 

Here is a four minute video from Texas Country Reporter (2017) of a video interview and tour of Air Tractor's factory in Olney Texas. Enjoy.

Direct link to video from Texas Country Reporter.

Pine Island Cranberry Bog (NJ) in the winter

Some of you know that I spent a day last October with my friends from Downstown Aero in Chatsworth NJ watching them load their AgCats and the AT-602 for aerial applications on some near by cranberry bogs. I watched them make a couple of aerial application runs and then visited two bogs, Pine Island Cranberry and Lee Brothers. 

Oct 26 - aerial applications on cranberry bogs - AgCats

Oct. 29 - aerial applications on cranberry bogs - AgCat

Oct. 31 - Pine Island Cranberry 1 of 2

Nov 2 - Pine Island Cranberry 2 of 2

I had hoped to be able to get back to the Chatsworth in late October to watch Downstown make their final aerial applications of the season on the bogs. Unfortunately, my power outage couplesd with a gasoline shortage as a result of SS Sandy conspired against this. I found myself thinking about the cranberry bogs recently. Fortunately, Pine Island Cranberry maintains a wonderful blog called the Pine Island Scoop. I had been wondering what they do after the harvest is over in November, their blog provided an answer. Most blog entries are accompanied by pictures so you really do get an up close and personal point of view in reading their blog.

Three of the many things that Pine Island does in the winter jumped out at me. First comes fall planting using rooted cuttings for the first time. During the winter "dormancy period", the cranberry buds mature. A severe winter can hurt and even kill the cranberry vines. In order to protect their cranberry crop, growers flood the bogs during the winters. The Pine Island blogger writes about the winter flooding of the bogs. After the bogs are flooded for the winter, one-fifth of the bogs are sanded. Sanding is important for cranberry yield and growth. Of course, winter is a good time for facilities maintenance.

I will visit the Pine Island Scoop from time to time and I hope that you do as well. I don't know when I'll get to go and see Downstown do aerial applications in the bogs again. Perhaps sometime in the upcoming season.  When I do, I'll write about here.

Lee Brothers (Cranberries), Speedwell NJ

The second cranberry grower that I visited was Lee Brothers with 130 acres.

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here  about the Lee Brothers operation is no longer available. :-(

I got an opportunity to see a little of the Lee Brother's cranberry harvest when I visited. I understand that the Lee Brothers uses different harvesting techniques from Pine Island. I got to see them deploy the yellow crane-boom, it is on the large spool you will see being pulled by the green tractor. The harvest crew rakes the cranberries with the aid of a large blower into the crane-boom in one corner of the bog.

It was pretty cool to watch them work. I would like to thank the Lee family for taking a few moments out of their busy day to describe what I was seeing.

Enjoy these photos that I took the day of my visit to the Lee Brothers.

Lee Brothers Cranberry Bog

Lee Brothers Cranberry Bog

Cran-boom is on the large spool behind the tractor

Tractor with blower

Cran-boom being deployed

Raking cranberries

Cran-boom being deployed, tractor is moving.

Cran-boom being deployed, tractor is moving.

Cran-boom being deployed, tractor is moving.

Cran-boom being deployed, tractor is moving.

Raking and blowing

Raking and blowing

Blowing cranberries

Pine Island Cranberry - Pt 2 of 2 - Packing House

I got to see one of Pine Island Cranberry's packing houses when I was with my friends from Downstown several days ago. Please take a few moments to read an article on the Pine Island packing house in the Pine island Scoop. Pine Island (PI) is a member of the Ocean Spray Cooperative as are the Lee Brothers whom I will write about in my next post. The truck load of cranberries that you see in one of the photos is being taken to the Ocean Spray receiving facility in Chatsworth. From the receiving facility the cranberries are trucked to one of two other Ocean Spray facilities in NJ, in Pemberton or Vineland.

Harvested cranberries in Cranberry Boxes waiting to washed and sorted. PI makes the cranberry boxes

Cranberry box lifted by fork lift to be dumped into washing, spraying, and sorting equipment

Cranberries before leaves are sorted out. Leaves are sold as mulch to blueberry growers

Cranberries after being washed, sprayed, and sorted getting ready to be conveyered into trucks

Cranberries being conveyered in truck

Truck full of cranberries on its way to the Ocean Spray Receiving Facility in Chatsworth

Pine Island Cranberry Bogs 1 of 2

Pine Island Cranberries has 1,400 acres of cranberry bogs and has been in busy for over 100 years. You have already seen some pictures of the bog when I posted some still photo and video compilations of a Downstown Air Tractor 602 and on October 29 I wrote about one of Downstown's Ag Cats applying dry fertilizer to Pine Island Cranberry Bogs. I want to include some information on Pine Island's Cranberry harvest by linking to some of their blog articles, known as the Pine Island Scoop.

Before I do that, I should say that as I write this we in NJ are waiting for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy and whatever she will bring to the Mid-Atlantic. In early September, Hurricane Issac brushed southern NJ bringing 18 inches of rain to Pine Island Cranberry Bogs. They wrote about the clean-up and repairs in articles on September 7 and September 14.

I thought that you might be interested in reading about about Pine Island's Cranberry harvest in the words of Pine Island's blogger(s):

harvest begins
harvest is about teamwork
water harvesting
gathering

I am writing this article ahead of time for automatic posting on October 31 in case power and/or internet outages keep me from posting. If you are reading this then I am unable to get on the internet and make any revisions to the article to reflect current events. as pertains to Hurricane Sandy.

Next up: Pine Island's packing houses

Aerial Applications in NJ Cranberry Bogs: Ag Cats in action

direct link to video

Enjoy this short compilation I did of one of Downstown's Ag Cat applying dry fertilizer on the Pine Island Cranberry Bogs near Chatsworth, NJ.

Next up: A little more about Pine Island Cranberry

Aerial Applications in NJ Cranberry Bogs: Air Tractor 602 in action

direct link to video on youtube

This is a compilation of stills and video that I shot last week when I was near Chatsworth NJ watching Downstown's aerial application operations. That day they were applied dry fertilizer to 700 acres of Pine Island Cranberry bogs in three hours using two Ag Cats and an Air Tractor 602.

The video starts out with a couple of stills in the loading area of the air strip near Pine Island followed by a video of the AT-602 taking off. You will then see a series of stills as the Air Tractor completes her take-off roll, lift offs, and then we move to the cranberry bog for the rest of the stills.

The pilot of the Air Tractor did a great job that day, and I got some great shots with my camera and telephoto lens.

Aerial Applications in NJ Cranberry Bogs: Loading dry fertilizer

The pictures that I am posting show the steps involved in loading the dry fertilizer into Downstown's Ag Planes. On this day, Oct. 17, 2012, two of Downstown's Ag Cats and one Downstown AT-602 applied dry fertilizer to 700 acres of Pine Island's Cranberry bogs over three hours. Pine Island has approximately 1,400 acres of cranberry bogs near Chatsworth NJ in the NJ Pine Barrens. I'll be writing more about Pine Island in a later post, so stay tuned. Downstown will fertilize the remainder of Pine Island's bogs via aerial application before election day in early November. If things work out, I'll be going down to Chatsworth to see this last aerial application of the season, so stay tuned.

The bags of dry fertilizer are stored in the Dry Area, a building on the Air Strip (Haines Air Strip) that Downstown uses located near the Pine Island cranberry bogs. A forklift takes pallets of fertilizer from the building out to the pad in front of the building. Each bag is lifted by the forklift over the loader bin, where one of the crew opens the bag so the dry fertilizer is dumped into the loader. Finally, the loader is moved into position next to the Ag Plane, in this case the AT-602, where the dry fertilizer is conveyered into the hopper of the Ag Plane.

I did not time the loading operation from start to finish, but I'd say that an Ag Plane is loaded in the matter of a couple of minutes. Bags of dry fertilizer are on the pad ready to go for the next Ag Plane that has to be loaded. The loader is moved back to the pad for its new load of dry fertilizer ready for the next Ag Plane to be loaded.

I need to point out what I am writing about here and in the next few posts involve aerial applications of dry fertilizer. Liquid aerial spraying is very different from the mixing of the materials to the loading to the actual aerial application (aka spraying). Another building on the Air strip known as the "wet area" is used to prepare these liquid materials. Av gas and jet a fuel is also stored in the wet area. I hope to be able to observe liquid aerial applications next year when Downstown applies liquid fungicide to the cranberry bogs.

Bags of fertilizer in dry area

0-0-50 (dry) fertilizer used in this aerial application

Bags of fertilizer on pad waiting to be loaded into loader, forklift on left, loader on right in front of pad

Loader untying bag of fertilizer over bin on loader

Bin on loader filled, waiting to be loaded into AT-602. Building in background is "wet area"used to prepare and load liquids for spraying, note water tanks.  Jet  A Fuel  and Av Gas are stored in the wet area building.

Dry 0-0-50 fertilizer being loaded into AT-602

Dry 0-0-50 fertilizer being loaded into AT-602, Ag Cat on left waiting to be loaded.

AT-602 loaded with 0-0-50 dry fertilizer on take-off roll to apply fertilizer to the cranberry bog

Bye! She'll be back soon for another load

Next up: behind the scenes in aerial applicationsNational Agricultural Aviation Association