Wisconsin is the number one producer (or 60%) of commercially grown cranberries in the U.S.  For Wisconsin, it’s a $1 billion industry covering more than 21,000 acres with over 250 farms.  By contrast, Minnesota has one commercial cranberry farm in the state located a few hours north of the Twin Cities.  But have you ever asked yourself if you can grow cranberries in your garden?  If you are interested in learning more about what it takes to grow cranberries, read on.

Large Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a native plant whose berries are similar to what we purchase in the grocery store.  The native woody perennial plant grows naturally in bogs and sphagnum swamps which are common throughout central Minnesota, eastward through the Great Lakes, up into New England and parts of Canada.  It prefers full sun.  The plant height is only 4 to 6 inches!  The fruit is 1/3 to 2/3 inches in diameter.  Cultivated varieties of this plant found in the stores are even larger.  The flowers are white to pinkish (size ¼ to 3/8 inches long) that resemble a small lily.  The bloom season is June through August.  The leaves are leathery and evergreen and measure 1/3 to 2/3 inches long.  

The cranberry native plant can be grown in Dakota County but the soil has to be amended significantly in order to do so.  Much of Dakota County has clay and alkaline (pH around 6-7) soil.  Cranberries prefer acidic soils with a pH of 4.0 to 5.5.  They like moist, well-drained sandy soil so you need to emulate this environment.  Their roots, however, do not like standing water.  So, planting them in a sunny, raised bed location where you can add compost and sand will create the desired environment for them to grow.  

Plant cranberries in early spring or early fall.  Plant them 2-3 feet apart to allow for growth and spread.  Please note that the cranberry plant roots, called stolons (runners), sprawl out horizontally and create dense mats.   Because of the shape of their flowers, cranberries do not usually self-pollinate but rely heavily on bees.  They produce green berries which turn white and eventually a deep red when ripened.  It usually takes 60 to 120 days to fully ripen (average 80 days).   Even though they can create dense mats, you still need to weed and prune them as well as maintain their acidic soil.  

Commercial growers will vary the planting and harvesting processes based on the fruit’s end use such as fresh fruit, dried cranberries, juice or sauces.  They will be dry harvested for fresh fruit with a mechanical picker similar to a lawn mower which rakes them up.  More often, commercial cranberries are wet harvested, which means the ground is flooded with 6 to 8 inches of water.  Then specialized tractors with agitators and rollers will loosen the berries from the plant and allow the berries to float on top of the water where they are loaded onto a conveyor.  A home gardener will obviously pick them manually.

While this article has focused on the native Large Cranberry, it should be noted that Minnesota also has another native plant called Vaccinium oxycoccos (Small Cranberry).

Moreover, you may have heard of American Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum opulus var. americanum) which is not a cranberry at all but a berry-like drupe that turns translucent red upon maturity and has a single seed in it.  The fruit tastes similar to a cranberry, hence the name.  They are a great shrub though, especially for windbreak plantings.  

It may be a challenge but if you want to supply your own cranberries for next year’s holidays, do some research and give it go.

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/impacts/files/2024/09/WisconsinCranberriesSupportingaBillionDollarIndustry.pdf

https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2019-11-12-cranberries

https://minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/large-cranberry

https://minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/small-cranberry

https://minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/american-highbush-cranberry

Photo Credits: Peter Dziuk, Minnesota Wildflowers (1-2), Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association (3)