How Are Cranberries Grown?

The tart little berries are grown all over the northern United States and parts of Canada, and are increasingly being grown commercially in Chile. Top cranberry producing states in order are Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Jersey, followed by Oregon and Washington. Other growing states include Delaware, Maine, Michigan, New York and Rhode Island.

Contrary to popular belief, cranberries don’t grow in water (picture those two Ocean Spray guys standing knee-deep in a bog full of cranberries). Instead, they grow on vines in wetland conditions, and the wetlands are then usually flooded at harvest time. Cranberries need a lot of fresh water and have a growing season that stretches from April to November. Cranberry vines go dormant in the winter months, which provides time for the fruiting buds to mature. Undamaged vines will survive indefinitely, so they don’t need to be replanted every year.

While there are some dry harvest cranberry operations, 95 percent of production happens in flood-harvest bogs. The plants are tolerant of temporary flood conditions so growers use flooding as a tool to protect the plants in winter, to control pests and to harvest the cranberries (hence the popular image). Over 60 percent of all processed cranberries go to Ocean Spray, a private cooperative comprised of over 700 independent growers.

The harvest typically lasts from September through November. During the harvest the fields are flooded with up to a foot and a half of water that is stirred, causing the berries, which have tiny chambers in them filled with air, to separate from the vines and float on the surface. The fruit is then scooped up and sent for processing into juices, sauces, dried cranberries, as ingredients in other processed foods and for nutraceuticals. All of the flood-harvested fruit is processed because wet harvesting encourages fruit to spoil quickly, so only dry-harvested cranberries are sold fresh.