Diagnosis of nutrient balances for fertilizer recommendations in cranberry crops

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The cranberry industry has large economic impact in Quebec with annual revenues of 100 M $ and 1200 jobs created. The industry developed rapidly over the past 40 yr following R&D projects in engineering, mechanics, pest management, irrigation and berry transformation. As berry production increased, the North American market became more competitive and the EU market opened. With more stringent requirements, higher fertilizer costs and environmental regulation, the industry is facing new challenges in nutrient management and the sustainable production of high-quality berries. Nutrient management is still based on expert knowledge and a handful of past field experiments that often returned low to medium berry yields. Our objective is to calibrate and validate nutrient diagnosis and recommendation tailored to the Quebec cranberry production at high yield level. We will establish four permanent sites where N, P, K, Mg, B and Cu additions will be varied, assuming that other nutrients are in adequate supply (36 plots per site). We will collect soil and plant samples and measure yield components (# uprights, # flowers, # flowering uprights, berry yield and quality - anthocyanin, firmness, sugar content). Time change in tissue composition will be monitored in fields near trials. Litter quality will be analyzed using FT-NIR calibration. Tissue and soil models will be developed from meta-analysis using global and local metadata and novel nutrient balance concepts. Tissue, soil and yield survey data will be acquired for comparison with tissue and soil nutrient models. Results will be recorded in the MAPAQ metafile for use by the whole cranberry community.