Fruit Growers News

Group Steps Up Its Marketing Efforts with Urban Bogs

Cranberry bogs sprang up out of nowhere in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles last month, and disappeared after a few days. It wasn’t a case of spontaneous generation or some freak cranberry harvest. It was the Bogs Across America Tour, part of an integrated marketing campaign by Ocean Spray, a cooperative owned by 650 cranberry growers throughout North America (and 100 grapefruit growers in Florida, according to http://www.oceanspray.com). In New York, an 80-foot by 20-foot bog was placed in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza Nov. 1-3. In Chicago, a 30-foot by 50-foot bog was constructed in Pioneer Court Nov. 7-9. In Los Angeles, a bog was built near the Hollywood & Highland Center Nov. 14-16, according to Ocean Spray’s Web site. Real cranberry growers stood in each bog (in their waders, of course) and educated passersby about the taste and health of cranberries and the…  » Read more

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Adams County Looks at Platforms for Mechanization

Adams County, Pa., with its long history of fruit culture, in many ways epitomizes what is right and what is wrong with fruit production in the United States today. So it seems appropriate that Adams County is taking the lead with a project that could have broad application in re-tooling fruit production in the mid-Atlantic states. It’s called the Adams County Ag Innovation Initiative. Last summer, a group of Penn State researchers, Adams County Extension personnel and growers teamed up to investigate what might be done to mechanize some of the more labor-intensive parts of fruit production. They worked to customize and hone a motorized, self-propelled worker platform that could replace ladders, which, according to the project leaders, “make pruning, thinning and harvesting inefficient and costly.” “The research team collected some excellent data in commercial orchards on labor efficiency improvement,” said Phil Baugher, co-chairperson of the Ag Production…  » Read more

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