Kurlovich T.V.
Candidate of Biology Sciences, State Scientific Institution "Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus"
Photo 1 – High-quality large-fruited cranberry fruits – a valuable source of vitamins
Large-fruited cranberry is a perennial evergreen shrub 10-15 cm high, having two types of shoots: creeping and erect. Creeping shoots are lashes 1.5-2.0 m long and serve to quickly spread the plant over an area. In addition, from the second year, erect shoots from 5 to 15 cm long grow on them from the axillary buds. Flower buds are located on the erect shoots and the crop is formed. The fruit of the large-fruited cranberry is a juicy, large, dark red berry with a diameter of 1.8-2.2 cm. Thanks to the presence of benzoic acid, the berries remain fresh for a long time.
Photo 2 – Large cranberry berries at full ripening
The ability of cranberries to grow and form a harvest in poor living conditions has secured its reputation as a plant with little demand for soil fertility. When grown in cultivation, this plant actively responds to relatively small amounts of fertilizer.
According to American researchers, cranberries need 4 times less nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium than corn to form the same biomass of the above-ground parts of the plant. However, it is more difficult to control the nutritional process of cranberries compared to other crops. This is due, first of all, to the specifics of the plant itself, which is a perennial evergreen shrub, in which only part of the absorbed mineral substances are carried away with the berry harvest.
The main amount of them is concentrated in the leaves and stems as a necessary reserve for laying and forming the next year's harvest. It is also necessary to take into account agricultural practices that are unusual for other plants, including intensive use of water. Mobile nutrients migrate along with water along the soil profile, and some of them are inevitably lost and go beyond the root zone of plants. In this regard, it is advisable to carry out frequent fertilizing with small doses of fertilizers.
Photo 3 – Fruiting of large-fruited cranberries
Cranberries are planted in the spring (cuttings) or at any time (spring, summer, autumn) as seedlings in containers. Substrates for planting are prepared from sphagnum, high-moor peat with an acidic reaction (pH from 3 to 5) with the addition of coarse sand and sawdust (5:1:1). To prepare the bed, you need to remove the soil to a depth of 20 - 30 cm (the length and width of the bed at the gardener's request) and make something like a dam out of it around the bed. Fill the resulting pit with the prepared substrate, compact it slightly, and water it. On clay soil, the pit depth is no more than 5-10 cm; the bed is made 15-20 cm above the soil surface to ensure the outflow of excess water.
The seedlings are planted according to the 25x25 pattern, the planting is watered and then constantly maintained at high humidity. Manure and compost are not placed under the cranberries, but they are fed annually with small doses of fertilizers: at the end of April with ammonium sulfate (3-4g), double superphosphate (6g) and potassium sulfate (3-4g), at the end of May before flowering - the same amount of sulfate ammonium per 1m2. It is very important to keep cranberry plantings free of weeds. Over the years, plantings become very compacted, and the shoots do not reach the ground where they take root. Then the creeping shoots are partially cut out, and the planting is mulched early in spring or late in autumn with a 1-2 cm layer of coarse sand. Cranberries can grow in one place for several decades. Fruiting of young plantings begins in the third year, and a full harvest in the fourth year. From one square meter you can collect up to five liters of berries.
Among many garden and wild fruit and berry plants, cranberry occupies a special place as a medicinal plant. The presence of a complex and rich complex of biologically active substances in its fruits has created its reputation as an extremely important food product and an indispensable therapeutic and prophylactic agent in folk and scientific medicine.
Photo 4 – Collected cranberry fruits
The high biological value of the fruits ensures their effective use for various colds, infectious diseases, and malaria. Cranberry has a beneficial effect in cases of metabolic disorders, vascular spasms and hypertension. It is an effective remedy against scurvy, caused by a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in food and accompanied by loss of muscle strength, lethargy, fatigue, dizziness, swelling and bleeding gums, loosening and loss of teeth, and other more serious consequences.
Photo 5 – Cranberries have strong antioxidant properties
It is known that both the nutritional and therapeutic and prophylactic benefits of cranberries are due to the content in it of many compounds necessary for humans: sugars, organic acids, phenols, vitamins, triterpenoids, tannins and pectins, and microelements.
Among sugars, the main place is occupied by glucose and fructose; cranberries contain sucrose in smaller quantities. A large set of organic acids: citric, malic, benzoic, ketobutyric, ketoglutaric, quinic, oxalic, succinic, chlorogenic, etc. The presence of the entire complex of organic acids, and especially benzoic, explains the high shelf life of fresh berries during storage, their protection from fungi, bacteria and insects. Food preservation is based on the antibiotic properties of benzoic acid.
Cranberries can play a certain role in a person’s vitamin balance, especially when systematically included in the diet. In addition to vitamin C, the berries contain thiamine (vitamin B0, folic acid (B5), riboflavin (B2), pyridoxine (B6), nicotinic acid (vitamin PP). The content of carotenoids in cranberries is low and in this indicator it is significantly inferior to many fruits and vegetables plants - sea buckthorn, mountain ash, apricot, rose hips, spinach, parsley, etc.
In recent years, the value of cranberries as an important source of phylloquinone (vitamin K1) has been demonstrated. Phylloquinone deficiency entails a disruption in the formation of prothrombin in the blood. Based on the content of phylloquinone, cranberries are classified as valuable K-vitamin carriers, not inferior to such studied sources of the vitamin as cabbage, green tomatoes, strawberries, etc.
Photo 6 - High-quality large-fruited cranberry fruits of the Stevens variety
The varietal large-fruited cranberry and the local species - swamp cranberry - are identical in nutritional value and differ only in the quantitative content of individual components included in the biochemical complex. Most varieties of large-fruited cranberries are characterized by a lower total sugar content compared to swamp cranberries. They also contain less organic acids, which can be determined even by taste. A distinctive feature of large-fruited cranberries is the high enrichment of its fruits with pectin compounds.
Large-fruited cranberries are of high value in providing the A-vitamin needs of humans, since most of its varieties contain 1.5-2 times more D-carotene in the fruits than in the berries of wild swamp cranberries.
The consumer qualities and biochemical value of ripe berries change significantly during storage. It is best to store cranberries at low temperatures (2-4°) and high relative humidity (85-90%).
Sometimes cranberries are harvested in the spring, after the snow has melted (snow berry). Although it tastes more pleasant than berries picked in the fall, it is juicy, but it is less fortified (virtually devoid of vitamin C) and biologically less valuable. An important requirement for fruits intended for medicinal purposes is their full maturity (when harvested in the autumn).
Photo 7 – Planting material for large-fruited cranberries with a closed root system
When you mention cranberries, images of coniferous forests and peat bogs immediately arise, where this “northern berry” was born. It is quite possible to grow wild berries in your dacha if you create favorable conditions for them that are close to natural ones. How to grow cranberries in your garden - read below.
An elegant evergreen subshrub, cranberry is a member of the lingonberry family whose generic name comes from the Latin word "Oxycoccus" - pungent, sour and spherical, literally meaning "sour ball".
The composition of the “rejuvenating berry,” as it is called for its antioxidant properties, includes vitamins: A, C, B1, B2, C, K, PP, as well as substances such as thiamine, which is involved in the normalization of the heart, nervous and digestive functions. systems; niacin, which helps lower cholesterol, and riboflavin, which promotes good thyroid function and also helps the formation of red blood cells and antibodies in the blood. It is not for nothing that cranberry juice is considered an excellent energy tonic.
Large-fruited garden cranberries are best adapted for growing in our dachas. Its berries, ranging in size from 15 to 25 mm in diameter, are 3 times larger than swamp cranberries. Varieties of large-fruited cranberries produce horizontal and creeping shoots, depending on the variety, from 50 to 115 cm long, densely covered with small evergreen leaves. In the spring, young shoots shoot upward, having a standard erect growth form, and after wintering they descend closer to the ground, thereby forming a dense and very beautiful cover.
cranberry flowers
During flowering, from June to July, cranberries have very beautiful, medium-sized, pale pink flowers. With their shape they resemble the head of a crane on a long neck, perhaps that is why in Ukraine they call it “crane”.
Cranberries begin to bear fruit in the second or third year. The berries ripen closer to autumn and, depending on the variety, can be harvested from September to October. But when picking cranberries early, they need to be allowed to ripen so that they become soft. Of course, the berry will be much tastier after it is “grabbed” by frost right on the bush, but, unfortunately, the vitamin composition may be slightly lost.
The collected cranberries can be frozen, soaked, ground with sugar, or canned. It is advisable to harvest cranberries before frost, since frozen berries can only be stored frozen. For more than six months, cranberries can be stored fresh on a cool balcony, loggia, basement or in an unheated pantry. Cranberries can be stored soaked for about a year, in barrels covered to the top with water.
Ben Lear cranberry grows in the form of a neat ground cover lawn, which rises above the ground to a maximum of 15 cm. The berries are large in size, 18-20 mm in diameter and weighing about 1.7 grams, round in shape. They are deep burgundy in color, almost black in places, and covered with a waxy coating. The pulp is juicy, firm, sweet and sour. The plant is medium-sized, produces many horizontally directed shoots strewn with large dark green leaves. One adult plant produces 1.5-1.6 kg of berries, which begin to ripen by the end of August - beginning of September.
Stevens is considered the largest-fruited variety. The berries are very large, at least 24 mm in diameter and weighing from 1.5 grams, rounded-oblong in shape, dark red in color with a waxy coating. The pulp is juicy, dense, sweet and sour. The plant is vigorous, develops thick, vertically directed tall shoots. The mature bush produces more than 2.5 kg of berries.
Pilgrim. It is often used not only as a berry crop, but also as a decorative one in landscape design. The berries are very large, 22-27 mm in diameter and weighing up to 2.1 grams, oblong, not standard for cranberries, shape, purple-red color with a waxy coating. The pulp is juicy, tender and crispy, sweet and sour. The plant is vigorous and low growing. Overgrown bushes form a dense carpet up to 25 cm high. One adult bush, as a rule, produces about 1.6 kg of berries, which ripen only in early October.
Cranberries prefer very acidic, moist, peaty soils, as well as sunny or partial shade. For planting cranberries, you can make a special bed, thus creating suitable conditions.
We dig a trench 20-30 cm deep to the bayonet of a shovel and remove the earth from there. The root system of cranberries is superficial, and this depth will be sufficient. And the dimensions are determined by your “appetites,” but we can recommend the width of one bed to be 1 meter and 3-4 meters long.
We can immediately install on our “cranberry bed” sides made of boards approximately 30 cm wide. This will help keep water within the bed when watering and protect it from erosion.
If the soil in the area is sandy, it is better to cover the bottom with a thick film; if, on the contrary, it is heavy clay, then deepen the trench another 5 cm and add a layer of drainage.
Then the entire volume of the trench is filled with an acidic, pre-prepared substrate. It can be pure high-moor peat, peat with sand. Or a mixture of brown high-moor peat with pine sawdust or forest litter made from pine forests and compost. In this case, more than half of the mixture should fall on acidic peat, and the remaining 40% will be sawdust and compost in equal parts.
Also, you should immediately add 2 drops of superphosphate per 1 square meter of bed to the substrate.
A day or several hours before planting, moisten the soil abundantly.
Plants are planted in holes according to a 10x15 or 10x10 cm pattern. The denser they are planted, the faster the shoots will completely cover the soil surface and close together. When planting cranberries, the seedlings need to be slightly buried, which will stimulate the formation of new roots on the buried part of the shoot.
Cranberries are 90% water, and this plant loves moisture. However, despite its “swampy” homeland, you should not allow it to stagnate water in the soil. The soil must be kept constantly moist, because... When the cranberry dries out it quickly dies. It is also advisable to place the garden bed near a pond to create high humidity..
Cranberries winter well in the conditions of Ukraine and have such strong immunity to any diseases and pests that they guarantee us an environmentally friendly harvest. And cranberries are planted once and for life, since this berry lives for at least 100 years and does not require replanting or rejuvenation. Only every 3 years the bed is generously mulched with fresh peat or sand over the entire carpet 2-3 cm high.
And if you had told me five years ago that this “northern berry” would grow at my dacha, I definitely would not have believed it. But today my “cranberry carpet” has been giving me 2-3 buckets of healthy berries for two years in a row, which I am endlessly happy about, especially during evening tea parties in winter.
