An Icy Start

Do you like the cold winter weather?  Cranberry growers sure do!  Wisconsin can definitely have some extreme temperatures during the winter months, and growers actually need a stretch of bitterly cold weather – we’re talking below zero for several days – in order to protect cranberry vines for next year’s crop.  I’ll bet you’re wondering how that works.  It’s really pretty cool.  Every winter the growers flood their cranberry beds with water, which quickly freezes into a thick sheet of ice.  But that ice doesn’t damage the vines.  Instead, the ice acts like a coat that we would wear, to protect the vines from strong, dehydrating winter winds.  Once there’s a thick bed of ice, cranberry growers spread a layer of sand on top, which in the spring will settle to the bottom of the cranberry beds to kill invasive plants and bugs that could damage the vines.  Oh, by the way, those frozen cranberry beds?  They’re a great place to go ice skating or play pond hockey! 

To learn more about cranberries, Wisconsin’s state fruit,
go to-
The Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association