How to Grow -Cranberries (part 2)

4 April 2012, by gj

you know you can

You Can Grow That is a campaign started by C. L. Fornari to encourage Garden Bloggers to get more people interested in growing – it doesn’t matter what, to just get started.

What a great idea – I’m in.

On the 4th. day of each month garden bloggers will post something that can be answered with “You can grow that!”
“Do you love fresh basil? You can grow that!” You get the idea.

Unfortunately I found this out just after the 4th of last month, so for these past few weeks I’ve been trying to decide what to post about.
After all, I do this pretty regularly.

There’s been posts about growing Gourds to make Birdhouses, Vases Bowls and Fairy Gardens, and we expect to be growing Broom Corn come season.
Veggies? Don’t get me started.

Then it came to me. Literally.

inspiration by mail

4 new Cranberry plants.

Now of all the things I grow, Cranberries surprise people the most.
“Really? I thought you needed a bog!”
“No bog needed…” I tell them “you can grow that!”

ready for planting

Part 1 is linked below, but here’s the basics:

-No bog needed.
-They like acidic soil, good moisture and grow as a ground cover.
-They are perfect planted with blueberries.
-It’ll be 3 years before you start to get cranberries in the fall.

Like many of you addicted to gardening, this year I decided to expand.

ready to transplant blueberries

The 6 Blueberry bushes were moved to a new bed, and a walkway was built so I will have plenty of room to harvest my abundant crop (you got to have hope).
The one and only cranberry now shares the same bed- after all, they both like acidic soil, and well- they’re family.

and a little prayer never hurts

The only problem?
Now I need more cranberries and more blueberry bushes to fill the bed.
So 4 cranberries have already arrived and a few more are on their way- and a couple of blueberry bushes to keep them company while they grow.

Bad planning on my part?
I don’t think so!

The links (so you don’t need to go back and look for them)

How to Grow Cranberries, Pt. 1
Birdhouses, Vases, Bowls and Fairy Gardens
C. L. Fornari’s Blog- Whole Life Gardening
You Can Grow That!

Categories: blueberries, cranberries, you can grow that

Subscribe

How to Grow -Cranberries

7 April 2011, by gj

my latest plant venture

If you’ve ever seen those commercials for cranberry juice, you might mistakenly think (like me) that you need the following in order to grow cranberries:

1. A Bog
2. Boots that go up to your armpits (aka ‘waders’)
3. A sidekick that has an IQ not much higher than that of the Bog

So because none of these applied to me (although there was that one post where I claimed to be Smarter than a Vegetable) I figured I wouldn’t be growing any cranberries on the Jones’ Farm.

Then I saw some Cranberry Plants for sale and I started to look into it.
I’m so easy, really.

Now I have to say here, this is the first How-To I’m writing that is actually a How-I-Will rather than a How-I-Did,
but if you want to give it a go like I am, follow these recommendations and check out the links below to learn more.

This is what my research taught me:

1. Cranberries grow like a groundcover, and will spread if allowed
2. They do like moisture, but a bog is not needed
3. They like the same acidic soil conditions as Blueberries
4. They reproduce much like strawberries – sending out a runner that will form another mature plant.
5. They are hardy in Zones 2-6

So this is what I am going to do:

1. Build my Crannie (I only have one plant, I felt I should name her) a raised bed using cinder blocks as the wall
2. Place her in the same area as my potted plants, which receive more frequent watering
3. Feed her the same as the blueberries
4. Check out those ‘water globes’ in case we have any extreme hot temps or dry spells
5. Get myself a sidekick (just kidding)

And I’ll wait a few years- yeah; they can take a while to produce, so I’ve read.
That’s why I didn’t want to wait to post.

If you’ve grown cranberries in your home garden, let us know how you made out!

Here’s a few links to read more about it:

Growing Cranberries at Home
Growing Cranberries

Categories: cranberries, how to grow

Subscribe