Vaccinium macrocarpon, or cranberry plants, are woody perennial vines producing much-loved cranberry fruit. Many cranberry growers are uncertain when to fertilize cranberries or the best cranberry plant fertilizer for their home gardens. These questions are quickly answered by learning more about the cranberry plant and the best time to fertilize cranberry bushes.
Cranberries are indigenous to the temperate areas of North America, primarily Massachusetts, Oregon, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and the East coast. The central United States and the Appalachian mountain ranges in the south contribute. They are frequently cultivated in water by commercial cranberry growers, although contrary to popular opinion, they thrive when planted on dry land.
Cranberry bushes produce one to six foot long runners with glossy dark green leaves during the growing season and reddish-brown foliage during the dormant season. Short vertical branches generate flower buds protruding above the tangled vines along the runners, and delicious tart berries grow on these branches.
Knowing the Best Time to Fertilize Cranberry Bushes
Cranberries are used in everything from cranberry sauce to cranberry juice to salads. While it’s necessary to know the best time to trim cranberries, it’s also crucial to learn the best time to fertilize cranberries and the best fertilizer for cranberry plants to produce the tastiest crop in your home garden.
While you might be growing a cranberry plant or two at home, commercially cultivated cranberries are frequently grown in cranberry bogs, which arose naturally due to glacial retreat, leaving holes filled with water and organic matter over time.
However, cranberry beds may be grown to fruiting on dry soil if certain conditions are met, including acidic soil pH, sanding to create drainage, and correct cranberry fertilizer application. Knowing the best time to fertilize cranberry bushes and using the right cranberry plant fertilizer ensure your cranberry bushes thrive.
Cranberry Cultivars
According to Carolyn Demoranville, an associate extension professor and station director at the University of Massachusetts, over 100 cranberry cultivars are available. Though many different types of cranberries are on offer, only a handful of cranberry types are typically grown commercially and in home gardens.
Whichever cranberry cultivars you choose for your home garden, understanding when to fertilize cranberries is crucial for an excellent fruit set and a large harvest.
Understanding Cranberry Plant Fertilizer
Cranberries have evolved to thrive in the sandy soils of their native areas, which are deficient in nutrients like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and phosphate. Even if you find a good place to plant cranberries, these soils feature a low level of organic material in the root zone and a small amount of clay, the two soil elements that hold nutrients for plants.
Though the plant is suited to a soil low in nutrients, fertilizing is required for fruit production since nutrients are extracted from cranberry bogs through fruit harvesting.
The three chemicals most commonly given to cranberry beds are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK). When the cranberries are harvested, these are the elements lost in the most significant amounts.
Despite the need for NPK fertilizer in cranberry production, fertilizer usage is negligible compared to conventional agronomic crops like soybeans. Many growers use tissue testing or analyze a small plant tissue sample to determine which nutrients are required.
The Best Cranberry Plant Fertilizer
Nitrogen is required for cranberry production, whether from commercial fertilizers like ammonium sulfate or organic sources like fish waste. Although there are two types of plant-available nitrogen, nitrate, and ammonium, cranberry bushes only use ammonium, making it essential cranberry plant fertilizer.
As a result, cranberry fertilizer sources exclusively contain ammonium nitrogen. Ammonium nitrogen is found in soluble forms, like ammonium sulfate, or forms easily converted to ammonium, such as urea.
In early spring, a modest application of organic nitrogen fertilizer like fish emulsion or seaweed extract is a straightforward approach for the home gardener to fertilize. The best fertilizer for blackberries and cranberries contains nutrients they will use to strengthen the plant and produce an ideal crop.
When to Fertilize Cranberries
After learning about cranberry plant fertilizer, the next question from cranberry growers is when to fertilize cranberries for best results. When the soil is cold, cranberry plants have a reduced ability to absorb nutrients, according to expert Joan Davenport of Washington State University.
Fertilizers used too early in the season may break down, drain out of the root zone, or become firmly attached to the soil, making them unavailable for uptake by the cranberry plants until the soil warms.
Nutrient availability depends on soil moisture and aeration, or the amount of air circulation. Plants absorb nutrients dissolved in the water in the soil. Minerals can’t flow to the roots if the soil is too dry. Conversely, if the soil is too wet, the amount of oxygen available to the plant for uptake is limited.
The fruit set is reduced when the cranberry bed is overly wet. A tissue test with high manganese levels may indicate inadequate drainage. Proper soil drainage increases fertilizer efficiency, requiring less fertilizer. Check the soil moisture twice a week; the top six inches of soil should be damp but not saturated.
Cranberry soils have a sandy root zone with a limited capacity to store additional nutrients. When more fertilizer is used than can be taken into the plants in a reasonable amount of time, some nutrients wash out of the root zone during rainy weather and watering.
The best time to fertilize cranberry bushes is in spring. Use a modest amount of fertilizer and sprinkle it in a circle around each adult plant in early spring after the soil temperature warms. For plants under three years old, use less fertilizer. Ensure you stop using cranberry plant fertilizer by late summer.
By learning when to fertilize cranberries and which cranberry plant fertilizer to use, meeting growing conditions like appropriate soil pH, using mulch to retain soil environment, and using fungicides to avoid issues like fruit rot, home growers enjoy fresh cranberries from the garden. Include companion plants for cranberry bushes to reduce the chances for disease and pests and you’ll soon have a bumper crop.
The warm days of early spring are the best time to fertilize cranberry bushes. A simple seaweed extract or fish emulsion made into a granular fertilizer or added to water for a foliar option provides everything your cranberries need for a vast harvest.
We hope you loved this article on when to fertilize cranberries, so please share these handy tips on the best time to fertilize cranberry bushes with your friends and family on Pinterest and Facebook.