Sand is used as part of cultural practices to rejuvenate vines, encourage new rooting and fruiting upright growth. Although it may take three to five years for a new cranberry bed to produce a large enough crop for harvest, the vines will continue to produce a crop for serveral decades. The low growing vines blossom in late June or early July. Honeybees assist in pollination and small green berries are evident by early August. The cranberry matures until fall harvest when the crimson berries are floated to the surface, dislodged by a mechanical harvester.
Cranberries can be either dry or wet harvested.
In Wisconsin, even when dry harvesting, the beds are flooded with a few inches of water to cushion the fruit and reduce bruising. Mechanical rakes remove the berries from the vines with an action similar to a comb. Dry harvested fruit is usually sold for fresh use. For wet harvesting, beds are flooded with eight to ten inches. A water reel harvester with a beater on the front is driven through the bed to remove the berries from the vines.