CRANBERRY NUTRITION AND FERTILITY: THE NEED FOR MULTI-YEAR EXPERIMENTS

Elemental requirements of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) have been studied in Massachusetts over ten years.
Seasonal variation in foliar element levels under standard fertilizer regimes (commercial bogs) was compared to that on abandoned (several years without fertilizer) bogs and commercial bogs not fertilized for one year.
After one year without fertilizer, commercial bogs do not show the same foliar element patterns as abandoned bogs, indicating a carryover effect of fertilizing in the previous year (s). Pogs which are fertilized may increase in yield that season or in the second or third year of continuous fertilization (examples are presented). Materials or practices which affect floral induction will affect yield only in the season following application while an effect on flowering, fruit set, or fruit size will be apparent that year.
Therefore, all of these yield factors should be considered and fertility experiments should be carried for more than one season even when no significant effect is apparent in year one.

IV International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture

C.J. DeMoranville

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1989.241.22