Cranberry harvest time is in the middle zone. Garden cranberry. Where do cranberries grow?

According to research by Chinese scientists, swamp, garden or forest cranberries not only help with inflammation of the bladder, but can also prevent the occurrence of stomach ulcers. It turned out that people who constantly drink compote or cranberry juice, or simply like dried cranberries, cranberries in sugar, are much less likely to suffer from these diseases, since the substances contained in the berry actively prevent the emergence of disease-causing bacteria.

Pruning cranberries in spring

Wild cranberries once grew in areas that were lined with impermeable materials such as clay. When the holes in the kettle are filled with water, they become an ideal environment for cranberries to grow. These natural and modern man-made depressions where cranberries grow are known as bogs.

Differences between types of cranberries

The soil found in cranberry bog consists of alternating layers of organic material: peat, clay, gravel and sand. In commercial beds, sand is added to the marsh every two to five years to help maximize fruit production. Cranberry bog soil is uncultivated, ensuring that alternating layers remain undisturbed.

Cranberries are evergreen creeping small shrubs from the genus Vaccinum of the Heather family (the most famous representatives genus – lingonberry, blueberry, blueberry). In nature, there are a huge number of varieties of this plant: more than a hundred species of this berry grow in America alone, while the development of new varieties continues.

Native cranberry plants are wetland natives and survive well in flooded soil. Unrestored cranberry vines can grow indefinitely. Some commercial vines still producing fruit are known to be over 150 years old.

Early European settlers called them "crane berries" because the plant's flower shape reminded them of the abacus and head of a crane. Over time, the name "craneberry" evolved into cranberry. Early farmers hand-selected ripe berries, creating a labor-intensive industry. The fresh cranberries eaten in holiday meals today are still selected to ensure that only the freshest berries are found in the produce section of grocery stores.

Cranberry bushes can be seen in many countries northern hemisphere: in the forests of Europe, Asia, North America. The berry feels great both in the north of Italy and near the Arctic Circle; there is a lot of it in Siberia and the Far East.

Although many people, when asked where cranberries grow, will not hesitate to name a swampy area, in reality the berry does well in different types of soil, since it is undemanding in terms of mineral nutrition. True, in wildlife it still prefers damp places, despite the fact that it is a light-loving plant.

This harvesting process involves flooding the marsh field as much as 18 inches fresh water. Each cranberry has a closed little pocket of air, and when it is loosened from the vine, it will float. The swamp, flooded with water, soon turns red with all the floating, ripe cranberries. Soft buoy floats are used to smooth down all the floating cranberries so they can be loaded onto trucks and shipped to nearby processing plants.

Cranberries have long been used for their health benefits. Native Americans mixed deer meat with crushed cranberries to create a food known as pemmican. They also used the berry in a poultice to apply poison to the wound. The bright red sap was used to dye fabric for use in clothing and blankets.

Kinds

Cranberry bushes growing in Europe and America differ significantly from each other: the European berry is smaller and full of spots. The fruits also differ in their cell structure: the American berry contains three sets of chromosomes, while the European berry has two.

Another difference is that the American berry contains air chambers that allow it to float on the surface of the water.

Early sailors learned that eating dried cranberries was excellent and greatly helped prevent scurvy. The berries contain high levels of antioxidants and are believed to help. Cranberries are sometimes called "beasts" because of their many health benefits.

In season alone, cranberry growers report that 74 percent of all American homes will serve more than 5 million gallons of creamy cranberry sauce during their season. A wild, small berry from the wetlands of North America, it continues to be an important and healthy part of family holiday celebrations.

This greatly facilitates the collection of fruits: berries on cranberry plantations are grown in special checks. After ripening and hand-picking the best berries, they are filled with water and a special technique is launched, which, by whipping the water, causes the ripened fruits to come off and float. Then they are gradually brought to one of the edges of the check, where the clean and washed ones are scooped out into specially prepared containers.

The fruits hang on bushes 10 to 30 cm high, some of which can be even 100 years old. Cranberries grow in so-called "swamps", flat areas without natural hills filled with sand, peat, gravel and loam. The first settlers of North America owe their name to cranberries. They learned from the Indians to eat local plants and animals and thus came into contact with the red, plump cranberry. Because the strings of cranberry flowers form a beak of sorts, resembling the appearance of a crane, they called the fruit “crane berries,” which were later shortened to “Cranberries.”

Quite colorful: a field of cranberries during harvest. Before the harvest season begins in the fall, a lot is already happening in the cranberry field. In early May, cranberry plants that are lying on the ground will begin to develop new leaves. From June the first pinkish-white flowers begin to open. Once they have disappeared, small nodules develop and ripen into deep octopus cranberries until October. It is then harvested, then once the leaves turn deep red, the cranberry plants go into their well-deserved rest phase.

The berries consist of four air chambers, so they are so light that they float in water. The character that breeders show and makes wet collection an almost exciting event. In what is called a wet harvest, cranberry fields are flooded for a short time. Ripe fruits are mechanically removed from the bushes, then float on the surface of the water and can be easily sucked into appropriate containers. Conveyors transport lingonberries to waiting trucks, which then transport the berries to processing plants.

Cranberry bushes are also divided into wild and garden, which can be grown in your own garden:

  • Swamp cranberry is the most common cranberry in the eastern hemisphere; the berries of this variety are bright red. Swamp cranberry contains a huge amount of vitamin C, as well as many micro- and macroelements. People noticed a long time ago beneficial features swamp cranberries and learned to use them: dried cranberries and cranberry compote were used in the treatment of vitamin deficiency, colds, and sore throats. The juice of the berry was used to lubricate open wounds to speed up healing. For example, Indian shamans made compresses from the juice of the berry, thanks to which the poison received from a wound with a poisonous arrow was drawn out of the wounds (the benefits of cranberries in treatment were enormous).
  • Wild berries are considered one of the most useful berries growing in the wild; they grow not only in wetlands, but also in peat soil.
  • Garden cranberry - this species can be grown on your own plot: it feels excellent in peat-rich soil. The berries of this variety are much larger than those of the wild plant, and planted shrubs can bear fruit for about half a century.


The cranberries, which are harvested wet, are then dried or processed into juice or powder. The remaining five percent of the fruit is harvested dry. To do this, farmers use small machines that pull the cranberries from their stems using rotating rakes: the berries fall onto a conveyor belt and are collected in containers. But before that, there's an obstacle to overcome: the bouncing test.

Jumping Test It's not so easy to be "your man" like a real cranberry, because before that, every cranberry must prove its ability to jump. If she jumps ten centimeters in height seven times, she is worthy of representing the name Cranberry. Cranberries ripen between summer and autumn.

Description

Absolutely all species are small evergreen shrubs creeping along the ground with flexible thin stems from 15 to 30 cm that are rooted in the ground. The plant lives for a long time: the age of some species exceeds a hundred years.

The mineral solutions, nutrients and trace elements necessary for the cranberry bush enter the plant through the fungus located on its roots, which is tightly connected by its threads to the root system of the bush. Mushroom threads pull the necessary solutions from the soil, after which they transfer them to the roots of the bush.

Blueberry bushes in the garden have ornamental appeal and produce acidic berries in the summer. Cranberries are delicate fruits. Even large producers often use manual harvesting methods to minimize damage. When to harvest blueberries depends on the growing region, variety, and climate. Factory blueberry bushes are in a sunny location and produce a harvest year after year.

Blueberries begin to ripen between early summer and late summer. North Carolina State University lists first harvest date before May in this region. The best way to decide when to pick blueberries is to start seeing bushes in early summer. When the first fruits begin to turn blue, you will know that harvest time is near.


The leaves of cranberry bushes are dark green, ovate or oblong, arranged in a spiral, with one leaf coming from each node of the stem. The length of the leaves ranges from 3 to 16 mm, width – from 1 to 6 mm. Interestingly, there is wax on the bottom of the leaf, which prevents water from flooding the stomata, through which evaporation and gas exchange between the plant and nature occurs.

Not all blueberries ripen at the same rate. When the first fruits turn blue, wait four or five days and then go through and select the ripe fruits. A bunch of berries have fruits at different stages of development, so you need to harvest to destroy only the mature fruits. After the first harvest, wait 7-10 days and then go through a second time. Harvest blueberries every 5-7 days until the bushes stop producing.

Ripe cranberries turn dark red to deep blue. The white powder often found in cranberries is natural and even desirable, according to North Carolina State University. Remove the cranberries from the stem by gently pulling the fruit with your thumb and forefinger. When harvesting, place the fruit in a bucket or shallow basket. Deep baskets fill up quickly and damage the fruit below.

Cranberry bushes bloom for about eighteen days in late May - early June. The flowers of the shrub are pink or light purple, and the flower itself usually has four petals, but often has five.

Every year, several hundred hard dark red berries with a diameter of 8 to 16 mm appear on one bush. They ripen at the end of summer and are able to remain on the plant until spring without losing their qualities.

How to grow cranberries in the garden: frost protection

The medicinal plant, used mainly in prophylaxis or as a urinary tract disinfectant, is often presented in juice form in cases of recurrent cystitis. Anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins. A man who drank several quarts of cranberry juice a day and took warfarin became a victim of coagulation problems. In fact, a high dose of cranberry acts as an enzyme inhibitor and increases the concentration of certain drugs. Ask your pharmacist if you are a user of this medication.

Ninety percent of cranberry berries consist of water, and they contain such a huge amount of medicinal properties that no one doubts the benefits of cranberries in our time. Among the organic compounds we can highlight:

  • Vitamins A, B, PP, K1, C (interestingly, there is as much vitamin C here as in lemon, orange, grapefruit, strawberry);
  • Fructose, glucose, sucrose, pectins;
  • Phenol acids – reduce the risk of atherosclerosis by reducing the amount of bad cholesterol in the body;
  • Potassium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, iodine, tin, boron, zinc, silver, etc.
  • Organic acids - primarily citric, malic, oxalic, benzoic, quinic.



This case, however, remains rare, and it is important to note that this person in question drank a lot of cranberry juice every day. Grapefruit is mainly found in North America. It would be from northeastern North America. Today, most of the world's fruit production comes from growing it in industrial agricultural units located primarily in North America.

How do the types differ?

Photo below: Grape harvest in the Fraser Valley, Columbia-British, Canada. Fruit harvesting. Grapes float on water because they contain pockets of air. To harvest the crops, farmers flood the plantations with a thin layer of water. Producers use a special machine to release the grapes and bring them to the surface. When they reach the surface, all the fruits can be collected, as shown in the picture below. These fruits, collected with water, are mainly used to produce juices and medicines.

Application

Scientists, when they decided to determine how cranberry is useful, were surprised to find that it is one of the most medicinal berries found in the wild, and the properties of cranberries are such that it can successfully treat a sufficient number of diseases, including vitamin deficiency, colds, rheumatism, sore throat.

Recently, scientists are increasingly saying that cranberry drinks, as well as dried cranberries, are excellent for the prevention of colon cancer, prostate cancer and other malignant tumors. It is believed that cranberry compote, cranberry juice, and dried cranberries stop the formation of cancer cells.

A small portion of production is also harvested directly from the factory using machines and no water to produce fresh fruit. In North America, blueberries are harvested in late fall. Native Americans used blueberries as food and also for their medicinal properties, especially as a poultice, such as in the case of injury.

How to plant and grow garden cranberries on the plot, how to feed the soil

Researchers compared the effects of cranberry with a placebo. More than 180 women with an average age of 86 years participated in this study. This is the time when our growers harvest millions of pounds of cranberries, and if you want to know, it's truly beautiful.

It is worth noting that not only fresh berries, but also frozen cranberry juice, as well as brewed compote from recently harvested cranberries, are extremely healthy and have many medicinal properties. Cranberries in sugar are also tasty, and frozen and dried cranberries are stored for a long time and absolutely do not lose their beneficial health properties (in large quantities Eating dried berries is not recommended, as you may gain weight).

First, there are cranberries, but if you want to use a technical term, it is a soft, marshy soil area with acidic peaty soil, usually near wetlands, where cranberries grow on long cuttings and can be found in Northern and South America, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, parts of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Chile.

Canada is an important agricultural region for cranberries. Many people think that cranberries grow underwater, which makes sense since we usually see the berries floating above the water. But what we see is actually the result of wet harvesting. The peat bog is filled with up to 45 cm of water the night before picking the berries.


Frozen cranberries, if the necessary conditions are met, can be stored for about two years and medicinal properties cranberries don't disappear. When choosing frozen cranberries, you need to feel the packaging and make sure that the berries have not stuck together, otherwise the product has already been defrosted and therefore lost most healing properties, so the medicinal benefits of cranberries are in doubt. When buying or removing frozen cranberries from the freezer, you must prepare them (make cranberry juice or cranberry compote). After defrosting, you can store it in a glass container for another three days or fill it with water and put it in the refrigerator (in this case it will last a long time).

Cranberry seed propagation

The fresh cranberries you buy in the produce section each fall are harvested using the dry method. This The best way get the freshest berries. To do this, cranberry growers use a mechanical picker that looks like a large lawnmower. It involves metal teeth that sweep up the bushes and separate the berries and place them in a burlap bag behind the machine. Helicopters are sometimes used to transport bags to protect branches from trucks.

The cranberry or vaccinium macrocarpone is better known as cranberry. It is a shrub that is part of the pottery family. The edible red fruit is very well known in North America, especially in Canada, where it is consumed as juice, jam or sauce.

Contraindications

Despite all their advantages, cranberries have contraindications. They should not be used by people with duodenal or stomach ulcers, as well as gastritis with high acidity.

People who have liver problems should use this product with caution (only after consulting with a doctor), since the berry can cause an aggravation.

You should also take into account the properties of cranberries, such as the ability to destroy tooth enamel. Persons with sensitive enamel or other dental problems should consume the berry carefully and not overuse it.

We all know that cranberries are very tasty. But not everyone knows what exactly its benefits are, how to properly collect cranberries and where they grow. Let's make these points clear.

Cranberries are a real storehouse of vitamins. It is useful both fresh and dried. Cranberries are used in the food industry, cooking and folk medicine. It makes very tasty jelly and teas. Cranberries contain a large amount of vitamin C, as well as rare microelements lutein, selenium, and manganese. It is used to prevent colds, treat scurvy and cough, as a natural antipyretic.

Cranberries come in large and small fruits. The latter is grown on an industrial scale in Canada, the USA, and Scandinavian countries. Berries small-fruited cranberries grow in the tundra and forest-tundra, near the Arctic Circle. There is another variety of cranberry, called ordinary: it is found throughout the middle zone.

Cranberries grow not only in swamps, but also in any lowlands with high humidity: in damp sphagnum coniferous forests, along the shores of swampy lakes, etc. Now let’s find out exactly where to go for cranberries.

Where do cranberries grow in Russia?

Cranberries collected with your own hands in an ecologically clean area are much healthier than those bought in a store. It grows throughout almost the entire territory of Russia, except for the Kuban, Caucasus and the southern part of the Volga region. Even in the Far East and the Arctic Circle you can find this unique berry!

Interestingly, cranberries are predominantly a “wild” plant. It is very sensitive to the environmental situation: under any unfavorable factors, the berry simply disappears from the disturbed areas economic activity of people.

Where do cranberries grow in Ukraine?

The Carpathians, Carpathian region and Polesie are the main growing areas for cranberries in the wild nature of Ukraine. However, there is not as much of it left as before - the plant is dying out. The reason for this was incorrect, illiterate picking of berries. If you go to a swamp or peat bog to pick cranberries, take the time to familiarize yourself with the basic rules for collecting this capricious berry:

  1. Ideally, you need to pick cranberries one at a time, selecting the ripest and largest berries. But you can also use a special scoop to collect cranberries.
  2. All collected berries should be sorted, removing debris and damaged fruits.
  3. There are several ways to store cranberries: frozen or soaked, or in a cool, dry room.

Where do cranberries grow in Belarus?

The raised bogs of Belarus are a paradise for cranberry lovers. Due to the fact that there is an impassable swamp in the Vitebsk and Minsk regions, a lot of cranberries can be collected here. In the Gantsevichi district of the Brest region, it is grown for sale artificially, in checks. You can collect cranberries in swamps or forests in three seasons:

If you have a very long way to go for cranberries, think about planting this plant in your own garden. If you are able to provide the conditions necessary for growth and fruiting (high humidity, plenty of light), this will not be difficult. Cranberries grow quickly, and from just a few seedlings that take root this season, in a year you will already have a whole cranberry bed. This berry is also completely unpretentious to grow. Let us only note that common cranberries grow on acidic soils, which means that before planting it is advisable to add peat, sphagnum, oak leaf compost, manure, sulfur or iron sulfate to the future bed.